Misrelate

Around seven in the morning, the bus arrived in Tunica. The lump of hundred dollar bills sat sweating in my pocket like a sponge. I could feel it pressing against my leg, begging me to take it out. I caught a cab and told the driver to take me to a poker casino, any of them, didn’t matter. He nodded in the rearview and drove off without a word.

I was dumped in front of a mammoth block of a building called the Grand. Even at this early hour there were hundreds of cars left glinting in the already stingy morning sun, glinting off the windshields as if to blind and entrance possible passersby. I crossed through the parking lot and over the ramps that bridged American soil with the hunks of whatever that the casinos floated on, thus making their poker gambling legal. That made me wonder- could I kill someone in here? A black man in a maroon uniform held the door and wished me luck.

Inside, cold air gushed down from overhead as I walked in on a sea of blipping, blinking machines. The place was glowing and alive. Everything, everywhere made electronic spinning sounds, like cartoon characters getting KO’d. At row after row of slots people sat in black cushioned chairs feeding money into nowhere, their eyes gone sterile to the effects of the screaming lights and buzzers. Despite the chaos, my overwhelming feeling was of relaxation. I want to get this kind of feeling playing poker online.

Comments Off

We all love playing deep stacks. When you have more at the online poker table than most people, you are often getting great implied odds on any hand, and riding our your winnings can stretch a modest victory into a massive night of cashing out.

Sometimes, though, a online poker player will find himself having accrued so many chips that to stay at the table is ludicrous. Even if he or she is comfortable in proceeding with 4 or 5 times what he bought in with, or more, you have to weigh your stack against the table, and what you stand to gain. If you are the only person with a massive stack, and everyone else is trying to push their little ones into you to double up, what are you really gaining by sticking around?

There comes a time in any session where you must cash out. If the stakes reach a level where you have too much of your money in at once in relation to your bankroll, or if you aren’t getting laid with the proper reward for your risk, it may be time to close up shop, or at least switch to a game where there is more to offer. Remember this when you play poker online.

Comments Off

Early Raisers is a game of position-knowing the strengths and weaknesses of positions in relation to the dealer will allow you to read your poker online opponents’ hands and play against them more effectively. Unless you’ve got a killer starting hand or you can read your opponent like a book, it’s usually unwise to call a preflop raise from an early position.

The earlier a player acts, the weaker his position is. Since a player in an early position doesn’t get a chance to read his online poker opponents’ actions, it’s generally thought best to play in a conservative manner.

Since most players won’t play weak hands in the early position, it pays to be wary of them when they decide to play a hand. Even then, they tend to limp in to see if the flop goes their way. If you are in a middle to late position and a poker player in an early position not only calls, but raises, it’s a pretty safe bet that they’ve got a hand that they like. Unless you’re playing with a player that you know is reckless or loose, it’s fairly safe to assume that if he doesn’t have a high pocket pair, he’s probably got a few overcards that he’s hoping will hit the flop.

Comments Off

Data mining is the process of collecting poker hand histories. On first glance, this may seem like an innocuous process. After all, what is really wrong with paying attention to how the other players perform at the table? We are told when we learn to play that you need to watch how other people play to be able to track player tells and playing styles. Data mining on this kind of small controlled level is not a problem. In fact, it is generally encouraged for good poker playing.

The problem comes in when companies start collecting this information on a larger scale. There are actually company’s out there where you can purchase the data information for hundreds of different players. This is downright cheating because it is not reflective of what an individual could reasonably do on their own efforts.

The other valid exercise of data mining is to analyze the information of poker players that you play against yourself. The final word about data mining is that it is okay to analyze your own experiences, or the experiences of the people you play against, but not okay to purchase the information for people that you have never met at the table.

Comments Off

Aggression is key winner factor in poker online. For those who want to build a more aggressive style of play, then betting is how you get there.

If you want to play aggressively, then you should rarely ever check. Instead, any time you are going to play a hand, always bet or raise it. Don’t check or call behind anyone. Instead raise the stakes and make your hand the one to beat at the casino online.

For those who are not naturally aggressive, it’s best to try these strategies in safe situations, like free online poker rooms or low stakes games.

The biggest fumble you make when trying to play an aggressive game, is to simply cold call when someone raises. (Unless, of course, you know you’ve got the nuts and want to keep your opponent in the pot by slow playing.) If you’re going to play aggressively, and a raise comes out ahead of you, then either fold your hand and re-raise it. If you hand is worth playing, it’s worth raising. Cold calling a raise is rarely the right move to make when you play online poker.

Aggressive players know how to push others off the pot. Weaker, tight players get out of their way, and passive players often just help create bigger pots. Take charge by raising when you are in a hand.

Comments Off

When playing online poker in brick and mortar casinos, it’s not unusual for these establishments to offer deep discounts on rooms, food and drink. But the Borgata Hotel and Casino has extended that to their major tournament. It’s not that you’d call the buy in cheap, but it’s more accessible that than 10k buy in for many televised events and an enormous bargain over the 25k buy in at the Las Vegas Bellagio. In essence, poker online players are getting more bang for their buck, with a prizepool that is projected to be over 3 million, the buy in of only $3500 is quite attractive when you look at it in comparison. Despite it being lower than most televised buy-in events, the Borgata still doensn’t want to refer to the buy in as “cheap.” Instead as Ray Stefanelli, the Borgata poker marketing chief said, “it’s a bargain of major proportions.” Of course Mr. Stefanelli is right, to many people $3500 is no small amount of money, but it is more accessible to the average Joe. However, there is one thing you should consider before you decide to buy in. Since this is a major poker online tournament, it would be foolish to think that one could just come in and sweep the place. Already several pros are looking to cash in on this one, so the competition is going to be as fierce as it is in the higher buy in tourneys. For those interested, the tournament starts on September 19th, and will be a 5 day event.

Comments Off

Stress is in intrinsic part of every poker online game. It is the rush that keeps us coming back to the poker online table, that indescribable feeling that cannot be found in any other aspects of our lives. How we handle that stress is important because it effects how we play at the table. Stress can make the difference between winning, and cracking at an inopportune moment.

I have seen people calm and collected after winning a big pot on a bluff. The stress of bluffing doesn’t seem to even make a dent in their perfect self composure. On the other hand, there are the people who look visibly relieved when their bluff wins. Two extremes, one emotion.

Stress has a physical effect on our body and puts us on edge. It is a part of the game that you need to master if you ever want to be a pro. You have got to learn to hold the classic poker online face, even when you are under extreme stress. It is not optional. It is very important, however, that you don’t take it too far. If you ever learn to completely subdue that flutter in the pit of your stomach, you will lose the thrill that makes poker so enjoyable. Find the balance.

Comments Off

Most online poker players like to know the bottom line before they sit down at the poker online table. Especially for the professional poker players out there, it is very important to know a rough estimate of how much you can expect to win. Knowing this little fact will help you accurately plot your bankroll, as well as prepare yourself if you are not a habitual winner.

Expected value, like all things in poker online, is the result of a mathematical equation. You need to be a habitual player in order to calculate it because you need to have a large amount of time to average your wins and losses. The way that you figure it out is that you average the amount of time you habitually win (or lose) over the average amount of time you spend in a poker session. This will give you a rough estimate of what you can expect when you sit down.

As a poker tool, expected value helps you to gauge whether you are playing for a time and bet amount that suits your bankroll. After you know your expected value you can adjust the overall amount you play in order to arrive at a specific ending sum. The converse is also true that you can save money by playing less time at the table if you have a negative expected value.

Comments Off

Texas Hold ‘em poker players generally like to see suited Aces because if the three more of the suit come out, it is probably a winner. Only a paired board that might give an opponent the full house that can beat the Ace flush.

Playing the Ace flush though is not an automatic move. Several factors come into play, with the kicker being most important. AK is a premium hand, with AQ, AJ and A 10 less powerful. These hands can finish to a straight too, and sometimes will simply yield the highest pair to win the pot. They can played from just about any seat, including early position. A suited Ace with a high kicker may be worth raising with from late position if no raises have come out beforehand.

A suited Ace with a medium kicker, from 9 down to 6, is a far less powerful poker hand. If no other suited cards or other Ace materializes on the flop, it is not worth chasing since the hand is probably beat. Call the blind with these cards, but be wary of large raises ahead of you, and big stacks behind you.

Although an Ace suited with five and below seems weak, it does also offer the straight potential unlike the medium kicker cards. Call the blind with this combination, and even call any value bet raises if you are in late position. But if the flop misses your hand entirely, fold it to any bet. Don’t chase after a flush or a straight if you need runner runner. Thepoker odds are against making your hand in this scenario.

Comments Off

Often, when a poker en ligne tournament is getting close to the money, where those left in get paid at least what they bought in for, and all the others don’t get a dime, it becomes a pretty sensitive issue to the remaining players over who will ‘make the money’ or ‘cash’ and who won’t.

For this reason, during a multi table tournaments (or MTT), when they are getting down to the last poker players to get busted before the payouts begin (also known as ‘the bubble’), the tournament proceedings will slow down so that tables are dealt cards ‘hand by hand.’ This practice is designed to prevent two players from getting knocked out at the same time, thus making it difficult or impossible to assign which one makes the money and which one doesn’t. Though it certainly slows down the action, this is meant to protect the poker players who are in danger of going out.

Often when a tournament gets into this status, players will tighten up from their usual play if they feel concern over whether or not they will cash. At this point, the more aggressive players often ‘turn on’ and come looking for easy money left for the picking.

Comments Off