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October 3, 2009
How many times have you come so close to winning a game of poker with a great hand, only to lose it to someone who manages to go one up on you? If you’ve been in this situation before then you will be happy to know that some online poker sites will REWARD you for losing. A Bad Beat Jackpot is essentially a lost poker hand that is made up of very good cards. If you manage to lose on these cards (preset by the online poker site), you will win the Bad Beat Jackpot and could very well walk home with wads of cash!
If you choose to play at a Bad Beat poker table, you agree to put in a small amount (around 50c) into a special side pot. Each time a game is played at the table, the progressive jackpot grows until someone is lucky enough to lose on a Bad Beat hand and the jackpot is paid out. The ‘loser’ usually gets the bulk of the jackpot, while the winner of the game also gets a fair share and the rest is shared out among the other players at the table. The site will keep back a certain percentage to seed the follow up jackpot fund.
A typical online poker site may call for the losing hand to be at least a four of a kind sevens, while the winning hand must be at least a four of a kind 8’s. Some call for both the winning and the losing hands to include the hole cards.
Whichever way you look at it, Bad Beat Jackpots are definitely not that bad after all!
Almost every poker site has bad beat jackpots.
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 13, 2009
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.
September 30, 2008
With layoffs on the rise in America people seem to be turning to other ways to make money and diversify their income streams. Online poker is becoming one way people are trying to make some income. Yes, people that might already be in a tough economic predicament may be turning to online poker as a source of extra revenue for themselves.
Our favorite online rooms are Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars.
June 24, 2008
Thinking about becoming a professional poker player? Think anybody can do it? Think again. Becoming a pro takes years of practice. You need to know the game inside out and know how to read people. To play professionally you need to be able to grind it out. Having the discipline to sit and play for long amounts of time and staying focused even when the cards are not going your way.
In the world of poker, there are a fair amount of players that can grind it out when they need to. When these players are in action they can sit at a table for hours, and play solid poker the entire time. The things that makes a player better than average is the ability to read people, folding when you know your beat and capitalizing when you have the best hand.
Problems arise for the other people who are trying to grind it out, when he or she starts feeling lucky and they begin to play hands they shouldn’t. Even if they get lucky a few times and win with cards they know they shouldn’t have played. Sometimes boredom becomes a problem, and if you are thinking about becoming a professional poker player, you cannot get bored: to be successful you have to be disciplined and grind it out hand after hand.
Many people think that playing poker for a living means sitting at a table and winning constantly. He or she thinks that they can sit down for an hour and get a red hot streak of cards, and leave with four times the amount of money they came with. Sounds great, and if it happened all the time like that, no one would have a regular job. We would all be playing poker for a living. Being a great poker player you have to be able to take the good days with the bad. Sticking it out and continuing to play when you have lost four times the amount you came with.
The reality is that a professional poker player has to play exceptionally for hours at a time, and for days, weeks, months, and years, at a time, to make a living from poker. You are not going to sit and win every time you play. You have to be solid and consistent and really know the ins and outs of poker.
Playing poker for ten hours and not playing a single hand is what a true grinder does. There will be times when you win big and there will be times when you can’t get the cards you need to come your way. The ability to show discipline will help get you through those times when the cards aren’t going your way.
To become a professional poker player means you can’t compromise your playing style. You have to play an intelligent form of poker all the time. You can’t take risks that statistically are not worth taking. The pot may be massive, but if you don’t have the cards you need to be able to lay the hand down.
April 24, 2008
There are a number of different tournament options offered by each poker room and by online poker as a whole. The Sit-N-Go style tournaments are quickly becoming a new player favorite. The format is exactly what it sounds like; these tournaments typically have six to ten players and play like poker pick-up games, starting as soon as enough players sit.
As with any of the many tournament styles, there are a lot of different strategies for how to play and win in a Sit-N-Go. Of course all strategies are designed to do one thing: win money. All Sit-N-Go strategies have another basic focus: playing and winning as many tournaments as possible. Naturally you can’t always win, but having a healthy win to lose ratio will guarantee you always come out ahead.
For this particular Sit-N-Go strategy, the process is broken down to demonstrate the best way to play an individual tournament. Sit-N-Go tournaments differ from larger tournaments where the play is hard and fast. In other tournaments, as the blinds increase you have a high risk of getting trapped by aggressive players that want to start narrowing the field. The one table style of Sit-N-Go promotes a more relaxed pace, making patience a real virtue for successful players.
The relaxed pace does not mean you should have a relaxed strategy. The ideal Sit-N-Go playing strategy is to be tight with your chips but aggressive with your cards. This means you are going to be folding a lot over all, and playing hard when you do play a hand. Many people confuse playing a lot of tournaments with playing a lot of hands. Sloppy playing will not create a positive win-lose ratio. In this Sit-N-Go strategy the idea is to stay safe and hold your chips until the end, when the field has been narrowed and the blinds are high.
Why hold back? Because even as you stay tight, other players will get loose and eliminate themselves. The tournament is going to be decided in the last rounds, so your primary goal is to stay in the game. It is ok, even advisable, to play a good hand when you’ve got it, but otherwise this Sit-N-Go strategy is about making the majority of your moves at the end.
By the end of the tournament you have the advantage of knowing the players and their individual styles better. You are in a better position to play more loosely, as any risks you take now have a much greater payoff. Other players may be tightening up now as the blinds grow and the stakes get higher.
This is when you make your move, taking advantage of the big blinds by playing hard and fast before the flop. Go all in early, and most players are unlikely to have a starting hand that is worth the risk. You can build your stack quickly with a couple pre-flop pots in the end rounds, and have the potential to double it should anyone call your all-in.
As always, the successful use of this strategy depends on your own consistency and your ability to determine when your hand is worth the bet. To win Sit-N-Go with this theory of play, the idea is to come in like a bear and go out like a bull.
April 18, 2008
Poker is a game of many that has hundreds of variables that will affect the game. There is no other game like it and as a beginner it can be very difficult to understand and learn the game. With so much to learn, it is hard to know where to start and a lot of mistakes will be made. The one thing to keep in mind is that there will be a lot of mistakes; and that is okay. The best way to learn in poker is to learn it yourself from making mistakes. Still, there are some common mistakes that can and should be avoided as a beginner.
Afraid to Play – One of the biggest mistakes a lot of beginners make is that they are actually afraid to play and get involved with hands. The only way you will be able to learn is if you get in the game. You will see players with the best possible hand call when they could have easily put the rest of their chips in and got a caller. Do not be afraid to bet, call and get involved.
Not aware of the Math – This is a big one. Poker is a game of probabilities and statistics. If you do not fully understand the math you are at a huge disadvantage. Assuming that the game is just a simple game of chance is a very big mistake. You might as well go play blackjack or just give your money to charity.
Over-estimating Suited Cards – There is a fairly big problem with this is as well. You will hear so many people saying that they just had to play a hand because it was suited. That is really the most ignorant thing a poker player could say. Suited cards are not near as valuable as people think they are. They only bring the value of the hand up slightly.
Playing too Many Hands – This is just the opposite of the first mistake. This normally happens once players get used to the rules and the game. Playing too many hands is a big mistake that will lose you a lot of money. You should only be viewing around 20% of the flops played during a session. That means that you should be folding a lot more than calling.
Poker Etiquette – It is okay to learn as you go, but one thing you really should know before you play is the poker etiquette. There are a lot of things you just cannot do at a poker table. If you don’t know what those things are, you will probably do them. They are mostly just basic things that you must look into.
If you can avoid these five mistakes outlines above, you will be off to a pretty good start. Like mentioned before, there is just so many mistakes that could be made. You will make mistakes, and you might even make the same ones you just read about. That is okay; all you can do is try your hardest to limit your mistakes, and learn when you do make them.
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