Online Poker – for Beginners the Traits you Need to Win Huge Pots

The money you can make playing online poker far exceeds the amount of money you can make in any other casino game and can be literally millions per annum.

Many people want to make huge money at online poker but they don’t go about it the right way. This article is all about the traits you need to win huge pots and there all easily learned.

Why are potential poker winnings so big?

The answer lies in it’s a game where you compete with other players NOT the casino and it is up to you to play in a way that maximizes your potential winnings.

Poker is therefore a game of psychology and as we all know the best hand does Not always win. To win big you need to play your opponent as much as your own cards.

It is the above that makes poker unpredictable and the ultimate test of skill.

The personality traits needed are: 1. Discipline.

All successful online poker players have this and it’s a way of playing that means you stick with your game plan to the letter.

You only play the hands you have a good chance of winning and you know the concept of pot odds backwards.

If you don’t get the hands you think can win, you keep folding until you do.

Never be tempted to play and feel you will get lucky.

You play on the facts before, not with your emotions and only play when the facts presented to you give you good odds of winning.

2. Cunning

All great players are cunning. This means they play in a style that is difficult to be read by other players. They use slow playing and bluffing sparingly and effectively to deceive other players and win big.

3. Pay Attention to other players

Other players are watching you but you need to be watching them looking for clues to their playing style and ways to beat them.

You will only get the above skills If

You have lots and lots of practice!

You can only learn the basics from books and articles.

You learn the winning psychology from the brutal world of playing.

All poker scenarios are different as are all players so to become a successful poker player you need experience.

There is simply no substitute for experience.

Most of the top pros have spent years getting to the top and you won’t do it overnight but practice and learn from your experiences and you will.

Poker is not as easy as it looks!

Poker is an easy game to play and a difficult one to win. You are in a brutal world where you must keep your emotions in check (which is hard when money is on the line!) and find ways to beat several other players and take their money.

You can do it

The stakes are high so competition is fierce but learn all the skills get lots of practice and understand that you must play with no emotion and discipline and you could soon be winning big pots.

300 PC DICE POKER CHIP SET-00-1640

300 PC 11.5 GRAM DICE POKER CHIP SET

A great addition for all those poker nights, this set comes with 100White / 50 Red / 50 Green / 50 Black true casino-grade chips (and they cost a lot less than casino-grade chips).

They’re great for home games, I bought them on SALE for over 50% off at belowdirect.com, which is a really good price for these quality chips.

You’d have a hard time finding chips for this price, these are much better than any chips I have ever seen on my nights out at friends for poker nights.

The poker chips looked great.

They make you feel like a real poker pro at the casino table, and it’s really easy to chip stack with them, when you touch these you really feel like you’re in a casino.

Toped off with an awesome looking silver case, which is the cherry on the top of the sundae.

This deluxe poker chip set from belowdirect.com includes:

300 “”Dice”" design 11.5 gram casino size composite chips

Chip color breakdown: 100White / 50 Red / 50 Green / 50 Black

It also includes cards, dice and an excellent padding design.

It’s a great buy, check it out on www.belowdirect.com

Poker Chips ON Sale! AmericanGamingSupply.com

When it comes to Poker
Chips they are many different options to choose from.  Most people want
a poker chip that is like casino quality but they don’t want to pay the
price.  The most common poker chips are the dice
poker chips which are 11.5 grams in weight.  The reason why they are
called dice chips is because of the edge design is in dice format.  The
most common poker chip weight is the 11.5 grams that is not to heavy and not to
light.  Most of these chips have metal inserts which gives them more weight
and not necessary more feel.  The poker chips that have the metal inserts
usually have a clinking sound to it when they are played or tossed around
with.  These particular chips starts around between $.07-$.15 per chip
depending on the outside design.  Some other designs in the 11.5 category
might picture of aces or kings or even different suites.  What makes them
more expensive is the rarity and multicolor on the chip and if the poker chips
have denominations or without denominations.
My favorite chips are the pro
clay 13 grams poker chips.  These chips are the best chips for the
price and quality.  To most amateur players a poker chip is a poker
chip.  You will start to notice a big difference one you play with these
clay 13 grams chips.  Not because they weight 13 grams but because the feel
and the sound and they way the chips stack up makes a huge difference. 
These particular chips don’t make a clicking sound. NO.  They sound just
like the chips you play with in the casinos. YES, in the casinos.  And
these chips cost about $.21 per chip.  If you want to change your table and
bring some real chips to your game and you want to add some professionalism then
these are the perfect chips.  Now there are some other clay chips in the
market that are more expensive.  The Paulson
Poker Chips are the best chips in the market and their popularity is growing
every day.  However, there’s been some bad reviews as far as the chip
having led.  But these are the same poker chip manufacture who makes
chips for the Las Vegas Casinos.  If these chips had led in them we would
of heard something or illness from players and casinos.  Paulson’s have a
few different kind of designs for there poker chip line.  There is the Top
Hat and Cane, Pharoah’s,  World Top Hat and Cane, and the Non Denomination
Paulson’s.
Most of the casinos are also using ceramic poker chips.  These ceramic
chips have full color and it covers the entire chip.  Ceramic chips also
have edge spotting on the side of the chip to distinguish the chip colors when
stacked.  Ceramic chips start at $.35 per chip and go has as $1.00
depending if you want to customize or if you want a know brand such as Nevada
Jacks or the Desert Sands.  I like the ceramic chips myself because how
they stack and they are easy to shuffle and they sound like chips.  
Just remember you can’t have a real game without a real nice poker
table.  AmericanGamingSupply.com has nice tables at a discounted
price.  They are a wholesale company and selling wholesale prices to the
public.  They have folding poker tables, racetrack poker tables, pedestal
poker tables and furniture tables as well.  They also sell poker supplies,
poker chips, and accessories for you poker games.  Check them out and you
will not be disappointed.

How great is Online Poker?

Poker is the fastest growing pastime in the UK right now. We have always had a love affair with the danger and glamour of poker portrayed in movies and now the advanced poker playing software has opened up the game to a much wider audience.

Apart from the fun factor, Online poker is a great way for players to win money and earn a little extra income (did you know its tax free!), for some living the dream means poker is their only source of income! So if this has aroused your interest here are some of the great reasons why more and more people are registering and winning big!

It’s Fun! It’s as much fun as playing face to face but it’s easier to bluff online! Most poker rooms have chat boxes so who knows you may even meet your Mr/Mrs Right and make some money to pay for the date!

Its So Easy! Once you have an online poker account it often takes only one click to get into a game.

It’s a learning experience! It does not matter if you do not know how to play poker. You needn’t feel embarrassment at your lack of experience. The anonymity of playing online will make you feel more confident.

It Looks Good! The online poker websites are technologically advanced and visually impressive, you get to see the table and the other players’ faces. Sites like PKR allow you to create your own image so you can pretend to be anyone you want! LTDPoker offer great free bankroll for PKR

It’s convenient. You can play from your plushy recliner in the living room if you wanted.

Variety is the Spice of Life: There is a wide variety of online poker games to play online. From Texas Hold Em to 5 Card Stud to Omaha as well as many other variations of the games and playing styles. When you start playing online you do not have to stay with one particular type of poker, you can switch between different styles of games. LTDPokerschool.com explains the basic rules of all the main types of poker as well as advanced level strategy and management advice.

You can play for free! Sites such as www.ltdpoker.com offer large free bankroll to the top sites. This means for a minimum stake of £15 you could be playing with over £100 in your account! Setting up accounts through sites such as these will give you better offers and advice than if you sign up direct.

You can win real money: Many of the Big tournament winners during 2007/08 have not been playing for very long. Online Poker is a great way to practice (often for free) but it also gives new players equal chance to enter into big money tournaments.

Poker tournaments. Many poker websites have large tournaments with a small buy-in but with large jackpots, just like WSOP and WPT! Online Poker tournaments are a great way to experience what the pro poker players experience..

For reviews of some of the top poker websites online visit www.ltdpoker.com

Gift ideas for poker players – Part 2

This old poker player will celebrate his 82nd birthday on August 8, and the already-revealed gift from my spouse and kids is a three-night trip to … where else? … the poker capital of the world, the sinningest city in the universe … Las Vegas.

We’re staying at one of our favorite hotels on the Strip, Harrah’s, which boasts the coziest and friendliest poker room in town. Along with my gift of lodging, my kids have presented me with a poker stake of $500. A bit modest for the likes of Hollywood and pro sports poker stars, but considerably more than I ever possessed when I wasted my youth playing poker in two wartime Navy hitches.

Harrah’s room has ten tables, and the poker games include seven-card stud, Omaha hold’em and the famous Texas hold’em. I prefer the game I learned as a Navy boot, seven-card stud, because even if I could improve my game from rank amateur to semi-pro, I could never compete with the hold’em sharks that infest all of the Vegas poker rooms.

Not that those guys with the hidden eyes are dishonest, it is just that they’ve absolutely perfected their games. Their skills are so sharp that any less-talented player who attempted to compete with them would be left on the carpet in a pool of blood. If you watch those top players on TV, you know who I mean.

People considering gifts for poker players couldn’t possibly come up with a better birthday present than the one my family is giving me. I only hope I can live up to their faith in my poker skills and at least double their investment.

Gift ideas for poker players – Part 1

What Every Poker Player Needs:

I am a freak when it comes to poker.I began playing on line at Poker Stars in January of 2007.Since that time I have won several tournaments at a variety of different on line sites and at poker rooms in my vicinity.I recently got to play Rocky Manos at a private party at my house.This math professor from Washington State University is the man behind the Poker Kube.

The Poker Kube is a starting hand adviser that lists the 24 top hands and the best positions to play them from. The math used to compute the best hand situation was a brilliant and unbeatable strategy that the mightiest pros in this great game of skill have been using through experience and time.Though most players need years to learn these strategies, the study of these hands and their best positions has been compiled for you in the best way possible to understand. I have tried other products, but the Poker Kube is genius. I have about 5 years of experience in poker since I play around ten free rolls a day on line(according to the top players).with this type of experience and use of the Poker Kube, I have excelled in game play. The aspect of knowing how to bet your hands can be the difference between being a Poker Player and being a Poker Pro. You can get the Poker Kube at:EASYPOKERPRO.COM. Tell Rocky that his lucky chip is still doing the job. he will understand. Good luck and don’t forget to join the PPA (POKER PLAYERS ASSOCIATION).

How to Win a Multi Table Tournament

What follows is a suggestion on how to go about playing a MTT.

For more articles and information on the wonderful game of poker, visit Poker Room Inc

This is not a hardened set of rules to follow, but is intended to provide a suggestion on how to go about winning a MTT or at very least placing in the money as often as possible. Taking into account that a MTT can vary from as little as 5 to as many as several thousand players, there is a very large element of luck in not only winning a MTT, but even placing in the money.

Keep in mind that there is an ever bigger element of skill involved.

There are some very nice reasons to play in a MTT.

If you win, you will win many times the amount you used to buy into the MTT.
In a rebuy MTT, most of the players will rebuy at least once, making the pot that much bigger.
Generally the lower the buy in, the more times your opponents are going to rebuy. Thereby adding to the pot and making it that much more attractive. I have played in a $2.25 buy-in MTT with a guarrenteed $500 prize pool. 104 players took part. The prize for first place started at 29% ($145). By the end of the tournament, which I won, the first prize, at 20% of the prize pool was $381, making the total prize pool $1905. It only cost me $2 to buy in and $2 to buy an add on, so I’m sure you can see how profitable playing in MTT’s can be.

WARNING:

Never ever rebuy so many times that it costs you more to play than you will win if you place in the last paying place. This may seem obvious, but it is very easy to lose track of your rebuys.
I use a rule to never rebuy more than 3 or 4 times. I have watched some players rebuy 20 or 30 times in a low buy in tournament, just so they can be in it after the rebuy period is over, just to bust out yet again after the rebuy period is over. It seems stupid, but it happens, and the only thing that it does, is add to the prize pool.

Another nice thing is that even if you don’t finish in the money, you only lose a relatively small amount of money. You would need to win only one in about 10 MTT’s to make a nice profit. If you can win one in ten, you should be a very happy poker player.

Here is an example…

Over the time of a couple of months:

Starting with an initial bankroll of $100:

You buy into 30 – $500 guarranteed $2.25 MTT’s. Your buy in is $2.25, you limit yourself to 2 Rebuys and the Addon.

That comes to a total cost to you of $270.00. Seems like a bit of money?

Lets say that you win every 10 times you enter (thats only 3 wins out of 30 entries) and you lose every other time. Lets also say that you were the only other player to rebuy or add on. This will never happen, but for this example and ease of calculations we will do this.

Thats 3 wins out of 30 entries = $145 * 3 = $435.

$435 – $270.00 = $165.00.

Here is the breakdown. It cost you $270.00 to enter these 30 MTT’s. You won 3 of them, winning a total of $435.
Thats $165.00 profit in the first 2 months. That may not seem like a lot of money, but as your skill and confidence grows, you will enter MTT’s with bigger prize pools, enabling you to win bigger prizes. In some of these MTT’s you won’t need to rebuy or buy an addon, making the buy in cheaper.

Keep in mind that there will always be rebuys and addons done by most of your opponents. This will boost the prize pool. You may also find that you will also place in the money a few times when you don’t finish first, so these figures are very conservative, but you have to remember that you must play the correct type of game to enable yourself to win.

This is where these suggestions come into play…

Luck…

There are players who seem to be able to place in the money quite often. They are either very lucky or very very skilled in the art of playing poker. Every good poker player knows that luck does play a part in playing poker, but it is what you do with that luck that makes or breaks you. By “luck”, I don’t mean only good luck! Basically, good and bad luck will even out over time. There is no doubt about that, and there have been many studies in that very subject.

When you play poker you should never play as if luck is going to get you through a hand. There are times that you will get good luck in a failed bluff, but if your bluffs fail, don’t rely on good luck to get you through. On the other hand, bad luck is bad luck and you should never be worrying about bad luck while playing poker. Always focus on the positive.

Always fold when you think or know you are beaten. If you think you are beaten, then chances are, you are! It is better to fold a medium strength hand and keep your stack to come back and beat your opponents, than to lose all or a big chunk on your stack on one crappy hand.

Poker is, and will always be dominated by players who know this and act correctly on this. Even if you weren’t beaten, the odds will work in your favour if you use them correctly.

In only my 2nd live poker tournament, I was going along quite nicely. The blinds were 300/600 and my stack was about 50 times the big blind. I was dealt 9To UTG. I decided to fold even though I was thinking of a big raise bluff. The flop came rainbow6-9-T. I was a little shocked, but I know that these things do happen. A friend, who was sitting behind me and watching me play, was also shocked and he told me that I would have won the hand when the turn came out. I don’t remember anything more about that hand other than that the winning hand was A card high and the 3 players that played to the river were all in. The winner of the hand was the person who beat me – to boot me in 3rd place. Had I stayed in the hand, I would have eliminated 3 of the 6 of us that were still in the game, and would have been the chip leader by a very long way. Instead, I was one of 4 players left.

My point here is that, yes, I would have won the hand if I had stayed in, but my cards were not strong enough to beat mostplayers’ cards who may have called my bluff. There was no way for me to know that my cards would have been the best of the hand, but thats poker and you just have to forget about those hands and carry on playing.

Skill…

When you play poker, you should never worry too much about luck. Skill, knowledge and experience are far more important. In any game of poker, you may be lucky enough to get good pocket cards often. If you do, then thats great, but you need to know what to do with the pocket cards that you have been dealt. Even Pocket AA is beatable, and it is skill, knowledge and experience that will tell you to muck your rockets if the flop comes up with a possible straight or flush, and you get re-raised. It may be one of the hardest things to do, but it could mean the difference beween finishing in the money or just bombing out. If you do muck those rockets, you will be doing it, knowing that the next time you get those pocket rockets, you most likely, will be smiling all the way to the river.

My advice in this respect is to watch, read and play:

Watch:

Watch as many good poker players play as you can. Note what they do when they get particular pockets, how they check, call, bet and raise. How and when they bluff. What they do with catagory 1 pocket cards. Anything and everything you learn from the good poker players will do your poker game a lot of good. Never copy their game exactly because your circumstances will never be the same as those at the table you were watching. Pick a style that suits your game and adapt it to the playing conditions at your table. I suppose you could also watch bad poker players. Just be careful to remind yourself that what you are seeing is NOT what you should be doing.

Read:

Find as much literature as you can on how to play poker. Read books, blogs and articles. Read them and then read them again. Find your weaknesses and find out how to fix them. If you find a weakness, fix it by finding out what you do in a particular situation that you handle badly, and change it so that it isn’t a bad situation any more. Work out how you can stop yourself getting into those bad situations. The bottom line here is that if you don’t get into the situation, you won’t be forced to deal with it.

If you find that you are betting most or all of your stack on one set of what you think is a great pair of pockets, against a loose/aggressive opponent, then losing the hand because your opponent got lucky, you can either call it unlucky and carry on losing your stacks, or you can find out how to stop your losses.

You have a choice to make. Do you want to get better at playing, or do you want to stay where you are in your skill. If you are like me, you should be obsessed about improving your game all the time. Never rest until you are good enough. That will never happen. There is no such thing as good enough. I am willing to bet that even the top pros analyse their games and look for holes to plug. The best advice I ever saw was to not do anything stupid. Take that however you like.

Play:

This one is obvious. Sit in at a table whether it is in a casino, online or at home with friends. Experience will give you something that nothing else will give you. You can watch as many poker players play the game as you like. You can read till you have the print burned in your brain. These things will help, but playing poker is going to be the best way for you to learn how to play. Without playing poker, you are never going to find out where your weaknesses are. You will never know how you react when you get that monster unbeatable hand. You are never going to find out what it feels like to be beaten by a royal flush when you have a straight flush ten high, and your opponent goes all in with his entire stack and yours is smaller. Ok, this may never happen, but I am sure it has happened to someone, somewhere, sometime.

My point is that there is no substitute to playing poker when you want to learn how to play poker well. Even if you play in free online poker games.

NOTE!!! Free online poker is never a good reflection on real money poker play, but at least it will give you an idea of how to play and what to expect when you do play.

Ok, enough waffle…

Playing in a MTT is a lot like playing cash poker. There are some differences though.

In a cash game, your aim is to out play your opponents in order to, at some point, leave with more money than you arrived with. If you get into a MTT, there are some things that you must ask yourself:

1. Why are you entering?

• If your answer is not “To finish in first place!!!“, then don’t bother entering. You will be wasting your time and money.

 

 

 

2. Do you have a realistic chance of finishing in first place?

• Again, if your answer is not “Yes” then don’t bother entering. Depending on a few factors here, you need to consider your chances of winning very carefully.
• If you are new to playing poker and have a small bankroll of $50, then don’t enter a $50 buy in MTT. You won’t have the experience to win it, and even if you do, you may be soo scared of losing, that you won’t play well. If you don’t finish in the money you will have to fund another bankroll and start from scratch.
• Select your MTT carefully. You need to make sure that if you don’t play well, or just get unlucky, you will have enough of a bankroll left after the buy in to enter several more. Find a good bankroll strategy and stick to it.

 

 

 

3. How long do you have before you will have to stop playing?

• Depending on the number of participants, the time that you will need to be able to play continuously can vary, but the minimum time that you can expect to need is about 2 hours. It could take many more hours, but 2 is pretty much the least amount of time you will need. If you don’t have enough time to devote to the MTT, don’t enter!
• When you play cash games, you can always leave when you lose some of your money or win a lot of money. Nothing is stopping you from leaving these games except your decision to stay. You decide what to do. In a MTT, you cannot leave until one of 3 things happen…

 

 

 

1. You decide that you want to leave and you do.
2. You lose all of your chips and if it is a rebuy MTT you decide not to rebuy and you leave, or there are no rebuys offered and you are forced to leave because you have no more chips to play with.
3. There is only one player left and you are it. You have won and the tournament is over. This is without a doubt the thing you should be aiming at.

 

 

 

In a cash game your opponents get to watch you while you play, and you get to watch them while they play. In a MTT you will be shifted from table to table as the players in the tournament bomb out, to even out the tables. You won’t be able to watch many players for too long, but you should still be making notes as you go along, about what the others are doing in particular situations. I promise you, they are watching you and making their own notes on you.

Why make notes when you are being moved from table to table? Good question!
The notes you make while playing in the run up to the final table, may help you when you get to the final table. What if you notice in the early stages of the MTT, that Joe Blow, folds to any big re-raise after his pre-flop medium sized bet? What if you end up one on one at the final table, with Joe Blow and he makes a medium sized bet, and you are next to act, and you have Aj off suit? If you had made notes you would know that if you throw a big raise at him, there is a good chance he will fold, and you would have won the blinds and his chips that he bet.

If you hadn’t made the note, you wouldn’t have known and you might have folded, giving him your blind.

Another reason for making notes, is that you may end up playing the same people in another MTT or some other game. You cannot think that you will be able to remember what everyone does in any given situation. Thats why you make notes. In online poker, the software you use to play will have a facility for you to keep your notes on other players built into it. Use it!

Phases of the game…

A lot of people like to split their MTT strategy into three separate phases. Personally, I like the idea of a four phase split.

In my opinion the Four phases are:

Phase 1 – All play up to the first break. This phase is where you are allowed to rebuy if rebuys are allowed.
Phase 2 – All play from the end of the first break to the final table.
Phase 3 – All play on the final 2 tables until there are only 4 to 6 players left.
Phase 4 – All play from 4 or 5 players until you are either out of chips, or win the MTT.

Phase 1: – Mostly Tight/Passive Play

Play just to stay in the game. Only play the very strong pocket cards unless you are in the Big Blind and are not raised. The blinds are way too low in this stage, usually ranging from 10/20 to 40/80, in the first hour. These blinds are not going to make a big impact when you manage to steal them because you are not likely to steal them in the first place. In this phase, because rebuys are usually available, most people don’t mind throwing large percentages of their stack into the pot, in the off chance of doubling or trippling up on their chips. Making a big bluff – raise in the first phase is stupid, because the percentages of someone calling or raising you are that much higher. DO NOT bluff in the hopes of stealing blinds in the first phase!!! Not unless you want to spend a fortune on rebuys.

You may lose part or most of your stack in the first phase, but by playing only the very strong starting pocket cards, you may find that you actually are staying up with the average stack, or doing even better.

I have played tournaments where I had less than my starting ships up to the last 10 minutes of the rebuy period, and ended up chip leader going into the break, just by playing the best starting cards.

With around 10 minutes of play left, before the first break, you will find that some players will start to go a little crazy.

They will begin to play almost any pocket cards.

What to do:

If you…

• …have fewer than your starting chips, and you haven’t used any rebuys up to now.
  I suggest you make a big effort to win some chips. A lot of people at this point will be trying to double up so they can go into the break with a bigger stack. Loosen up a little yourself and play aggressivly if you hit a top pair, or better. If you win, you will be happy. If you loose your entire stack. Make a rebuy to get back into things and then make another rebuy to double up if you can, then tighten right up and only play the great pocket cards up to the break.
  When the break comes you may be offered an addon. Take it if it is offered. This should add nearly the same amount of chips to your stack that you got in your rebuys.
• …have a medium sized stack going into the break. By that I mean more or less the same as the average stack size.
  You are doing pretty well. Just keep to your current tight game plan. Only play the best of the best pockets, and if you hit a monster hand on the flop get very aggressive and win as much as you can. Remember, people are going a little crazy trying to double up, so take advantage and add to your stack. Take the addon if it is offered at the break.
• …have a huge stack at least 50% bigger than the average. Depending on the number of players, you should be in the top 20 at least. Sit back and wait for the break. That is unless you hit a monster hand on the flop. Never miss an opportunity to add to your stack. Never take risks in this situation. NEVER! You are in the top 20, you don’t need to risk losing a big chunk of your stack. Remember why you are playing. TO WIN!!! Never forget that. You don’t need the addon. If you have 50000 chips, 1500 or 2000 chips isn’t going to make that much difference. Your main reason for playing poker is to make more money than you spend, so don’t spend it unless you have to.

 

 

 

Phase 2: – Tight/Passive to a bit more Aggressive Play

At the end of the first break, you may find that you have a good read on some of the players. Carry on with your tight/passive play, but you can start to loosen up a little and get more aggressive. NEVER go all in unless you have the nuts. If you find you have a nice hand, but it isn’t a nut hand, and you are raised, fold. Keep your stack growing, but never take risks that will cause you to lose a lot of chips. This applies especially to going up against players with a stack similar or larger in size to yours. Remember, there are no more rebuys available, and if you lose all of your chips, you are out.
Keep reminding yourself why you are playing. TO WIN!!! You want to add to your bankroll, not take from it.
You may be bored or tired. Snap out of it. Watch the game and how it changes. Don’t hesitate to take someone out of the gamehere. For every player that goes out, you get one step closer to winning.

If you have good pocket cards, but they aren’t caragory 1 pocket cards, and there are 2 or 3 or even 4 players all-in, beforeyou, FOLD! You don’t need to go all in. With this many players all-in, at least 2 should be kicked out. You don’t need to take that chance even if your stack is way below the average stack size. These player’s going out or losing a big percentage of their stacks will strengthen your position.

If you have a stack that is…

• …less than 50% of the average stack.
  You need to get much more aggressive. Play a little looser and do everything you can to grow your stack. If you successfully get your stack up to the average stack size or even better, go back to being tight/aggressive and keep your stack growing. Do not take un-nessesary risks.
• …around the same size as the average stack.
  Keep your play tight/aggressive. Do not take un-nessesary risks and keep thats stack growing.    
  between the average and the leader or is the biggest stack.
  You are really doing well. Adjust your play to very tight/very aggressive. If you hit a monster, hit the table with hugebets and re-raises. Small stacks will fold because they want to stay in, and large stacks should fold because they want tokeep their stacks. Be careful though. Don’t bet or raise with nothing, and don’t make a huge bet unless you have the nuts. Some bluffing may work some times, but you may get caught and you will pay a heavy price for getting caught with a very big bluff. If you have the nuts and someone calls or raises your bets, then thats all the more chips for you.

 

 

 

Phase 3: – Very Tight/Very Aggressive Play

When you reach this phase, if you are like me your addreneline will be pumping and your heart will be beating in your head. Try your hardest to keep cool. Almost everyone will be like this. My motto here is…

He whom makes mistakes will pay for them.

I live by this while playing poker, and it does me good. You have to keep cool. Do not make mistakes. Take your time if you need to. Don’t rush into a stupid play. Everything may become a little insane.

You will see players really loosen up in this phase. Stay calm and make them pay for it. Stick to being very tight. If you get a very good hand, make a huge bet and make the others pay if they call you. Your objective here is to grow your stack massivley while kicking the other players out of the game.

By the time you get to phase 3 you will have a pretty good read on your opponents. Use it to your advantage. If you see that there are no raises in front of you and you are in late position, don’t be afraid to throw a massive bet in. If you have been playing a good tight aggressive strategy up to this point, you will find that your opponents should fold.
If they call, make a quick huge bet on the flop. You would have to be crazy to call a massive bet at this stage unless you have the nuts. More often than not, your opponent won’t, but he won’t know that you didn’t flop one yourself.
If you do flop the nuts, then you may want to think about slow playing the hand, but that is something you will have to decide on at that point. If you manage to catch someone out like that, the rest of the players will get that much more respect for you, and that can never hurt.

Remember to not do anything stupid. If you make a mistake, hope it is a small one.

Phase 4: – Loosish/Very Aggressive Play.

At this point of the game, the stacks will all pretty much be very big, and the blinds will also be pretty high. With only 5 or 6 players at the final table, you can loosen up quite a bit. You can call most blinds with picture cards or A and 8+. Be careful of big bets and re-raises. Keep generally tight, but get very very aggressive. All of the players in this phase are in the money, and mostly will be happy to finish here, but you won’t.

You want to win! Remember that!

You want to take everyone’s chips and you want to be aggressive in doing it. Most of the others will be hoping to stay in just a little longer to watch another player or two drop out here, so they can be guarranteed of one more place. You can take advantage of this by stealing some blinds, and by beating them when you have good cards. Note, I said good cards, not thenuts. Most of your opponents will be happy to place in the money, and will call most smallish bets with ordinary hands. This is not a hardened rule, so be selective with your bets. If you are raised on a small bet you could be beaten. You may want to think about a fold in this case. Watch out for check-raises here as well. You don’t want to lose too many chips to being too aggressive.

Remember that this is only a guide and you will have to adapt any strategy that you employ to help you win, to the conditions at the table you are seated at.

Now go out there and win!

 

Four Aces Spade Logo Bar Stool – Top Pro Review

The Four Aces Spade Logo Bar Stool is comfortable to sit at the poker table or a bar. Let us check out the features of the Four Aces Spade Logo Bar Stool.

There are various types of bar stools that are available in the market. The Four Aces Spade Logo Bar Stool stands apart from the others. A look at the stool reveals the simple but elegant design of the product. A neat ace is drawn on the stool top which makes it ideal for sitting at the bar or a poker table. If you are planning a theme bar, you can buy a range of these bar stools. The stool will also suit very well in the mini bar in your house. Let us see some of the features that makes this bar stool stand out in its category.

The tool has a chrome plated double rung base. The base gives stability to the stool and since it is double rung, you can expect the stool to go on for years. The stool has adjustable levelers which makes it very comfortable. Taking a closer look at the stool gives us the idea, why it has so many takers. The commercial grade vinyl seat with the well measured spade logo on the seat, gives a stunning look to the stool. On seeing the stool closely, we can figure out that the materials used in the stool are of very high quality. Now, let us check out the price of the stool. The stool is priced at $150 but if you are buying from the right place you can get it for approximately $120.

The stool is 7.5 inches high and the diameter of the seat is 14.75 inches. The large diameter of the seat makes it very comfortable to seat on the stool. The height of the Four Aces Spade Logo Bar Stool is 30″. The height of the stool is so designed to give the right posture to someone sitting on it. The bar tables at most bars are at a standard elevation, so the bar stools are generally of this height. If you are planning to decorate the bar in your house buying the stool can be a good idea.

The Four Aces Spade Logo Bar Stool can also be given as a gift on many occasion. I have spoken with few users of the stool who mentioned that even after 3 years the Four Aces Spade Logo Bar Stool looks as if new. All you have to do is a little bit of maintenance. Clean the stool with a dry cloth once in a week or whenever there is dust settled on it. You can take the stool outside but it is advisable not to expose it to too much of the elements. Doing so may damage the chrome plating and you may have to redo it again.

The Four Aces Spade Logo Bar Stool gets a total score of 8 out of 10 in its category. If you are planning to buy a bar stool, the Four Aces Spade Logo Bar Stool surely deserves a consideration. I am sure that you wont be disappointed after buying the Four Aces Spade Logo Bar Stool.

Andy Bloch – Professional Poker Player Review Series

What would you do? If you grabbed an engineering degree from a respected college like MIT and a degree in law from Harvard University, the most probable answer to this question is to get a high profile job as a top boss in some multinational company. But, if you are Andy Bloch, you would certainly become a Professional Poker Player.

Andy Bloch is amongst the most notable players in the poker industry, he has survived in this game of poker for over quite sometime now. The achievement of this poker player includes several tournaments, where he reached the final tables and a victory at the last years WSOP Circuit event. This amazing persona is an enigma in the world of poker, here is an insight into the life of this amazing man. Andy Bloch grew up playing cards with friends and family, it can be easily said that he was inclined to win poker from a very early age. When he was completing his education at MIT he used to play poker with his friends, but it was not until 1992 that he seriously considered taking up poker as a profession.

1992 was the year when he graduated from MIT with two electrical engineering degrees, in the beginning he used to play regularly at the newly opened Foxwood Casino. At first he used to play the $35 weekly tournaments at the FoxWoods, he even restricted his habit of playing poker to a once a month affair. In the year 1993 he was introduced to the MIT Blackjack team which developed some programs and a strategy that gave the player a substantial edge of about six percent over the casino. The MIT Blackjack team trained some students of this engineering college who started beating the casino frequently.

Soon after he got himself enrolled in the esteemed Harvard Law School, he kept on paying for his tuition fees by playing Blackjack he also kept on investing loads of money in the MIT Blackjack team simultaneously. In the year 1997 Andy skipped his LAW School classes to participate in the WSOP and he was a guinea pig in the low-tech hole-card cam trial. He soon passed bar exam (1999) and decided to go back to the poker arena to try his luck.

He scored two second place finishes in 2005; he also won the WSOP Circuit Limit Hold’em Tournament in the year at the Rio in Las Vegas, he won the Ultimate Poker Challenge $10,000 Final event in the same year. This amazing poker player is also nicknamed Rock by his opponents, because of his steely nerves.

The great Andy Bloch also donates a substantial amount of his winnings to charities all around the world. In fact he has decided to donate $100,000 of his winnings in the Pro Am Equalizer to charities working in Darfur. Andy Bloch is considered amongst the most charismatic and knowledgeable poker player in the Poker circles, and the man definitely lives up to his name with innumerous wins to his name.

Top 20 Poker Books – Part I – Part 1

Since there is poker, there are poker books. Some are good and some are pretty bad.

Here you will find the 20 best Poker Books which can be bought along with a small, but good and honest review.

Harrington on Hold’em Volume I: Strategic Play

Written by Dan Harrington, winner of the 1995 WSOP main event. Harrington has so much to say that he had to carry this over to a 2nd book, Volume II. Volume I covers the majority of topics for a No Limit Holdem Tournament player. It focuses on the earlier segments of a tournament. More advanced strategies for the end game can be found in Volume II. Aimed at players with some tournament experience, looking to take their game to a higher level. The writing style is fairly easy to digest. Harrington’s experience clearly shows through on this book. Not only does he fill the book with real live examples and how to play them, but also gives the reasons behind play. This one gives a real insight in to the mind of someone who thinks deeply and carefully about the game. One of the finest books on the subject that any serious player should keep in their library.

Harrington on Hold’em Volume II: The Endgame

While Volume I focused largely on solid play, this book gives insight on how to play the end game, in which deviations from earlier strategies can be made. It also helps in establishing moves from other players, commonly found in higher buy-in events at this stage. Short-handed and heads up are covered exceptionally well. Along with Volume I, this makes a great set for any serious tournament player.

Tournament Poker for Advanced Players by David Sklansky

For players that have a serious interest in tournament poker, this makes a great addition to your collection of material. Sklansky introduces a now well recognized principle he refers to as “The gap concept”. General tournament ideas are covered, including how to adjust your game at different levels of the event, playing with and against short and large stack, deal making, last longer bets, and much more. Although some sections could have been extended with further information, this is certainly a book that should be on your list.

Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time Volume I

Although there are numerous books out there on poker, there are not many written by primarily online successful poker players. This one comes directly from 3 top online poker players, PearlJammer, Rizen, and Apestyles, who use their own hand histories to explain concepts. The authors have been extremely careful with the hands selected for analysis, all coming from their past online play. This certainly isn’t a book for beginners. If you are looking to get great insight in to playing online mid limit tournaments, this is an amazing addition to your library.

Poker Tournament Tips from the Pros by Shane Smith

From one of the greatest writers, learn the best strategies for different stages of an event and how to avoid 26 potential tournament traps. Also gives 21 top tips for winning poker tournaments.

Arnold Snyder’s The Poker Tournament Formula

If you have read Harrington and Sklansky and still need a boost to your tournament game, this may be the addition for you. Synders strategy is predominantly focused on position, unlike Sklansky who puts more focus on your hand. Although low limit event strategies are lacking, this proves to be a very good addition for students of the game.

Arnold Snyder’s The Poker Tournament Formula 2

This book focuses on larger events with slower structures, such as the WSOP and the WPT. This is for those who wish to step up their game and enter the world wide tournament circuit and taking a stab at potentially rich rewards. Synder presents some complicated concepts in a very clear understandable manner. This is a good addition for playing looking to play in bigger events. Synder discusses some well accepted principles, as well as challenging and refuting many past strategies with provocative and compelling reasons.

Every Hand Revealed by Gus Hansen

From a player with a reputation of playing any two cards, showing wild play that seems to defy logic. This book shows the clear and logical thought process of his seemingly crazy decisions. You’ll soon learn that if you’re going to describe Gus as crazy, it’s more accurate to consider him “Crazy as a fox”. Hansen takes readers through his 5 day performance during the 2007 Aussie Millions tournament, going on to win $1.2M. The book well discusses his thoughts during key hands and stages through the event. Gus also highlights hands which he believes he may have played incorrectly, and gives the insight to this. It just goes to show even the top pro’s make mistakes. A highly rated read.

Erick Lindgren Reveals His Tournament Secrets

This book is from a well known professional who teaches you from start to finish – starting from trying to win a seat in a satellite, through to playing early stages, mid stages and approaching and reaching the final table. This is a well written book and is a great addition to your collection if you are looking to move your tournament game up a level.

Harrington on Cash Games, Volumes I & II

Straightforward writing style, coupled with real life examples, along with problems to analyze. One of two volumes, both of which are highly recommended. No serious poker player should be left without Harrington in their collection. The majority of examples are taken from a 5-10NL game. If you need to learn from start to finish on cash game, or looking to improve your cash game, you cannot afford to be without this one. A large majority of successful cash players have read this one, so you do not want to be left behind.

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