General Poker Tips And Strategy

The biggest mistake for beginner players is playing too many hands and playing too passively. It is important to wait for decent hands and throw away the junk hands. The big pairs such as AA, KK and QQ are by far the most profitable starting hands in poker. It's very important to play them in a way that maximizes your profit because these hands have a very high positive expectation and are rare. Just like other situations in poker where you have the best of it, you want to build up the pot quickly. In most situations, when you have a big hand you want to build up the pot by taking the lead with betting and raising. However, there are some situations where you may want your opponent to be the aggressor and do the betting for you. You do this when your opponent is super aggressive and they bet and raise frequently with poor holdings. You should play it a bit different if you have a large stack nearing 100bb or more. This is because if you get it all-in on the river with a big stack, you will almost always be beaten by a two-pair hand or better. As the stack and pots get bigger, the better the hand you need to see a showdown. Often even strong hands like two-pairs and sets are no good when a lot of money goes in the pot on later streets. So if someone re-raises you on the turn or river with scary community cards, you may want to think about folding your high pair. When you play a hand in poker it is important to plan the hand in advance. Why are you playing that hand and how are you going to play it? Too many players just play the hand because they like the look of it. They have succumbed to the "calling reflex" which is the idea that people have a tendency to want to call, even often without thinking about it beforehand. People don't come down to the local casino or play online to just sit there and fold all day. Small pairs and suited connected cards can be very profitable in no-limit hold 'em. Hitting sets and making flushes and straights have the potential to win big pots. They are often quite deceptive, especially straights like double gut shots, which are very hard to see and put people on sometimes.

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Online Poker Tips, Strategies and Tricks

Nowadays the trick to online poker is not about playing the best, but instead it's now about playing at the best and most profitable tables. But how do you find these profitable sites and tables? The first tip is to play during peak times. This is the time when people come home from work and relax in the evening by playing poker. Another thing about online poker is multi-tabling. Playing multiple tables at once is the best thing about playing online. This is the reason why there are so many grinders at the big sites who play tons of tables at once. They make a slight profit on each one, but it all adds up to a big profit. But how do you get to this stage and how many tables should you play at the same time? The first thing to remember is that you should only multi-table if you are a winning player. Online poker is much more profitable than live poker. The rake percentages of online poker sites are less than that of live brick and mortar casino poker. Typically the casino rake is about 10% and that doesn't even include tipping. Online poker is around 5%, so about half the rake of a real casino. It gets even better with deposit bonuses, rake back and loyalty rewards, you will end up paying even less rake. The best thing about online poker is the tournaments. Tournament poker is different to cash game poker. Play conservatively at first when the blinds are small compared to the stacks. Be more aggressive later when the blinds increase. Single table Sit n Go's are becoming increasingly popular. These are small tournaments with 9 or 10 tables with the top 3 places being paid. Just like larger tournaments, be tight at first and wait till there are 4 or 5 players left. Heads up poker is a very fun variation and is quite profitable. In fact the best players in the world often play this form the game almost exclusively. The thing to understand about heads up poker is that the person who is the most aggressive will often win. This is because you are going to miss the flop more often than not. You can't wait for a decent hand because they are so rare. Often you will find ace high wins the pot and a stack of chips. I have improved my full ring game by playing heads up poker. It teached you aggressive and what to do when you come up against one player.

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Poker Strategy - Playing Trap Hands Like King-Queen

One of the most frustrating and subtle strategies of playing poker is through the handling and play of these range of hands that actually are badly overrated by amateurs and beginning players. They are referred to as trap hands because they appear as a premium hand but they are actually really just high suited or unsuited connectors that most players aren't aware of. The beginning player will be dealt King-Queen and will likely think, "Oh, sweet this is just like Big-Slick." They could not be more wrong. Great players that want to play tight, smart poker probably do not even have king-queen on their list of starting hand requirements and if they do it's in very late table position. These hands need to be treated similarly to 9-8s, 10-9s and other suited connectors, the only difference is that they are high in card rank but do not make the mistake of playing them like a premium hand because they are not. Let us look at a quick example. You are dealt K-Q suited, which by most is the highest rated "trap" hand, and call another player's raise (this player was located under the gun, directly left of the big blind and the raise was 3x the big blind). This raise was called by you who sat in 2nd position directly left of the raiser. The first mistake was calling a raise with this hand in early position, when a player raises in early position they are indicating a tremendous amount of strength and poker theory states that to call their raise you need a hand of equal or better strength. The rest of the players fold and the flop reveals: K-J-5. You flopped top pair with second kicker and you are most certainly ahead! You can't be so sure just yet. So you call the original bettor down to showdown and he reveals A-K and you lose the pot. That is the problem with entering pots with trap hands, because most beginners play them like premium hands so they enter pots against premium hands that have them hopelessly crushed.

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How to Out-Strategize Your Online Heads-Up Poker Opponents

Heads Up Poker Strategy - Its impossible to win any heads up poker tournament if you can't dominate your last tournament opponent in a heads up poker match. This article will help you understand the skills you need to master to out-strategize your online heads-up poker opponents. No matter whether you are playing poker live or online, every tournament ultimately comes down to a heads up match between the winner and the best loser. Although my experience is mostly online, the following pointers apply no matter where you play. I love the online poker rooms, however, because they offer heads-up poker tournaments that allow you to use the following skills from the beginning of every game. Because most players are poor heads-up players, this gives the skilled heads-up poker player a distinct advantage. Most poker player incorrectly believe that when it gets down to heads-up play its all about luck. They couldn't be more wrong. The truth is that most players simply don't know how to play heads-up, so they get "unlucky" a lot of the time. The first important principle of heads-up poker play is that you MUST change your play because the value of starting hands is dramatically different when only facing one opponent. You have to play hands you might never dream of playing in any other situation. For example, any Ace is a very good hand that should be played aggressively. This point raises another principle, which is that to be a successful heads-up poker player you must be extremely aggressive, sometimes even when you have a poor starting hand. Keep the pressure on and collect chips at every opportunity. Some players understand they must be aggressive and you can use this against them, re-raising often to collect even more chips. Of course, the result of all of this is that you will need to play a lot of hands. This means raising pre-flop with any Ace, King or Queen in most situations, and re-raising with the same. By keeping the pressure on, you'll amass chips quickly against a timid player and keep even good players from knowing what kind of a hand you've got - giving you a great opportunity to trap such players when you do have a very strong hand.

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Pai Gow Poker Strategy - How to Win the Game

Pai gow poker is derived from the Chinese domino game pai gow. Unlike typical casino card games like blackjack, this game can run more slowly and offers a longer amount of playtime for the investment. To find out the best strategies for winning Pai Gow, let's first look at how the game is played. Pai Gow utilizes all 52 card and one joker-53 in total. The basic object is for each player to create two poker hands out of the seven cards he receives. The dealer places seven facedown piles of seven cards per pile. The remaining cards are unused no matter how many people are playing (up to seven people may play). It is important to note that even if there are only two people playing, one player and the dealer, the cards are dealt as if there were seven people at the table. The players' betting depends on his position from one to seven; the dealer is included in the play and the dealer can change from to any player from time to time depending upon house rules. Betting positions can either start with the dealer and then go counter-clockwise or can be determined by random numbers chosen electronically or by a pair of dice. The object of the game is for a player to create two hands out of the seven cards the dealer gives him. The players five-card hand is ranked just as in five-card draw poker, the two-card hand is ranked as pairs or the higher of the two cards. After initial wagers have been placed, play begins with the first person showing his best five hand card and best two-card hand. The joker is usually wild. This continues with all the other players until everyone has completed their five and two card hands. Then the dealer, or seventh player takes his turn. To win, beginning with the first player he must beat the dealers five card hand and then two card hand. If the player hands are tied with the dealers, the game for the player ends with the dealer getting the money. If the player beats the dealer on both hands, he wins money, less a 5% commission to the dealer. If the player wins one, but loses the other, the game ends in a push. Okay, to figure out the best strategy here, let's look at what some experts do. One choice is to pre-pay commissions, which you are allowed to do. For instance, if you are betting $100, pay $105. The reason this is better is that it lowers your commission from 5% to 4.76%. Another strategy may be the cards dealt to the non-players. Remember seven piles are dealt even if there are only four people playing. A player has the option to trade with these non-playing or "dragon" cards; these cards may hold higher hands than what you have. Further, try and make your two-card hand higher than your five-card hand. The best source of strategies we found was on Wikipedia1 that explained how to determine what is your best hand. Experts have contributed to Wikipedia's strategies and we offer them here and have noted our source in the footnote area: If a player has no pairs, straights or flushes, he can set the second- and third-highest cards in his two-card hand. For example, with K-Q-J-9-7-4-3 he can play Q-J and K-9-7-4-3. There are a few minor exceptions to this, for example, with A-Q-10-9-5-4-2 it is slightly better to play Q-9 and A-10-5-4-2, but these situations are rare and do not affect a player's win rate much. If a player has nothing but a single pair, he can set it in his five-card hand and put the two highest remaining cards in his two-card hand. For example, with A-Q-Q-9-6-5-3 he can play A-9 and Q-Q-6-5-3. There are no exceptions to this rule. This and the above rule will cover approximately 65% of played hands. Two pair is the most common case where strategy isn't obvious. A player can either play high pair behind and small pair in front, or else two pair behind and high cards in front. The smaller the high pair and higher the remaining cards, the more inclined he should be to play two pair behind. If his side cards are small or his larger pair is large, he should split the pairs. He should always split the pairs if his high pair is of aces, and should almost always split if his high pair is of kings or queens: they are high enough by themselves. With cards like J-J-4-4-A-Q-5 he can consider playing A-Q and J-J-4-4-5- since A-Q in front is not much worse than 4-4; however, two pair behind is much better than a single pair of jacks. A player with jacks and tens might be more inclined to split, because tens in front is much better than A-Q. With pairs as small as 7s and 8s, a player might consider playing two pair behind if he can play a king-high or better in front. With 2s and 3s he may even play as little as a queen-high in front. If he has no side cards higher than a jack, he should always split pairs, even 2s and 3s (most house ways split if there's a pair of 6s or higher, and split small pairs if there's no ace for the low hand). Three pair is a very good hand. A player should always play the highest pair in front with no exceptions. For example, with K-K-7-7-4-4-A he should play K-K and 7-7-4-4-A. If a player has three of a kind and nothing else, he should play three of a kind behind and the remaining high cards in front unless they are aces. He should always split three aces, playing a pair of aces behind and ace-high in front. Occasionally, he can even split three kings if his remaining side cards are not queen-high; for example, with K-K-K-J-9-7-6 it is slightly better to play K-J and K-K-9-7-6 than to play J-9 and K-K-K-7-6. Most house ways only split three aces. If a player can play a straight or a flush or both, he should play whichever straight-or-better five-card hand makes the best two-card hand. For example, with K`-9`-8c-7`-6c-5`-4` playing the flush would put 8-6 in front, playing the 9-high straight would put K-4 up front, but the correct play is K-9 and 8-7-6-5-4. Occasionally the player will have a straight or flush with two pair; in that case, he should play as if it were two pair and ignore the straight or flush. This rule applies even if a player can play a straight flush; if a straight or flush makes a better hand in front, play it that way. With a full house, a player should generally play the three of a kind behind and the pair in front. The exception is if the pair is very small and the side cards are very high; for example, with 5-5-5-3-3-A-Q it might be better to play A-Q with the full house behind. However, these cases are rare, and a player will never be making a big mistake if he never play a full house behind. House ways usually split the full house. With two three of a kinds, a player should play the higher as a pair in front and the smaller three of a kind behind. For example, with Q-Q-Q-7-7-7-A he should play Q-Q and 7-7-7-A-Q - no exceptions. With four of a kind, a player should play as if it were two pair, but should be slightly less inclined to split. For example, with 10-10-10-10-J-5-4 he should play 10-10 and 10-10-J-5-4, and with 3-3-3-3-K-Q-7, K-Q and 3-3-3-3-7. Most house ways always split the four of a kind. With three pair and a straight or flush (only possible with the joker), a player should play his hand as three pair (with aces in front). Pai gow poker is a good bet for your buck if you want to spend a while playing one game-there are a lot of pushes in the game. The Americanized version of pai gow poker was created by Fred Wolf in 1980 and has grown in not only large Las Vegas casinos but smaller casinos across the United States.

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Free Poker Strategy Tips

The goal of every poker player is to win the game, and winning it with free poker bets is even something more delightful. You can increase your chances of winning by following these free poker strategy tips. Poker is perhaps the most popular game online. As a matter of fact, the internet is flooded with countless poker sites that offer free to intense poker competitions. One can easily be astounded with the number of poker sites and games available online. It is crucial that you find a poker site that will offer you the best options, munificent free bets, and unmatched bonuses. In a poker game, it is important that you are able to outwit and outsmart other poker players. In honing your skills as a player, there are poker strategy tips that you can consider. These poker strategy tips will enable you to become more clever and sharp-witted in poker and will enable you to get the better of your opponents. One of the more sensible poker strategy tips is to familiarize yourself with the rules of the game from the basic to its variants to the progression of hands to a point where you can consider yourself an expert. Knowing the game thoroughly can definitely give you an intelligent edge over your opponents. You also have to develop the skill of anticipating the moves of your opponents. You've got to think on their lines in order to outwit them or catch them when they try to cheat. Maintain a calm demeanor when you play even when the game becomes heated. Don't ever give your opponents hints through your gestures and reactions of what's going to be your move. Perfect timing is also crucial in a poker game. Of course, as with everything else in life, an important element in any poker game is preparation. You have to be prepared to play poker. You wouldn't enter the competition without your armors and tools right? You must be able to know the playing field, the number and strength of your opponents as well as their weaknesses and limitations. In playing poker online, you may be facing the computer or genuine people as your opponents. With the computer as your opponent, you can sharpen your skills by playing different levels of expertise. But nothing compares to the excitement and thrill of competing against real players. Here, you can study their moves, get to know them better to get the better out of them. As most poker players are always concentrated on the hand they hold, you can carefully observe from their hands to their eyes how they move to give you hindsight on whether they are holding strong or weak cards. There are several other poker strategy tips that you can consider as your guide to improve your expertise in playing the game. From mastering the art of bluffing to exercising flexibility, you can always benefit from these poker strategy tips to polish your own individual game. With so many strategies, methods, techniques that you can learn and understand, you can always come out a guaranteed winner in a game of poker.

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Essential Online Poker Strategy

There is an online gambling strategy for craps, roulette, blackjack, poker and any other game you have in mind. It only seems natural that what ever game you choose to play, you have some sort of well thought out strategy to beat the odds and come out the winner. After all that is pretty much the bottom line; the point is you won and of course all that beautiful, beautiful money! Very few people would argue that the game of poker has not had any transition problems going from the traditional brick and mortar to the many online casinos. If anything, being able to gamble in the comfort of your own home on your own schedule has made it incredible easy to go online and take your shot at winning. Since it has become so simple to get into a game then the next logical step is to concentrate on working out your strategy details for winning. The strategy for playing and winning at online poker is a crafty one consisting of playing mind games with your opponent. It is a lot like using the smarts of a fox to get to the eggs; only in this case you are after the pot of money! This technique for winning goes way back and the reason it is still in use today is because it can be a winner all the way around. It you learn the skill of bluffing you have just mastered the necessary techniques for winning at poker. People that understand other people's thoughts and know what makes them tick and how they will react can do an excellent job of bluffing. First off, never abuse the number of times that you bluff because the more you bluff the odds will increase that your opponent will call your hand. Do not repeat any type of patterns often that will draw attention from other players. Watch the other players and learn their style of playing before you bluff. The strategy of bluffing in poker has made many a man pretty wealthy by bidding his time for the right play. As you learn more and more about playing poker you will come to realize that often times you are going to have to make some very quick decisions because that is what the game calls for. Sometimes people do quite well at playing poker when they listen to what their gut says. Instinct can be a very powerful emotion and many times it is, right down to the last card. If you are new to the art of poker the first thing is to get on board with the rules until you know them backwards and forwards. Once you begin to feel comfortable then you will develop your own sense of style. What works right for you, what feels comfortable and works well? Learning to play poker well takes some time as you take small steps towards winning. It is interesting how you acquire confidence after learning a new subject, technique or even a new job. You start out as green as can be with no foundation about the subject and eventually learn all about it. The next thing you know without even realizing it most times is that you begin to exude confidence, you feel comfortable and you can accomplish your goal easily. Poker works the same way. Once you slide into that confidence arena choices are much easier to make and many decisions do not even require any careful considerations. You just make the judgment call naturally and that is the way to succeed at playing a good hand of poker.

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