Top 10 Poker Tips to Make You a Better Player

Want to become a better player, fast? Follow these 10 tips to boost your poker performance & profits. While geared to beginner players, there’s poker tips that even seasoned pros should remind themselves of once in a while.

1. Don’t Play Every Hand / Do Fold More
Probably the number one mistake beginning poker players make is that they play far too many hands. When you’re just starting out playing poker, you want to play poker, and that means staying in hands that aren’t very good just to be part of the action. But playing more doesn’t mean winning more, it usually means losing more. If you find you’re staying in half or more the hands you’re dealt, you need to upgrade your starting hand requirements.

2. Don’t Play Drunk
Countless nights have I sat across a table from someone & watched them get plastered silly and throw away their entire stack of chips. I’ve been that person too - and there are nights where you’re just playing with friends for low stakes and it’s more about the fun than the poker - but if you’re in a casino, watch the alcohol. The truth is, while you may be more relaxed after 2 drinks, it may lead to you playing looser and less sharply, even if one’s not ‘drunk.’

3. Don’t Bluff Just For Bluffing’s Sake
A lot of beginner’s understand that bluffing is a part of poker, but not exactly how. There’s is NO rule that one must bluff a certain amount or at all during a poker game, but many players don’t feel like they’ve won unless they’ve tried a poker bluff. Bluffs only work in certain situations & against certain people, and if you know a player always calls to the showdown, it is literally impossible to bluff that player. It’s better never to bluff than to bluff “just to bluff.”

4. Don’t Stay in a Hand Just Because You’re Already In It
Another common mistake beginners make is to think that “Well, I’ve already put that much in the pot, I have to stay in now.” Nope. You can’t win a pot just by throwing money at it. There may be cases when pot odds warrant a call, but if you’re sure you’re beaten, and there’s no way your hand can improve to be the best hand, you should fold right away. The money you’ve already put in the pot isn’t yours anymore, and you can’t get it back just by playing a hand all the way to the end.

5. Don’t Call at the End of a Hand to “Keep Someone Honest”
This one follows the last tip. I see a lot of players look at another player’s final bet, look at the hand, & say “I know you’ve got me, but I have to keep you honest,” as they throw in a final call. It may be worth it to see if a player really has the hand if you’re not sure & you’re gaining information that will help you later on, but if you really feel a player has the hand he’s representing & you’re beat, why give him another pile of your money? Those bets will add up over an evening.

6. Don’t Play When Mad, Sad, or in a Generally Bad Mood
When you play poker, you shouldn’t do it to escape from being depressed or having a really bad day. You start out on tilt — playing emotionally, not rationally — and you won’t play your best. Likewise, if during a poker game, you lose a big hand or get sucked out on and feel yourself going on tilt, stand up & take a break until you feel calm later on. Fellow players will sense your mood & take advantage of it.

7. Do Pay Attention to the Cards on the Table
When you first start playing, it’s enough just to remember how to play and pay attention to your own hand. But once you’ve got that down, it’s incredibly important to look at what’s going on at the table. In Texas Hold’em, figure out what the best possible hand would be to fit the flop. Make sure you notice flush & straight possibilities. In 7-card stud, pay attention to what’s showing & what people have folded when you consider calling opponents.

8. Do Pay Attention to the Other Players
As you play, one of the single best things you can do is observe your opponents, even when you’re not in a hand. If you know if one player always raises in a certain position, & another has a poker tell when he bluffs, & a 3rd folds to every re-raise, you can use that information to help you decide how to play against them. Once you know that player 3 always folds to a re-raise on a river, that’s when you can bluff & steal a pot.

9. Don’t Play at too High Limits
There are many reasons people move up to a higher limit game than they usually play. Good reasons like they’ve been winning consistently at a lower lever & are ready to move up, & bad reasons like the line is shorter for higher limits or you want to impress someone. Don’t play at stakes that make you think about the actual money in terms of day-to-day life or with money you can’t lose. Even if you had one super-good night at $2/4, resist the urge to play $5/10. The next tip explains more why.

10. Do Pick the Right Game for Your Skill Level & Bankroll
One of the reasons you shouldn’t jump into a $5/10 game after winning a huge bunch of money at $2/4 is because as the stakes rise, so does the average skill level of the players sitting there. You want to be one of the best at the table, not the fish who sits down with sharks. If you’re making stacks of money at a lower level game, why move? You’re winning stacks of money. The swings up & down at higher limits are much bigger, and one big night’s win won’t last long at a high-stakes game.

Texas Holdem - Analyzing the Flop

Most of your important decisions in Texas Holdem poker take place on the flop. That’s why the ability to analyze the flop is essential for your long term results in Texas holdem poker.

You will not get anywhere in Texas holdem if you aren’t able to read the flop properly. Reading the flop means knowing what hands it makes possible, knowing what your own possibilities are as well as your opponents’. You must also understand how the texture of the flop influences the game, that is, how threatening the flop is - to you as well to your opponents.

There are a number of patterns you need to be looking for on each and every flop. They may show up alone or in combinations. Each of those patterns, or structures, gives rise to a certain type of post flop play, all of which you must learn to master.

Let’s walk through those patterns one at a time.

Possible straights

If there are three cards with two gaps or less between them, someone may have a ready-made straight. For example, if the flop comes 9-8-5, T-9-8, or 3-2-A.

Of course, the chance that someone actually has a made straight depends on what precise cards arte required. Q-J-T makes a lot more straights than 7-5-3, since it’s much more likely that someone who has stayed in to see a flop has A-K, K-9 or 9-8 than 6-4 in the hand. Hands like 6-4 are very often thrown away preflop.

This kind of board is pretty infrequent though, and if it’s you who have the straight, you typically won’t get a lot of action from the opponents, since the straight is so obvious and the pot is usually relatively small at this stage.

Possible flush

If all three cards are of the same suit, someone might have a made flush. Just like with the straights above, this doesn’t happen often, and if you have a flush here you often won’t get paid a lot, unless an opponent has another flush that is lower than yours. Which is really rare.

When you flop a made straight of flush, you may be tempted to slow play it in order to entice a bet from another player rather than scaring everyone off. That might be okay, but don’t overdo it. Your hand is never the absolute nuts, there are always cards that may come on the board that will look really bad for your hand.

For example, if the board pairs, your flush may not be good anymore, or if you have a straight and the board flushes.

Pairs on board

With a pair on the board, a lot of dangerous hands become possible: quads and full houses as well as trips and two pair. Once the board is paired, the value of straights and flushes go down, the value of straight draws and flush draws too.

If you get a lot of action on a paired board, you must be able to lay down for example a flush. At the same time, a paired board is a good bluff opportunity, both for you and your opponent. So don’t fold your flush automatically. Think it through!

Also remember that when a pair is on the board, hands like three of a kind and two pair are much weaker than if the board is un-paired. You may be up against one of those super strong hands just mentioned, or else someone may simply have the same trips with a better kicker.

Straight draws

If two board cards are within two gaps or closer, someone may have flopped a straight draw. This means that if you have a made hand, like two pair or trips, you’ll need to protect your hand. Meaning, you have to bet properly to put any drawing hands to the test.

This doesn’t mean that you should bet twice the pot or even move all in, that may be a bit over-protective. Just make a well sized bet so you don’t give away free cards to the drawing hands. Then, if a card arrives that could have filled someone’s straight, then you need to decide if it’s actually the case or not. It’s not easy to separate made hands from bluffs - but that’s poker.

Flush draws

Flush draws are possible as soon as there are two cards of the same suit at the board. Just as with straight draws, a made hand needs protection through a decent bet.

If you flopped a flush draw yourself, you should be aware that there are usually nine cards in the deck that will make it for you, which means you have odds 4-1 on the next street and 2-1 if you get to see two more cards.

Also realize that if you make a flush on a later street, you’ll often not get paid very much since the flush is pretty obvious. People notice when there are three hearts on the board, and they typically won’t give you much action. Unless they happen to have a strong hand, like a lower flush.

Straights are often much harder to see. Imagine a flop of A-8-4. You bet out with A-K and get one caller. The turn comes a 6. The pot is getting bigger, and you want it. You bet and the opponent re-raises. Would you really put him on 7-5? It’s pretty hard to believe. Also, players often may not even notice that a straight has become possible.

If a player draws to a straight and a flush simultaneously, there may be as much as 15 cards that fill at least one of those hands.

Of course, both potential straights and potential flushes give players opportunities to bluff. If you consider drawing to a flush, check if a straight draw is also possible, in which case you have a second way out if you don’t make your flush: representing the straight.

High cards or low cards

If the pot comes with one, two or three high cards, chances are that someone has made a connection to his or her hand. At the flop, high cards are much more likely than low cards in players’ hands, since people tend to fold hands with low cards preflop.

This kind of flop leads to a lot of action, and you have to be well aware of your chances as well as the dangers involved. Fasten your seat belt!

High cards also present you with some bluff potential, since they look scary to the other guy. Of course, this is a sword that cuts both ways.

On the other hand, if the flop holds low cards only, it’s very possible that it missed all players. If you raised preflop with a high pair, you’re probably still good after a low flop, even if it actually missed you as well. You can play your overpair strongly here.

On the other hand, the fact that it’s hard to lay down premium starting hands against low boards has given rise to a whole new strategy concept - set mining. This consists of taking flops with low pairs and hoping to hit a set. Then the idea is that your opponent who’s playing a strong starting hand will pay you off big time even though he missed the flop, since he can’t get away from his premium hand and the low board looks innocuous.

For set mining to show long time profitability, a few requirements must be in place. The opponent must have a strong hand. For example, a raise in early position from a tight opponent is a good signal of strength. Also, both you and the opponent must have big stacks, so you can win really big when you hit your set - to compensate for all the times when you miss (7 out of 8 times).

Combining the board and your hand

As a last step in the Texas holdem flop analysis, you should compare the board to your own hand. This can led you to some pretty strong conclusions.

For example, if the flop comes Q-J-6 and you have a pair of tens, the risk for straight draws is much decreased, since you hold half the tens need to form a straight. You have straight blockers.

Or if a player raises preflop, you have an ace in your hand and the flop comes A-A-5, it’s suddenly quite unlikely that the opponent has an ace - there’s only one ace left unseen.

Once you have learned to read the board, this kind of combined analysis is the next step  to perfection in texas holdem.

Bodog’s Won Their Domain Bodog.com Back

Bodog.com has been down in more than one and a half year because of a prolonged court process. But as of yesterday it’s linking to the Bodoglife.com domain.

It was in 2007 that the gaming company Bodog lost control over its main domain. Bodog was sued by 1st Technology for stealing a patent. This matter has now been settled in court by Bodog’s current owner Morris Mohawk Gaming Group costing the company $48 million.

The prolonged court process has hurt Bodog badly. After loosing the main domain name Bodog went from one of the 10 ten largest poker rooms in the world to number 15. But now the main domain is once again pointing toward BodogLife. The question is, does Bodog has what it takes to rise once again?

Poker EPT Grand Finals Begin in Monte Carlo

The EPT Grand Final is about to begin in Monte Carlo. Poker pros from all over the world gather in the tiny Mediterranean kingdom to battle it out - while enjoying life big time.

Poker has been called “a hard way to make an easy living”, and anyone who’s tried it knows that there’s some truth to this. At times, though, life in the fast lane of professional poker is just really easy.
Life is easy as hell

David Williams arrived in the Nice airport and took a helicopter to Monaco and his room at five star hotel “Le Meridien” - despite being afraid of heights.

Evelyn Ng lost a chocolate croissant to a huge seagull that flew in through the window and snatched it from her room at the Monte Carlo Bay - also five stars.

Now the Mediterranean sun has come out behind light morning clouds. Some players hit the pool while others sit down to play tournament poker. Day 1A of the EPT Grand Final is about to start.
Role model for Las Vegas

For centuries, this classic place has been providing ultra-easy life for people in the very fastest lanes of life. Luxurious hotels, fine dining, wonderful beaches and of course, ultra high stakes gambling of all kinds - Monaco truly is the elegant older brother of Las Vegas.

Usually there’s not much poker to be found in the Monegasque casinos, but when the professional poker circuit hits town, this detail is taken care of.

The buy-in to the EPT Grand Final is €10,000 (around $14,000). Besides that, the side action will go wild, and the town will get to see some ultra high stakes cash games in luxury suites of various five star hotels.
Ultra high stakes action

Expect to see sit-and-gos with buy-ins at $10,000 and China poker at $1,000 per point. That’s standard. Also, rumor has it a guy called Cheescake is setting up a game of high stakes HORSE. We’ll tell you more when we catch any news.

It’s in the small and de facto-French town of Monte Carlo that Season 5 of the European Poker Tour will end in a big bang grand final in the days to come. It’s about to start right now. The roof just opened to allow sunlight and fresh air into the fancy parlor. What a show!

The last days of competition will be sent live over the internet on Poker Stars TV. That’s poker television at its very best.

What is Rakeback?

Rake is how poker rooms make money.

To understand what is rakeback, you must first learn how poker rooms make profit by charging rake from all real money players. Rake is the only way for poker rooms to make money, since unlike with other casino games, in poker the players are wagering money against other players and not against the house. Think of rake as a small entry fee taken by the poker room for organizing the games.

Poker players do not directly lose any money to the poker room, but the room is steadily raking in micro payments from every cash game pot and tournament entry. The proportion of rake taken online is roughly the same 5% of pot size as in brick and mortar casinos, and depending from stakes it can be anywhere from one cent to five dollars.
Rakeback is a refund of rake

Rakeback is a way for you to save on poker rake costs. By creating your new online poker room accounts through Rakeback.com you will save on average 30% of any rake you pay. Once your poker account is registered in Rakeback.com system, we can keep track of all rake you pay to the poker room. And based on revenue share agreement made between the poker room and Rakeback.com, we are able to credit your poker account with rakeback payments of your rake. Rakeback is typically paid once per calendar month, directly back to your poker account.

Please try the Rakeback Calculator tool to see an estimate of how much rake you are currently paying, and how big your savings could be if you were using rakeback.
How your rake is calculated

Some online poker rooms display the total amount of rake taken from a pot, but none show what your individual rake contribution has been. For accounting purposes however your personal rake is recorded in the poker room backend, and rakeback is based on these rake reports. There are two main ways that poker rooms use to calculate your individual rake contribution: shared and contributed.

In the shared method, rake is divided evenly among all players that were dealt cards. For example if there are ten players sitting at the table and total rake is $1, each player would be assigned 10 cents of rake.

In the contributed method, players must contribute money to the pot to get assigned rake. The rake a player gets credited with is proportionate to the amount of his/her pot contribution. If you were to contribute $50 to a pot of $150 and the total rake taken was $3, you would be assigned $1 rake.

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Poker Professional Annie Duke

In a game that has historically been dominated by males, Annie Duke is making some serious waves. Beyond kicking the stereotype, Annie Duke has gone one better by not only beating the top women players, but taking out the men as well. She is currently the top female poker player in the world, and also has a WSOP bracelet to show for her success.

Annie Duke was born into a very competitive family, and family card nights were the norm during her childhood. Between herself and Poker star brother Howard Lederer, those must have been some pretty intense games! As a child, Annie excelled in school and went on to pursue studies in English and Psychology at Columbia University. As a student, Annie frequently visited her brother’s poker games, but oddly never joined in. Instead she continued her studies in cognitive psychology at graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania, where she won an esteemed National Science Foundation Fellowship.

In the early 90s, Howard Lederer brought Annie to Las Vegas during a weekend off of Grad School. It was the WSOP week, and Howard taught Annie the basics of Texas Hold’em. A couple of trips to Las Vegas was all it would take for the competitive Duke to get hooked on the game, and in 1992 she left her studies to take up the game.

This was a very bold move indeed for a young woman who had just competed 5 years of Graduate School! Her poker career began in Billings, Montana, where she played the local tournaments. Big brother Howard taught her a few things, and after some small successes in Montana, he convinced her to enter her first WSOP tournament. She placed in 3 tournaments in her first year, and cashed out over $70,000 in winnings, and secured her future as a professional poker player.

Annie’s commitment to poker has paid big dividends for her; she has won major tournaments and even took the title (and $2 million pot) away from the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions, knocking out 8 of the top players in the world along the way. She also does instructional seminars, and is even personal tutor to movie star Ben Affleck.

Perhaps the only thing that exceeds Annie’s commitment to Poker is her commitment to her family; she’s a mother to four children, and they will always take priority over Poker according to Annie.

When she does finally retire from the game, it’s safe to say she’ll be remembered as one of the all time greats, not one of the all time great women. Annie has proven herself against the top players in the game, irrespective of gender.

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