Archive for the ‘Poker’ Category

Improve your strategy

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

No matter if you are an old skilled pro or a brand new amateur, there is always room to improve. Reading up on poker strategy is something we all should do from time to time. Maybe you claim that you read Supersystem so you don’t need any more strategy guides but it is not true, there is always room for improvement.

If you on the other hand just started out with poker you will of course have even more reasons for reading through the guides. You need to learn about the statistics, the hand ranking and the pot odds. As soon as you have gone through those guides you will be a player that knows more than the averege player does and it might actually turn you in to a winning player directly.

Importance Of Online Poker Tells

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

Whoever said that casino games were a piece of cake was definitely not from this world. There are a few specific rules and regulations each casino game has that have to be followed. However, like every other game, just knowing the rules and regulations don’t make you a good player. There are lots of important methods and techniques that mark the difference between a winner and a loser. Whenever playing a game, the player should understand the moves of his opponents and figure out if he is bluffing just to throw him off his game. Falling for a bluff is a sure shot short-cut to ending up on the losing side. For example: A twitchy or sweaty reaction to a change in the game might actually be a bluff by a player to make the other players think that he is going to loose the game.

As if trying to tackle these attempts at game-tricks wasn’t enough in a face to face game, we now have to deal with these tricks in online games too. So how do you go about recognizing such ‘expressions’ of your opponents? As deciphering these things can be quite a task, players are helped out by a few logical views on the online versions of these games – the “online poker tells”. These tells help a player understand the true flow of the game and help him make a logical move. Of the 15 odd tells that have been defined, here we present for you 2 tells.

The first of the two is known as “To pause or not to pause”. As we all know, time is an important factor in playing poker, specially online poker. The players need to maintain a certain degree of timeliness in their moves to avoid getting caught over good or bad ‘hands’. With an online version, there is always a time-limit to every player’s move – typically 30 seconds – which is generally sufficient to make a strong move. A few basic tips here follow simple logic – if the player takes too long to decide on the move and increases the bet, he is likely to have a strong hand. On the other hand, if he takes time and does not end up making any move, then he probably has a mediocre hand.

Sometimes though, even some of our best guess work can prove us wrong. Players might not raise the bets, but might still make a move after pondering over a strong hand for a long time. So it is suggested that to be able to guess the other player’s moves, you should try thinking like him.

The second of the two tells is the “Instant Playing”. This move helps a player win the game in a short period of time. With this tell, the opponent does not get enough time to understand and analyze the player’s move. For example: On some poker sites, there are lesser check boxes for the players and they can instantly play on the bets and thus win the game. Though this is often a good idea, it doesn’t guarantee success every time. It can even work against the player causing him to lose their hand. Also, players with weak hands often check the boxes instantly. The key is to understand the opponent’s ideas and accordingly plan one’s own strategy.

Good Poker Tells Show Great Impact

Thursday, April 9th, 2009

As much as we all love poker, it is admittedly not an easy game. Though not the most difficult task, it is not an easy one either trying to understand the game. Every game involves a strategy that helps the player win the game as quickly as possible.

Success in this game can only be assured through patience and well guided efforts. The rules and regulations of the game should be kept in mind by the players while playing poker. They should also be good at analyzing the opponent’s moves and judge their ‘hands’. The moves of the opponent are easier to interpret using a technique called ‘Poker Tells’. A poker tell helps a player understand the strategy of the opponent by analyzing the behavior of the opponent and thus estimating his move.

Poker tells take into account the steps, various expressions and movements of the opponents. For instance when an opponent takes a long time to make a move and raises the bet, the player can infer that his opponent has a strong hand. At other times, a loss in another room distracts the players and they often mention something to this effect in the chat. Such messages are often a good indicator of the player’s mood and their mental stability for the game. Sometimes some players have a long response time. This delayed response often points at a weak hand. According to a recent survey it is estimated that 73% of the players end up having a longer response time for weak hands. Even though these tells are famous, they do not work at all times. In fact, some players even deliberately use such moves to distract their opponents.

Though poker tells are not fool-proof, they do offer some logical views on how to best ascertain an opponent’s hand. They obviously can not assure victory to any player or offer any form of strategy, but definitely improve the chances. For example: If a player notices his opponent having drawn, then he can often increase the bet and raise the pot. This gives him a chance to force his opponent out of the game. A player slowing down his hand is a sign of an inexperienced player having some difficulty in making an appreciative move. Two other handy and valuable poker tells are “Raising in Position” and “Waiting for Big Blind”.

Raising in position is a widely-used and efficient poker tell. It is not only a useful tell in the online format of the game, but is also often used in the offline version. A player has more chances of stealing the pot if he raises the bet when all the other players in the game have folded. It is thus a smart move for a player to increase his bet in situations like this. At other times, having employed this tell the player will notice the opponent folding and giving the player more chances of winning the game. In waiting for big blind, the player should watch out for the opponents who are continuously placing blinds. Such players often have more chances of winning the game.

Eyes Speak Louder Than Words In Poker

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

Poker has gained the fancy of many people not only in the western countries as popular notion goes, but all across the world. The simple format of the base game makes it adaptable to various forms of rewards, whether monetary or otherwise. A lot of people start playing this game as a sport but soon get addicted to it. When played in good spirits, this is one of the most fun games that there is. The trick to the game and also what makes it interesting is the fact that it relies heavily on correctly assessing the other players’ psychology.

One of the most important tools a poker player can employ is a Poker tell. Effectively used, a tell can successfully mislead the opponent. A Tell is a subtle behavioral change or reaction which reveals the player’s assessment of his cards. What is important to understand here is that a tell can not be used to guess at the cards but to judge how the player rates his hand. It helps us understand if the player thinks his hand is good or bad. The best use of a tell is to understand if the player is bluffing his position in the game or not. Though there are lots of tells and can be classified in a number of ways, one way of classifying them is on where they can be used – online or offline.

The basic difference between the two formats of the game is whether a person can see his opponents or not. In the physical casinos, players can judge the opponents’ reactions based on physical reactions, whereas in the virtual casinos players have to rely on completely different cues for a tell. Whenever playing poker in a manual casino one of the most important things to notice in an opponent are the eyes. A player might be able conceal his reactions to something in every other form, but the eyes are the hardest to mask when trying to hide reactions or excitement. For example when people are nervous, the eyes become dull and get blurred. And when they are happy they have a noticeable sparkle or ‘smile’ in their eyes.

Eyes are most expressive part of our face and can give us away very easily. A noticeable dullness in the eyes will let the opponents know that you are nervous about your hand. Players who feel nervous show some kind of dullness in their eyes. There are various other tricks to understanding a player’s reactions through their eyes. Shifty eyes, staring at one’s cards, stealing quick glances at the pot and double checking one’s cards each have a different meaning. One means uncertainty while the other conveys inability to do anything whereas the third means you think you stand a good chance of winning that pot.

So, it becomes extremely important to conceal the information being leaked out via your eyes. If you want to conceal your reactions well, it is best to cover your eyes with a pair of sunglasses. At times players even look into the opponent’s eyes to catch a reflection of the cards and so covering up well is important.

Evolution and the History of World Series of Poker

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

A poker game has developed across a wide range of development from more then thousand. Some typified that the beginning of this game to the reign of sung of tenth century in China, while others manifest its initial stage is with a Persian game its known as ‘As Nas’. All over the olden times, this game has enlarged significantly, on the other hand the fundamental theory of psychological policy as well as card ranking have always credited next to the course of its progression.
The depiction of the game is more often than linked to its presented structure of Poque. The Poque was sleets from seventeen century in France. The game completes its pathway form the city of New Orleans, to come upon the Atlantic with a group of French pioneers. On or after there, this game extend the length of the way of river Mississippi in eighteenth century and it has explode in the America in nineteenth century when the country was prolonged towards westward surface. Because of this cause, the time gone of World Series of poker is usually joined with Wild West of United States Of America.
The Poker game has three existing edition such as Omaha and Omaha means high limit to low limit, the Texas Hold’em, and 7 card stud and 5 card stud. The Texas hold’em go on board on its increase to fashionable position for the period of the year of 1970 when it come out as the marked fame in the Poker’s world series. In now a day, it is definitely the well known of the three and is in performance commonly in foremost online poker rooms, and in terra firma based casinos all over the world.
In the year of 1951 the legend Johnny Moss was the winner he had packed down the Nick in the Poker. After that in 1970 the all star poker player arrived in faction such as the Legend Johnny Moss, Strauss, Roberts, Slim Brunson, Puggy Pearson, and Crandell Addington and other well known players joined them. The legendary world series of poker was the first gathering of players plays different games as circumstances read aloud. As a final point they all had chosen for the champion, to a convinced degree having determined during the poker contest.
In spite of the fact, the players are aware of that the occasion was flourishing but the media start it stiff to go after, since the competition was not prearranged appropriately as well as there was no obvious champion. Sequentially not to do again this difficulty, in the following year Benny set up a main occasion that would be a freeze out. This new game, all the poker players would get the same figure of initial chips and if they get to nil chips, the player would be getting rid of the game. The player who in the game till last the player would be considered as the champion. In the year 1971, with the game of Texas hold’em the first poker World Series was the conducted was the main event. The Legend Johnny Moss was selected as the first champ in the past of Poker World Series.

Gus Hansen

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

Growing up in Copenhagen, Denmark, Gustav “Gus” Hansen grew up playing different sports, although tennis is his favorite. He became a youth tennis champion. He is also fascinated with math and numbers that when he was introduced to Backgammon, he never looked back. He practiced nonstop and would play it for hours. He moved to New York to be a professional backgammon player and it was during this time that he was introduced to various types of pokers.

He started playing poker in 1993 when he played at the Ocean View Card Room when he was an exchange student in California. In 1996, he played his first World Series of Poker event and was knocked out during the first day of the tournament. This led to his determination of succeeding in the poker world by practicing and experimenting on different game styles. It has always been his game to mix up different game styles.

1998 was the year when Hansen played more poker than backgammon. He chose poker because the field is larger compared to backgammon. His trips to Las Vegas have become more frequent during this time.

During the 2002 World Poker Tour, he developed a loose aggressive style that led to his success and notoriety in the world of professional poker. He would raise with any two cards that opponents won’t know if his hand is legitimate or not.

He won the first WPT event, $10,000 No-Limit Hold ‘em tournament at the Five Diamond World Poker Classic, then later that year also won the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’ em Championship at the WPT’s L.A. Poker Classic. This is the beginning of a wonderful professional poker success.

The next year, Hansen won the invitational Bad Boys of Poker Tournament. Then in the early part of 2004, he earned his fourth WPT win at the Caribbean Adventure tournament. He could have captured another title that year during the Bellagio Five Diamond tournament but his pocket 10s lost to his opponent’s A-Q and had to settle for third place. He also made the final table at a European Poker Tour event in Barcelona.

It was also in 2004 when he played at the final table of the Bay 101 Shooting Stars tournament but once again had to settle for a third place finish. His four WPT titles and five final table appearances earned him an induction to WPT’s Walk of Fame, along with James Garner and Doyle Brunson. He is the only player to win at least three WPT open tournaments.

In 2005, Hansen focused more on cash games and played only a few tournaments. Still he made it to the final table of FullTiltPoker.Net Poker Invitational in Monaco and won the first ever Poker Superstars Invitational.

2006 was a memorable year for Hansen. He made High Stakes Poker history by winning its biggest pot of $575,700 by winning over Daniel Negreanu’s 6-6 with his 5-5 hand with a board of 9-6-5-5-8. Then later on the year he won at the first European Poker Masters FullTiltPoker.com London All Star Challenge. During this year’s WSOP Tournament of Champions, he reached the final table only to be ousted in the first hand when his A-K lost to pocket 9s. He was part of the Danish team, with Theo Jorgensen and Kim Christofte, to win the PartyPoker.com Football & Poker Legends Cup tournament

Though he finished 61st in the 2007 WSOP $10,000 no limit Texas hold ‘em championship, he still brought home $154,194. It was this year that he won his biggest pot ever, $1.2 million, at the Aussie Millions Main Event.

2008 saw Hansen place second place at the Season 6 WPT Championship where he lost to David Chiu. This year he has also launched a poker community website called ThePlayr.com. It contains his blog, articles, and a Gus Tracker that traces where Hansen goes.

Gambling is in his system. He is known to take on bets on different sporting events every now and then. Well he has a lot of money to gamble. As of 2008, his total poker earnings have reached at least $7,200,000.

When he is not playing poker, he would spend that time playing sports like golf, tennis, squash and soccer. He says that physical activities such as sports build up his stamina that’s needed when you’re a professional poker player.

He was the founding partner as well as the house pro of pokerchamps.com, which was launched in 2003. The company was sold in 2005 for $15 million. Despite selling it, Hansen was still involved with the 2005 PokerChamps Danish Championships.

He has also appeared in an instructional DVD series called Texas Hold’em Poker Advanced Strategies with Gus Hansen. He is currently the endorser of Frank Q, a Danish men’s fashion line. This year Hansen’s Every Hand Revealed is published. It tells the story of how he won the 2007 Aussie Millions.

Online Bad Beat

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

There were only of them left in a table. Trey was dealt with a 4-6 off suit. Both of them checked. The flop is 3-4-6 giving Trey two pairs. The other guy check so Trey bet a little over the minimum. The guy checked. The turn was a six. Lick is on Trey’s side right now. He bet minimum and the guy checked again. The river was a three. Trey bet minimum but his opponent went all in. He instantly called it. Try wished he didn’t though, his opponent has pocket threes making four of a kind.

A-K Bad Beat

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

He was having a good time at the table. Then he was dealt with an A-K. Another guy raises and he called. Flop came 2-3-K. Other player raised again. He re-raised then the other player called all in and turned a K-Q. The turn was rag but the river is a queen. He’ll never forget that hand, good thing he is the chip leader but after that his chips are diminished.

Aces Epic Failure

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

Matt was on a heads up match and was dealt aces black. Then on the flop came 10-10-A. Full house aces is not bad so he went all in. His opponent called. His opponent had pocket 10s. Even though you think you have a strong hand, don’t underestimate your opponents.

How Wes Was Lost

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

Wes was up with 700 plus chips. Then he was dealt with pocket kings on the big blind. He got raised and re-raised before he made it to flat $500. The next guy went all in and the other follows. Wes called as well. One opened his pocket 10s while the other had pocket Qs. Wes was celebrating but it was premature because the flop was 10-10-3. The turn was 5 and the river was 7.