July 20, 2009
Be a Winning Poker Player
In poker it is very important that you become better the more you play. One of the most important characteristics of a winning player is understanding that you can be better. There is always more to learn in poker. Whether you have been playing for a while and are just looking to increase your win rate or if you are just starting trying to get a better understanding of the game before you begin there will always be more that you can learn.
Understanding Variance
Variance is a hard truth of poker for some players to deal with. Regardless if you get it all in when you have the best hand or not there will be times that you will lose. It is inevitable. A hand that has a 3% chance of winning will still win 3% of the time. It might not seem like a lot, but the more you play the more times you will see those small percentage hands come in.
When faced with variance a good player will just blow it off. They understand that it happens and that in the long run when you get it all in with the winning hand you will win much more than the losing hand will. Having a strong understanding and acceptance of variance is a very important characteristic of a winning player.
Be Greedy
Since your main goal in poker is to win as much as you can the player who is the greediest will do the best at achieving their goal. There are no friends on the poker table and there is no taking it easy in a pot with anyone. You always have to focus on the fact that your goal is to win as much of your opponent’s money as you can.
Being greedy is perfectly fine in poker and when you have the greedy mindset when you play you will capitalize much better in any situation. Your focus will be aimed towards getting money instead of anything else that is going on.
Avoiding Tilt
Tilt is when you play less than optimal. This can be due to something in your life that is going on, experiencing a bad beat, and can even be caused by not feeling 100% before you play. A great player will not tilt while they are on the tables because they won’t sit down when something outside of poker is affecting them.
Since the majority of poker players are not great poker players they are still affected by tilt. It honestly hurts deep down when you have the winning hand and then end up losing anyways. When this happens get off of the tables. One characteristic of a winning player that you cannot play without is the ability to realize you are playing less than optimal and leave the situation before you lose money due to it.
Focus and Dedication
In order to succeed at poker you are required to have great focus and dedication to the game. You need to learn as much as you can so that you can avoid as many losing situations as possible and capitalize on opportunities at the tables.
Without having good focus on the game and dedication to bettering your skill you will not be able to make it very far in poker. As long as you can reinforce in your mind that the more you know is equal to the more you win you will do excellent in your poker career and will soon show all the characteristics of a winning player.
July 16, 2009
Over 25,000 individual prizes, totaling over $1,000,000 in cold, hard cash. The Carbon Poker Million over the summer is a great time to hit the felt and earn some prizes.
The Carbon Million runs from Thursday 9th of July until till Sunday 6th of September.
How it works
The Carbon Million tracks the number of VIP Points you earn during the 60 day period. Every time you hit one of the 21 levels, you will unlock a prize. But don’t just stop at the first level, because you can keep playing to unlock even bigger cash prizes. The top individual prize is $20,000.
Check it out here
July 13, 2009
What: Easiest 75% Reload Bonus Ever
When: Tuesday 14th July @ 00:00 – Friday 17th July @12:00am
Who: All PDC Poker Players
How: Bonus Code – EASY75
If you don’t already have a PDC Poker account open one here.
Basic Five Card Draw Tips
Five card stud is one of the games that most online poker rooms are offering for their players. It is one of the most popular draw games and is also one of the original poker games. There are a few basic five card draw tips that every player should know before sitting down at the 5 Card Draw tables. Knowing these general tips will help you to better understand the flow of the game and the action that will take place.
Bet With Strong Hands
Just like any other form of poker it is vital that you bet with your strong hands. If you give weak hands a chance to draw then they have a possibility to make a hand that can beat you. If you bet then they have to fold with their weak hands and you win the pot immediately.
Another important reason to bet with your good hands is to build up the pot you will potentially win. You want to play big pots with your big hands. Sometimes you can slow play your hand and induce your opponent to bluff, but for the most part the correct play is to simply bet yourself and guarantee that you get value. You will be doing this with high pairs, four card flush draws and four card straight draws.
Observe Your Opponent
BY paying close attention to what your opponent does you can better determine what kind of hand that they have. If your opponent has a strong draw then they are normally going to only draw for one card. The same goes for two two pair, but it is more typical that they will hold a drawing hand. If they draw two cards then they probably have three of a kind.
One of the other things that you have to watch for in your opponents is how they play their hands. If you notice that your opponent will never bet with a draw and only check/call with them then you should be betting more often against them. When they draw only one card and again check then you can normally make a bluff and take the pot down. Some players will always bet regardless the strength of their hand. If they are playing a lot of hands then you will then know that you can call them down lighter than the average player.
Be Sneaky
Now this is different than slow playing a monster hand. By playing sneaky you want to disguise your good hand as a different hand to throw your opponent off. What this means is occasionally you want to draw differently than the made hand you would have. If you have high pair only draw two cards instead of three. If you have three of a kind you can draw one card instead of two.
Your opponents are going to be able to make a decent decision about the strength of your hand simply based off of how many cards you draw and your aggression with it. By drawing differently than your hand normally would you throw your opponent off of your holdings. Then once you bet the next street differently than the hand that you represented with your draw they might start to see your bets as fishy and think that it is a bluff.
Following these few simple tips will definitely help you on the tables when it comes time to play Five Card Draw. By knowing some basic 5 card draw tips you will be ready to start running the tables.
July 12, 2009
5 Card Stud is a game that has lost its popularity recently, but is still seen at online poker rooms. This game is still played and can be very profitable to a player who can pay close attention to their surroundings and follow a basic 5 Card Stud strategy. This is one of the only games where every player only holds one hidden card so the observant benefit very much at this game.
Know When to Fold
This is one of the easiest poker games to know when you should fold. If you cannot beat the cards that are face up of your opponents then you should get out of the hand. It is very simple. Your opponent might have a trick up their sleeve with their hidden card, but for the most part you will be able to make your decision about what to do base solely off of their face up cards.
In 5 Card Stud the worst thing that you could do is to stay in a hand longer than necessary when you know that your opponent has you beat on the board. This is a huge mistake any time that you do it because it is normally so obvious. There will be times that you will be beat by the hidden card, but for the most part focus on their up cards when deciding to continue or not.
Dead Cards
One of the most basic 5 Card Stud tips is to study the dead cards. Imagine sitting and waiting for a card that you just watched your opponents fold two of. You could be in an obvious position to save yourself some money, but due to lack of paying attention to the dead cards you will continue to play and lose money when you do not get the card that you need.
When you are playing shorthanded games it is easier to focus on the face cards that have been revealed because there are fewer of them than full ring games. Being able to follow all of the dead cards is a big part of following a basic 5 Card Stud Strategy.
Learning Pot Odds
One of the most important basic 5 Card Stud tips is to learn pot odds. There are a lot of times that you can’t simply look at a situation and instantly realize what the correct play would be. When you apply your pot odds to the equation it makes the decision a lot more black and white.
Learning pot odds will not only help you in bettering yourself at 5 Card Stud, but to almost all poker games. The more you calculate pot odds the easier it becomes and is incorporated into your thought when making one play over another.
July 7, 2009
The $1M Turbo Takedown tournament is an elimination tournament where you will receive $400 bucks for every PokerStars pro knock out.
Check under Tourney > Satellite > FPP
Pros already committed to play are: Greg Raymer, Dario Minieri, Katja Thater, Tom McEnvoy, and Alex Kravchenko. The buy in is 2k FPP’s, and the tourney takes place on July 26th at 14:30 ET.
Check out some PokerStars action and use the bonus code POKERBONUSCODES while you are at it.
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