So you lost a big hand that knocked you out of a tournament, and now you are looking over the hand history to see if you made a error. Reviewing your game is of course essential to improving, but often it's not obvious what aspects of the game you need to work on. Most likely, some aspects of your game will require more work than others. Here are a few poker skills to work on which should help you see almost immediate results.
First off, poker is a game governed and ruled by odds and therefore you need to develop a working understanding (even if it is just rudimentary at best) of the calculation of the mathematical odds on offer. In order to succeed you will need to encompass both ordinary odds and implied odds as well, because the odds associated with a particular hand can affect how you succeed or fail.
Profiling your opponents. It is also a indispensable aspect even in the lower limits because all of your adversaries tend to fall into foreseeable profile patterns. Understanding what these characteristics are will serve you in making more and more accurate conclusions when playing against them. If you have no thought as to what type of player you are playing against, your decision will be more complex than it need be.
Hole card strength and dominated hands. Learning the expected value of particular hole cards, and realizing the huge cost of dominated hands can instantly hike your success rate significantly in online poker tournaments. Hole card strength is often represented by an EV rating or a group hand ranking in poker software such as tournament indicator. Surprisingly, most of those rankings are money losers and that should tell you something right away. In addition, hands that look strong - for example KQs are often dominated to an initial raiser, and are big money losers over long-term.
Figuring your 'M' and tournament stage. There's a fundamental rule of thumb principle called M or mzone. If you know this at any given time in the tournament, it can fundamentally alter your strategy. It takes a little math and a little know-how, and a lot of courage at times to know what is the right move to make. However, once this mathematical understanding of the game is recognized, you'll be in a solid position at the table. Another important factor is how the prize money will be distributed, often resulting in a wide spectrum of betting tactics. Ordinarily, once you're in the money for example, you'll want to change gears loosen up giving you a shot of winning.
Make sure you get a firm handle on your emotions, because they will be your undoing if you allow yourself to be ruled by them. The greatest hand in the world can be rendered utterly useless if the player who happens to possess it at that particular time, gives advance warning to their rivals as to their strategy.
Most new online poker players fall prey to at least one of the previous weaknesses. If you suffer from any of these inadequacies, you to will need to start working on eliminating them straight away.
Learn how to play poker, improve your strategies, and find the best deals and best online poker sites at Best-Poker-Sites.net - Download a free ebook Learn Texas Holdem at LearnAboutPoker.com
Monday 26 April 2010
Putting Your Opponent On A Range Of Hands
A lot of critical decisions when playing either poker tournaments or hold'em cash games, requires you to put your opponent on a scope of hands. If you're able to do this with reasonable precision, your decisions at the poker table will invariably become rewarding over a period of time. However, determining your opponent's hole cards is certainly one of the more difficult aspects of the game to get really good at. Here is how you can start improving on it now.
The number one rule for reading your opponent's hand is to ALWAYS pay attention to the game, even when you aren't in the hand. This is significant online or in live play because it isn't just expressions or bodily tells you are observing but betting patterns too. When your challenger plays out of his normal pattern, then you must stop and ask yourself why. Frequently this means his hand is atypical too, indicating quite good, or rather poor.
Monitoring your opponent's positional play will allow you to make solid assumptions about the potency of his hand. If he plays a lot of hole cards, his positional play won't mean much, but if they are usually tight, solid hands from early position are the norm, loosening up to a wider range from later positions.
Watch your opponent's reaction to the flop. Staring at the board is frequently the result of his hand improving. Looking away, or a quick check frequently implies a potential draw or total miss. However, if he raised preflop and big cards land on the board, be careful of a trap.
Keeping an eye on the pot and relative stack sizes is hugely important. A normally tight player who is prepared to risk a lot of chips usually means they are holding a strong hand. If he seems determined to keep the pot small, then the pot is potentially yours for just a bet. Loose players are harder to read in this case, and it's more important for you to have a winning hand than to even anxiety trying to understand what they are playing.
Observe how the betting and aggression changes AFTER the flop. Keep an eye on conviction that turns apprehension, or the other way around. Run through qualifying your opponent's hand before they show their cards. Again, you don't have to be in the hand, but you do have to observe the flop and study the betting action. Repeating this frequently will permit your judgment of hole cards to turn out to be fairly precise.
Learn how to play poker, improve your strategies, and find the best deals and top poker sites online at Best-Poker-Sites.net Find exclusive PartyPoker Bonus code, reviews and referral codes to all the top poker sites at Bonus-Code-Poker.com
The number one rule for reading your opponent's hand is to ALWAYS pay attention to the game, even when you aren't in the hand. This is significant online or in live play because it isn't just expressions or bodily tells you are observing but betting patterns too. When your challenger plays out of his normal pattern, then you must stop and ask yourself why. Frequently this means his hand is atypical too, indicating quite good, or rather poor.
Monitoring your opponent's positional play will allow you to make solid assumptions about the potency of his hand. If he plays a lot of hole cards, his positional play won't mean much, but if they are usually tight, solid hands from early position are the norm, loosening up to a wider range from later positions.
Watch your opponent's reaction to the flop. Staring at the board is frequently the result of his hand improving. Looking away, or a quick check frequently implies a potential draw or total miss. However, if he raised preflop and big cards land on the board, be careful of a trap.
Keeping an eye on the pot and relative stack sizes is hugely important. A normally tight player who is prepared to risk a lot of chips usually means they are holding a strong hand. If he seems determined to keep the pot small, then the pot is potentially yours for just a bet. Loose players are harder to read in this case, and it's more important for you to have a winning hand than to even anxiety trying to understand what they are playing.
Observe how the betting and aggression changes AFTER the flop. Keep an eye on conviction that turns apprehension, or the other way around. Run through qualifying your opponent's hand before they show their cards. Again, you don't have to be in the hand, but you do have to observe the flop and study the betting action. Repeating this frequently will permit your judgment of hole cards to turn out to be fairly precise.
Learn how to play poker, improve your strategies, and find the best deals and top poker sites online at Best-Poker-Sites.net Find exclusive PartyPoker Bonus code, reviews and referral codes to all the top poker sites at Bonus-Code-Poker.com
Wednesday 21 April 2010
Trash Talk
Some online poker players feel the need to complain when they lose a pot. They actually think that complaining will make them feel superior about what just happened. Complaining is simply bad karma. Since it cannot help your strategy to engage in complaining, then you have to start asking yourself why you are doing it.
The players that complain online are losers. Mentally and financially. If you want to become a positive ROI player online, this is one of those practices you need to eradicate immediately. This doesn't mean talking about dissing yourself, to yourself. I am referring to using the chat box to criticize or insult your opponents' decisions.
Very often your opinion is not always perfect, and your opponent's play was at least a justifiable choice. Even if it wasn't, what would be the benefit to having them uncover something about their lack of comprehension of the game? The players that you may feel the need to lash out at, are the same players that make the game profitable for skilled players such as yoruself, so let them be a donkey and reap the rewards long term!
Complaining might also aggrivate other players who will join in and before you know it you have an argumentative game. You could end up with several players "ganging up" on you and that is likely to put you off your A game, and even if it doesn't affect you it certainly can't help.
So, starting from today no more trash talk. It's simple to do, just stop typing anything bad in the chat box. In fact, after a little practice the only thing you'll ever need to say is "nice play" while smiling to yourself that you'll end up with this donkey's money soon enough!
Read all about the pro players and learn from the best including Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen and Poker Hellmuth at Best-Poker-Sites.net and find exclusive referral codes to all the top poker sites at www.bonus-code-poker.net
The players that complain online are losers. Mentally and financially. If you want to become a positive ROI player online, this is one of those practices you need to eradicate immediately. This doesn't mean talking about dissing yourself, to yourself. I am referring to using the chat box to criticize or insult your opponents' decisions.
Very often your opinion is not always perfect, and your opponent's play was at least a justifiable choice. Even if it wasn't, what would be the benefit to having them uncover something about their lack of comprehension of the game? The players that you may feel the need to lash out at, are the same players that make the game profitable for skilled players such as yoruself, so let them be a donkey and reap the rewards long term!
Complaining might also aggrivate other players who will join in and before you know it you have an argumentative game. You could end up with several players "ganging up" on you and that is likely to put you off your A game, and even if it doesn't affect you it certainly can't help.
So, starting from today no more trash talk. It's simple to do, just stop typing anything bad in the chat box. In fact, after a little practice the only thing you'll ever need to say is "nice play" while smiling to yourself that you'll end up with this donkey's money soon enough!
Read all about the pro players and learn from the best including Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen and Poker Hellmuth at Best-Poker-Sites.net and find exclusive referral codes to all the top poker sites at www.bonus-code-poker.net
Friday 16 April 2010
Proper Positional Play
Playing hands from early position in poker is a good way to mix up your play, and that in turn helps construct an volatile image for yourself. Keep in mind though, that when playing lower limits especially, this can become pricey due to the myriad of players and hands that will go behind.
Let's assume you are NOT raising with a quality hand from early position in order trick your opponents. Some players do this with straight cards, small pairs and suited aces or kings. That adds considerable variety from early position and is absolutely going to increase your hand choice in the eyes of your opponents, but you must also be agreeable to play just as many precarious pots, because the more you play, the more you will be played back at.
That means your opponents will be reraising you with quality hands, or even their own bluffs and justifiably so. In addition, at a full table you have eight or nine opponents to act following you, and that's as many as 18 other cards that can blend for something better than yours. More often than not that will be the case and you will be creating many multi-player pots if they permit you to stay in. So why do poker players raise from early position then?
There is a purpose that good players do this, at least infrequently, and its not only to mix up their plays - that's virtually a given. The real reason is to hit a flop in with a hidden hand, so that other opponents will make expensive errors against you because they entirely misread your hand and over-committed chips or cash to the pot. Usually when this happens it's a monstrous pot!
What needs to be understood is that the majority of early position hands will cost you money, the design is to keep all those money-losing hands in small pots, not big ones. The professionals understand that in any given session their profits often come from just a a tiny number of of the hands played. But those few wins can be so significant they make up for numerous others losers, and then some.
So if you are going to play hands from early position use your reading and pot control skills until that one magical hand comes up and you rake in a monster.
Watch and study the online poker video clips, plus check out our exclusive freerolls, articles, videos, tips and advice at Best-Poker-Sites.net. Find the best deals on poker tables including octagon poker tables and folding tables at Poker-Tables-For-Sale.net
Let's assume you are NOT raising with a quality hand from early position in order trick your opponents. Some players do this with straight cards, small pairs and suited aces or kings. That adds considerable variety from early position and is absolutely going to increase your hand choice in the eyes of your opponents, but you must also be agreeable to play just as many precarious pots, because the more you play, the more you will be played back at.
That means your opponents will be reraising you with quality hands, or even their own bluffs and justifiably so. In addition, at a full table you have eight or nine opponents to act following you, and that's as many as 18 other cards that can blend for something better than yours. More often than not that will be the case and you will be creating many multi-player pots if they permit you to stay in. So why do poker players raise from early position then?
There is a purpose that good players do this, at least infrequently, and its not only to mix up their plays - that's virtually a given. The real reason is to hit a flop in with a hidden hand, so that other opponents will make expensive errors against you because they entirely misread your hand and over-committed chips or cash to the pot. Usually when this happens it's a monstrous pot!
What needs to be understood is that the majority of early position hands will cost you money, the design is to keep all those money-losing hands in small pots, not big ones. The professionals understand that in any given session their profits often come from just a a tiny number of of the hands played. But those few wins can be so significant they make up for numerous others losers, and then some.
So if you are going to play hands from early position use your reading and pot control skills until that one magical hand comes up and you rake in a monster.
Watch and study the online poker video clips, plus check out our exclusive freerolls, articles, videos, tips and advice at Best-Poker-Sites.net. Find the best deals on poker tables including octagon poker tables and folding tables at Poker-Tables-For-Sale.net
Saturday 10 April 2010
The Art Of Playing Poker Aggressively
The amount of pressure that you can constantly direct onto your opponents can oftentimes be measured in parallel with your overall success in poker.
When your opponent bets into you, they force you to be the one who has to make a decision - do you feel you have the better hand or not? If you're holding a margin hand then it's not easy to make that decision, which often means you're forced to fold. So it is almost always better to be the aggressor in a hand, unless of course you relaly have a very strong hand and you are trapping your opponent. The idea of being aggressive is to persuade your rival to guess incorrectly about what you're holding. Whether you want them to fold or call is dependent on the situation, but what you always want is for him to make a mistake. By constantly betting and applying pressure you encourage your opponents to make errors.
Selecting which hole cards to be aggressive with, and from which position, is a required skill in poker, and if you do it right your aggression will be more effective. If you are selective enough, you can often get away with re-raising your opponent and taking the pot down without ever revealing your hand. This requires the right table image, and an opponent with enough skill not to simply call with very weak hands.
Calling stations in poker are generally losing players, and regularly give up precious chips because of an irrepressible inquisitiveness. You do not want to be a calling station in poker, but you do want to recognize them in order to take money from them in the most effectual way possible. And that is simply value betting your good quality hands in average increments, to keep them in the hand.
The basic tenet here is that you want to be the attacker in the game, but you want to do it against the right opponents with the correct hands. If your Ace King hits nothing the flop, you should almost certainly still do a lead out bet to keep the pressure on, but after that, you ought to be using profiling information to determine what to do from there.
Download the free book Learn To Play Poker at LearnAboutPoker.com, then visit Billy Kernow's site about the Best Online Poker Sites for tips and advice, and exclusive deposit bonuses.
When your opponent bets into you, they force you to be the one who has to make a decision - do you feel you have the better hand or not? If you're holding a margin hand then it's not easy to make that decision, which often means you're forced to fold. So it is almost always better to be the aggressor in a hand, unless of course you relaly have a very strong hand and you are trapping your opponent. The idea of being aggressive is to persuade your rival to guess incorrectly about what you're holding. Whether you want them to fold or call is dependent on the situation, but what you always want is for him to make a mistake. By constantly betting and applying pressure you encourage your opponents to make errors.
Selecting which hole cards to be aggressive with, and from which position, is a required skill in poker, and if you do it right your aggression will be more effective. If you are selective enough, you can often get away with re-raising your opponent and taking the pot down without ever revealing your hand. This requires the right table image, and an opponent with enough skill not to simply call with very weak hands.
Calling stations in poker are generally losing players, and regularly give up precious chips because of an irrepressible inquisitiveness. You do not want to be a calling station in poker, but you do want to recognize them in order to take money from them in the most effectual way possible. And that is simply value betting your good quality hands in average increments, to keep them in the hand.
The basic tenet here is that you want to be the attacker in the game, but you want to do it against the right opponents with the correct hands. If your Ace King hits nothing the flop, you should almost certainly still do a lead out bet to keep the pressure on, but after that, you ought to be using profiling information to determine what to do from there.
Download the free book Learn To Play Poker at LearnAboutPoker.com, then visit Billy Kernow's site about the Best Online Poker Sites for tips and advice, and exclusive deposit bonuses.
Thursday 8 April 2010
Bad Beats - How To Handle Them (And Avoid Them)
Playing poker against stupid players should be lucrative, but do you often find yourself losing to players who have no idea of what they are doing? This can be a deep frustration for players that are serious about improving their own game.
The truth of the thing is that if you take the time to analyze using poker books or videos enough so that you can easily recognize yours and others errors, then it seems likely that profit should follow, and your bankroll should be increasing. Often times however, even though you do play good poker your bankroll may have nothing to show for it.
You might as well try and get used players like this because that's what online poker is all about. These types of players normally lose their money because they do not realize the games' fundamentals, even though they might be up for the moment.It's rather improbable that you're going to figure out why they are playing to win and are, and in fact since they probably don't know either, this isn't worth your time. You simply need to trap players like this with choice hands and more than a reasonable prospect of a lucrative outcome. Now there's a few ways you want to be doing that so as to preserve your stack at the same time.
Pot size management. It's critical to not let the size of the pot run away from you until you know you have the strongest hand, or even the nuts. Weak players will play any two cards so you won't be able to estimate what they will have, which leaves the burden on you to make sure you are ahead before your chips goes in. That's when you make the suckers pay, otherwise don't get involved in big pots with players who can beat you holding 83 offsuit.
Don't play the hand. This will be more challenging because you will frequently have a better starting hand than your stupid opponent, and folding is always tough. However this is going to keep you out of guessing games and preserve your stack for a more profitable spot.
Add the patience factor to your game. When you do this, he will certainly give it back to you - but wait, it may NOT in fact be him, but another loser just like him. That is why you want players like this at your table so you can use your skills against them.
Position. Playing correct position in poker against weak players is even more essential because you can get caught in expensive scenarios where they force you into an overpriced pre-flop bet, and you can do nothing but fold on the flop.
Don't bluff them a story. They cannot read the "poker story" you are trying to communicate. The board may have numerous overcards to their pocket 6's and they will still call you. Save yourself some grief and coin, do NOT bluff poker fools.
Rope a donkey by the tail. Once you do get a lousy player in the good situation, then you need to do your best to trap him for all his money. He may want to bluff you, but he may also call a lot off too. You need to know what kind of fool he is by profiling.
Losing pots to clueless players can be aggravating, but the fact is you DO KNOW they are losers even if they are ahead right now. If they don't give it back soon, they will give it back eventually, all you have to do is wait for your place.
Visit www.bonus-code-poker.net for the biggest exclusive bonus codes online. If you want to improve your game check out the articles, videos and reviews at best online poker sites.
The truth of the thing is that if you take the time to analyze using poker books or videos enough so that you can easily recognize yours and others errors, then it seems likely that profit should follow, and your bankroll should be increasing. Often times however, even though you do play good poker your bankroll may have nothing to show for it.
You might as well try and get used players like this because that's what online poker is all about. These types of players normally lose their money because they do not realize the games' fundamentals, even though they might be up for the moment.It's rather improbable that you're going to figure out why they are playing to win and are, and in fact since they probably don't know either, this isn't worth your time. You simply need to trap players like this with choice hands and more than a reasonable prospect of a lucrative outcome. Now there's a few ways you want to be doing that so as to preserve your stack at the same time.
Pot size management. It's critical to not let the size of the pot run away from you until you know you have the strongest hand, or even the nuts. Weak players will play any two cards so you won't be able to estimate what they will have, which leaves the burden on you to make sure you are ahead before your chips goes in. That's when you make the suckers pay, otherwise don't get involved in big pots with players who can beat you holding 83 offsuit.
Don't play the hand. This will be more challenging because you will frequently have a better starting hand than your stupid opponent, and folding is always tough. However this is going to keep you out of guessing games and preserve your stack for a more profitable spot.
Add the patience factor to your game. When you do this, he will certainly give it back to you - but wait, it may NOT in fact be him, but another loser just like him. That is why you want players like this at your table so you can use your skills against them.
Position. Playing correct position in poker against weak players is even more essential because you can get caught in expensive scenarios where they force you into an overpriced pre-flop bet, and you can do nothing but fold on the flop.
Don't bluff them a story. They cannot read the "poker story" you are trying to communicate. The board may have numerous overcards to their pocket 6's and they will still call you. Save yourself some grief and coin, do NOT bluff poker fools.
Rope a donkey by the tail. Once you do get a lousy player in the good situation, then you need to do your best to trap him for all his money. He may want to bluff you, but he may also call a lot off too. You need to know what kind of fool he is by profiling.
Losing pots to clueless players can be aggravating, but the fact is you DO KNOW they are losers even if they are ahead right now. If they don't give it back soon, they will give it back eventually, all you have to do is wait for your place.
Visit www.bonus-code-poker.net for the biggest exclusive bonus codes online. If you want to improve your game check out the articles, videos and reviews at best online poker sites.
Tuesday 30 March 2010
Playing Poker Against Weak Opponents
It can be very frustrating to lose pots to weak opponents who are making silly mistakes, but are getting lucky. This can be a deep frustration for players that are serious about improving their own game, but is an unavoidable part of playing poker, and something you have to learn to deal with.
You SHOULD have the advantage over a new or weak opponent if you're a solid player who has put in the study and practice to hone your game, but all the study in the world can't help you when you raise with the best of it, and get called by a donkey who sucks out on his two-outer.
Let's come to terms with this, horrible bad beats are going to happen to you and they are usually at the hands of these types players. Now obviously, they did not invest in training time like you did and as a result have a very different view of poker than you do. They will not be playing in a fashion that can make any sense to you. At least you figured out that they don't recognize what they're doing, and that's truly all you require to start getting their money. It's best to try and avoid these players unless you have a quality hand that you can value that against them. There are definitely strategies to use against these players while not putting your own stack at high chance against them.
Pot size management. It's critical to not let the size of the pot run away from you until you know you have the strongest hand, or even the nuts. Weak players will play any two cards so you won't be able to estimate what they will have, which leaves the burden on you to make sure you are ahead before your chips goes in. That's when you make the suckers pay, otherwise don't get involved in big pots with players who can beat you holding 83 offsuit.
Don't play the hand. This will be more challenging because you will frequently have a better starting hand than your stupid opponent, and folding is always tough. However this is going to keep you out of guessing games and preserve your stack for a more profitable spot.
Add the patience factor to your game. When you do this, he will certainly give it back to you - but wait, it may NOT in fact be him, but another loser just like him. That is why you want players like this at your table so you can use your skills against them.
Table position. You don't want to get caught in front of these players with "potential" hands. Your blinds will get burned away and cause you to make irriational plays because of a dwindling, discouraging game. See low-priced flops against slow maniacal players.
Avoid bluffing. Poker half-wits cannot comprehend that they may not have the greatest hand, no matter how bad the board texture is against them. Do not, I repeat do not try to bluff players who do not figure the strength of their hand.
Trap. The only time you should play a big pot against losers is if you are short stacked in a tournament and think you are way ahead, or you have the best possible hand - trapping them for all of their money. This is why it's better to play versus weak players in no limit hold'em - they will be happy to give you a lot of money in a very narrow situation.
Losing pots to clueless players can be aggravating, but the fact is you DO KNOW they are losers even if they are ahead right now. If they don't give it back soon, they will give it back eventually, all you have to do is wait for your place.
Visit www.bonus-code-poker.net for the biggest exclusive bonus codes online. If you want to improve your game check out the articles, videos and reviews at best online poker sites.
You SHOULD have the advantage over a new or weak opponent if you're a solid player who has put in the study and practice to hone your game, but all the study in the world can't help you when you raise with the best of it, and get called by a donkey who sucks out on his two-outer.
Let's come to terms with this, horrible bad beats are going to happen to you and they are usually at the hands of these types players. Now obviously, they did not invest in training time like you did and as a result have a very different view of poker than you do. They will not be playing in a fashion that can make any sense to you. At least you figured out that they don't recognize what they're doing, and that's truly all you require to start getting their money. It's best to try and avoid these players unless you have a quality hand that you can value that against them. There are definitely strategies to use against these players while not putting your own stack at high chance against them.
Pot size management. It's critical to not let the size of the pot run away from you until you know you have the strongest hand, or even the nuts. Weak players will play any two cards so you won't be able to estimate what they will have, which leaves the burden on you to make sure you are ahead before your chips goes in. That's when you make the suckers pay, otherwise don't get involved in big pots with players who can beat you holding 83 offsuit.
Don't play the hand. This will be more challenging because you will frequently have a better starting hand than your stupid opponent, and folding is always tough. However this is going to keep you out of guessing games and preserve your stack for a more profitable spot.
Add the patience factor to your game. When you do this, he will certainly give it back to you - but wait, it may NOT in fact be him, but another loser just like him. That is why you want players like this at your table so you can use your skills against them.
Table position. You don't want to get caught in front of these players with "potential" hands. Your blinds will get burned away and cause you to make irriational plays because of a dwindling, discouraging game. See low-priced flops against slow maniacal players.
Avoid bluffing. Poker half-wits cannot comprehend that they may not have the greatest hand, no matter how bad the board texture is against them. Do not, I repeat do not try to bluff players who do not figure the strength of their hand.
Trap. The only time you should play a big pot against losers is if you are short stacked in a tournament and think you are way ahead, or you have the best possible hand - trapping them for all of their money. This is why it's better to play versus weak players in no limit hold'em - they will be happy to give you a lot of money in a very narrow situation.
Losing pots to clueless players can be aggravating, but the fact is you DO KNOW they are losers even if they are ahead right now. If they don't give it back soon, they will give it back eventually, all you have to do is wait for your place.
Visit www.bonus-code-poker.net for the biggest exclusive bonus codes online. If you want to improve your game check out the articles, videos and reviews at best online poker sites.
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