Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

When i was new to the poker world, i was shakily playing at a local casino.  One of my very first live games outside of my house, and i was definitely not the confident player i am now.  I sat in as the big blind, but before i realized I it mucked my cards.  The dealer was very nice as she said “sir, you’re the big blind and all you have to do is check, i don’t know why your cards are so far away from you?”  I promptly took the opportunity, said check and saw the flop. 

My cards were 9 2 off suit, and low and behold, the flop came 2 2 7.  I was pretty happy with this turn of events, and even now would be happy with that kind of flop to be played aggressively to the river.

I’ll come back to the story in a few minutes.  Put simply, sets are much stronger than trips.  What’s the difference??  In my story, i flopped trips.  2 matching cards on the flop helped me out. (holding 9 2 and the flop comes 2 2 7).  Love it. 
A set is when you’re holding a pocket pair and make your set with only one card on the flop. (you’re holding 22 and the flop comes 7 2 8).  A set is much more powerful and deceptive.  When 2 cards match on the flop (like the above example) everyone is worried that someone is sitting there with one of the remainingdeuces , and so they play much more carefully.  With a set, the strength of your hand is invisible to opponents.  If you’re holding 44 and the flop is A 10 4, someone with A 10 is likely to lose a lot of money because they’ll truly believe that they have the best hand (unless they have a sick read on you).  If you flop trips, you also have a 37% chance of improving to a full house by the river.  If thathappens, and your opponent improved to trips, he’s almost certain to go broke, or at least double you up!

Back to my story…although I’m sure you’ve already guessed what happened to me…i bet out, got called (it was a limit game) turn came a 10, and the river an Ace.  I’m betting the whole way through, and another guy is raising me every street.  We went through 2 streets capped.  At showdown, i turn over my boat, confident thatI’m only up against 2 pair (i figured he had a strong ace and was really happy when the river came down…).  I was wrong.  He had pocket 10′s, and he was quite happy when the turn hit.  I lost a lot of money in that hand, but it made me a better poker player.

Realistically i could have probably gotten that dealer in a lot of trouble as well, but i figured she was doing me a favour, and shouldn’t be punished for my donk move!

maybe he hit a Set!

Tournaments are how i spend most of my online poker time.  I love the action, i love placing just the right bet to get people to fold, and i love the (usually) short time it takes to make a quick buck.  What i don’t love?  Getting short stacked, and realizing it too late!  Don’t know what i mean?  Let me explain. 

I multi-table a lot, and there are times that i don’t realize how big the blinds are getting with relation to my stack.  Typically i sit waiting for a hand before i make a move, but at the same time am very mindful that you can’t wait too long!  I realized too late that pushing all in on a hand only meant another 400 to the player calling.  He would have been stupid not to call me, as there was already 800 in the pot, and for another 400 he couldn’t afford to fold the hand!  Any 2 cards were good enough to call on the in case that he hits and i miss the flop completely. Now, this was me just having too many tables open, (and watching transformers…Megan Fox is distracting!), but i think it’s worthwhile to point out that it’s possible to wait your way out of winning a tournament. 

You always want to leave yourself 2 ways to win the hand.  The first?  Getting the other player to fold.  When that ace hits on the flop, and you’re all in puts more than 3/4 of his stack at risk, he’s only calling if he doesn’t have kicker problems (or he’s got a great chance at beating you).  The second?  Winning the hand at showdown.  If you limit yourself to only 1 way of winning the hand, you’ll be all-in preying to win a race.  Not a great way to play poker. 

Once you’re down to 10 big blinds your strategy gets pretty simple.  Push or Fold.  It’s better to win a small amount every hand you’re in, than to let someone call you and not have enough chips after the flop to push them off a marginal draw.
 

Distracting eh?

Here at bankrollboost.com we do try to give you tips to…well..boost your bankroll.  And one mistake I see made almost constantly online, is slow playing a “Big” hand.  We’ve all been there.  You’re looking at A/K suited, and you’re thinking to yourself “yeah, flush, straight..this hand is mine.”  Or even, KK, AA, or any of the major pocket pairs.  Typically, it is a technique to disguise hands, and draw in chips.  But in today’s online world, it has turned into a very risky strategy.

Recently, i had pocket aces, middle position, and i limped in.  In a live game, there would be very little wrong with this move.  This is because i know the people i’m playing with and i’m expecting the person on the button to give me a position raise, so i can re-raise and thin the field.  Online, you could be faced with a situation where you and 5 other players (6 total) are seeing the flop.  Big hands are great against 1 or 2 opponents, but ultimately, with a lot of people seeing the flop, they can get beat by very marginal hands.

In my situation, the flop came down 5- 6 – J OS.  I’m still rocking anyone with top pair, or anyone playing with any kind of strategy.  But, because i didn’t raise it, the blind may have had J/6, and just spiked 2 pair on the flop.  All of a sudden, i’m betting aggressively, and getting called, and he’s wondering if i have pocket fives.

Ultimately, the board paired, and my aces stood up against his weaker 2 pair (although, i was worried that he had boated on the turn…).

Came accross this poker video on metacafe about Poker Tells, and its not that bad (if you can get passed the guy’s annoying voice).  It is called the 10 Best Poker Tells.  Most of these tells apply better to live poker, but still worth taking a look.

Here’s the video:

As someone that loves playing the donk fests known as “super-turbos” or “hyper-turbos” on most poker sites (including Pokerstars, Full Tilt Poker, Titan Poker and many others), I thought I would do my best to write my strategy on how to take these things down.

The most important thing to know with these tournaments is that you need to gamble a bit.  At some point you are most likely going to have to put all your chips in with the worst hand.  The key to this is timing.  Here is what I like to do:

1) Get ahead early.  If your table seems rather tight and there aren’t immediately all-ins with crappy hands, try and get ahead early.  Steal pots with any semi-decent hands (two face cards) to try and build a slight edge.  This way if you do go all in later and you are behind and end up losing the hand you will still have some chips to try to stay alive with.

2) Run the clock.  Most people like to play these tournaments by waiting for ultra-premium hands like AA, KK, QQ or AK, AQ, etc.  If you can do anything to make the blinds go up quicker (giving them less time to wait for these hands) it will force them to get nervous and shove or call of their stack with mediocre hands.  Also, it’ll probably tilt them a little as most people playing these tournaments are trying to make a quick buck and have very little patience.

3) Gamble in late position.  If you are on the button and its folded around to you, if the two other stacks are shorter than you and you have a semi decent hand (AX, KX suited, two face cards), shove all-in and force the decision to them.  They will be risking their entire stack which should hopefully reduce their calling range.  Sure, every once in a while you will run into a monster, but this will probably be a rare scenario and you will benefit much more from picking up the blinds.

4) Sit back with your big stack and watch the others bust out.  By now hopefully you will have built up a decent size stack and the blinds should be creeping up on your opponents.  Sit back now and wait for premium hands before putting people all-in.

5) Don’t mess with the big stacks.  Try to avoid stealing pots from players that can bust you.  Prey on the short stacks and only risk your stack on the bigger ones with ultra-premium hands.

6) Bully.  Once your stack is at least 3 times bigger than your opponent, don’t be afraid to put them all-in with any 2.  Even if they win they will be even you and the goal of these games is to bust your opponents, even if its not with the best hand.

7) Enjoy your money!  Now that you’ve hopefully won the tourney, sit back, have a drink and enjoy your money.  Buy something nice for yourself!

Best Sites To Play Super Turbos

The best sites for super-turbo or hyper-turbo poker games in my opinion are:

1) Full Tilt Poker – Full Tilt runs the most super-turbos of any other poker site and games fill up quickly.
2) Titan Poker – Second highest traffic site for super-turbos and there are even more fish.

Welcome to 2009!  Its a new year, and if 2008 was a bad year for your poker game, its time to turn that all around.  2009 means a fresh start, and a 2nd chance for you to correct all the things that you were doing wrong to become a winning poker player.  Here are 5 poker tips to help you have more wins in 2009…

Top 5 Poker Tips

1) Stop Bluffing – If bluffing is a big part of your game right now, then STOP IT!  Many players tend to lose a lot of money when they attempt to bluff their way at a massive pot.  Stop it!  Sure, this may work sometimes, but bluffing is a skill that takes a ton of practice and requires for you to master the other parts of the game first.  For now, try and stop it completely, or at least do your best to cut back the amount of bluffing that you are doing right now significantly!

2) Patience – Do you feel like the stakes you are playing aren’t enough, or you often find yourself trying to force the action in hands?  Well, it sounds to me like you have no patience.  To do well in poker you need to be able to wait for the perfect situations to win massive pots, not try and force them to happen by gambling with your opponents.  If you find you are playing way to many hands and acting completely out of control, maybe you should try occupying your mind with something else while you are playing.  Invite an escort over, read a book, write a book… it really doesn’t matter.  Just try to do something to keep your mind active so you don’t get bored and make stupid plays!

3) Bankroll Management -You’ve probably heard this time and time again, but it IS IMPORTANT.  Play in games that you can afford and aren’t going to cause you to go broke instantly.  The players that do the best online are often grinding away at somewhat lower stakes but over time building up a bankroll that can get in the millions of dollars!

4) Table/Game Selection – You shouldn’t just be sitting down at a table because there is an empty seat.  Study your opponents, find ones with lots of money and if they are playing irradically, then all the better.  Instead of going too much into this one, here is an awsome site to help you find a good table to play at online: http://www.pokertableratings.com/

5) Seek Help – Books are a thing of the past.  Nowadays there is a new way to improve your poker game called poker training sites.  These sites are run by poker players that are WINNING LOTS OF MONEY!  On these sites they share all their secrets to how they make a lot of money playing poker.  These sites are usually only like $30/month (some even less) which is nothing considering what you can potentially make with this wealth of information.  They give you a ton of great tips and REALLY WANT you to take your game to the next level.  You can watch the instructors in real game action talking you through what is going through their mind at that given time.  Even for seasoned players, this should be a no brainer.

Follow these relatively simple tips and you should be winning more in no time for 2009!  If you have never played poker online before, be sure to check out our top 10 online poker sites list.