Live Poker Play Tells

March 2, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment 

If another poker player is going to give you free information as to what they might be holding, you’d be a fool not to take it.  This is what tells are all about.  If you notice your opponent doing any of -the following, it’s likely something you can use to either win a pot or avoid losing to a huge hand.
Shaky Hands
This is probably the most famous of all tells because every movie or TV show that has an episode featuring a poker game uses it.  If you notice a player’s hands shaking after looking down at his cards or after the flop hits, they likely have a monster.  Unless you’re holding the nuts yourself, you should likely fold whenever you see your opponent’s hand flopping around.  If you’re a hand shaker you need to either get yourself under control or train yourself to do the same shakes when you’re bluffing.
The Speech
Using “The Speech” is all about being a good actor.  Here’s an example of what poker pros refer to as “The Speech”.  We were playing a home game the other night when one player glanced at his cards, declared that he needed a break and shoved all his chips into the middle.  I threw my low pair into the muck, but another player decided he would call.  The speech-giver flipped over A-K suited, which gave him two pair on the board with only the river to come.  he went on to win the hand proving his speech was total crap.  Whenever a player uses “The Speech”, they’re almost always full of it and have a big hand.
Betting Trends
Many bad players give away the strength or weakness of their hands by the way they bet.  Picking up on this betting trend requires a good memory, but it’s well worth it.  One trend I picked up from a fellow player made  it easy to identify his buffs.  Whenever he had a good hand, he would put in a large bet or raise about three or four times the big blind.  However, almost every time he attempted a bluff or a pot steal, his bets would be gigantic, always more than give times the big blind.  Picking up on these betting trends will help you cripple players who fall into these habits.
Chip Glances
When the cards are being dealt or the flop is being laid out, don’t look at the cards, look at your opponent.  Specifically, watch where their eyes go.  If your opponent immediately glances down at their chips, that usually means they have a hand and they’re thinking about how much to bet.  If you catch a player studying your chip stack, that also means they’ve probably got a big hand tucked away.  When they’re checking out your stack, they’re usually trying to determine how much of it they can take with their monster hand.
Questions
Don’t be fooled by players that appear clueless and ask what the bet is or if it’s their turn to wager.  Unless they truly are distracted by something, this could be an act to make themselves look dumb and vulnerable to a big bet.  This is just another fake-out by your opponents, so don’t fall for it.
Chip Toss or Chip Slide
The way a poker player puts their chips into the pot can give away how good or bad their hand is.  If a player casually tosses their chips into the pot, they’re likely trying to hide the fact that they’re holding a monster hand.  If they forcefully push their chips into the middle, this tends to be a sign of weakness.  The aggressive push is an act to try and compensate for their junk hand.
Filed Under: Strategies
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Rakeback Bonus - What is Rake?

March 2, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment 

What is rake?

Rake is the money taken out of the pot by the house. Depending on the limit it can be from $.05-$3.00.

What is Rakeback or rake back?

Rakeback is a percent of the rake paid back to you for playing at a poker site. Serious players earn thousands of dollars a month just in rakeback. When you sign-up for a rakeback deal via RRR your rakeback money is usually paid automatically by the poker room directly to your poker account. However, sometimes your rakeback money will be paid to your Neteller account.

What is a rakeback affiliate?

A rakeback affiliate such as RRR is a site that helps promote online poker rooms. In return we are paid a percent of the rake collected from poker players that sign up via us. Each month we pass on the vast majority of our cut from poker rooms to our players.
I am already signed up at a room, can I get rake back there?

No. You can, however, on some networks switch skins and play on the same network.

What is a skin?

A skin is a group of poker rooms that share are on the same poker network. For example Cryptologic skins would include InterPoker and Sun Poker and a handful other rooms. Players at all of these rooms play in the same games. Most networks will allow you to sign up under all skins regardless of the number of rooms on the network you are already signed up for.

How does the poker room come up with my rake amount?

The rooms use a formula called Monthly Gross Revenue (MGR) a ka net rake. This is the amount from which your rakeback is calculated, i.e. if your rakeback percentage is 30 and your MGR is $1,000 you would get $300 in rakeback.

To calculate your MGR some rooms subtract any bonuses earned during the month, while others don’t. The same goes for whether or not tournament fees are included in MGR. Rooms also have different methods for calculating your share of the actual rake. Some poker rooms use what is called contributed rake where you must participate in the pot to have rake credited. Others use the dealt method where you are credited with rake in every hand where you’re dealt cards.

Read more about how a certain poker room calculates rake by visiting its page here on RRR.

Will I get a sign-up bonus when I sign up for a rakeback deal?

In most cases yes. Read more about a certain poker room’s sign-up bonus by visiting its page here on RRR. Please note that in some cases this bonus will be subtracted from your net rake.

Can my spouse, parent, brother, sister, roommate or anyone else that shares my computer have an account at the same poker room as me?

Usually, but they will need to get their own funding source for their account. You usually can not share Neteller or Firepay accounts with them. You may however transfer them money at most poker rooms. Signing up underage people, pets, appliances, lawn gnomes or some other figment of your imagination just to get a rakeback deal is fraud. You risk the poker room asking for ID and then having your account frozen and funds confiscated. It will also be hard to fund this account as it is not possible to get Neteller accounts for these fantasies.

Filed Under: Rakeback
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South Carolina Senator Introduces Bill to Allow Private Poker Games

March 2, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment 

South CarolinaA South Carolina legislator has introduced a new bill to legalize social gambling and gambling-themed fundraisers, thereby reversing the state’s two-plus century old law against such activities. Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell (R-Charleston) has introduced the bill to allow for gambling in private homes when there is no house profit, as well as to allow churches and other non-profit organizations to hold “casino night”-style fundraisers that do not involve slot machines, video gambling, or sports betting.
In introducing the bill, Sen. McConnell referred to the state’s 207-year-old anti-gambling law that bans “any game with cards or dice,” a law which, if taken literally, would outlaw board games such as Monopoly. Sen. McConnell, who chairs the state senate’s Judiciary Committee, believes the government should not be in the business of preventing a group of friends from gathering around kitchen tables to play cards. He also added that updating the law would give charities a “much-needed tool for fundraising” during a period when the recession has negatively affected donations.

Last Friday, John Pappas, Executive Director of the Poker Players Alliance, said the PPA lauded McConnell’s bill, noting that South Carolina was one of only a few states that currently did not allow “friendly games of poker” to be played in private homes.

The bill comes less than a month after five South Carolina poker players were found guilty of illegal gambling in a Mt. Pleasant court, despite the fact that the municipal judge in the case agreed with the argument that Texas hold’em is in fact a skill-based game. The defendants in the case had participated in a privately-run hold’em tournament with a $20 buy-in. The ruling in that case will be appealed.

Sen. McConnell will likely face a difficult battle to push his bill forward. Sen. Wes Hayes (R-Rock Hill) referred to the relatively recent struggle over video poker in the state, which underwent an arduous legislative fight before the state finally banned video poker in 2000. “It’s a delicate balance,” said Hayes, noting that he’d rather have outdated laws than open up the possibility of allowing unwanted forms of gambling to return to the state.

Two years ago, a similar bill to allow private poker games was introduced by former House Rep. Wallace Scarborough (R-James Island) in response to the Mt. Pleasant raid, but that bill never made it out of committee. Other attempts to legalize raffles have failed as well, with the only legal raffle currently allowed in South Carolina being the state-run lottery.

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