advanced poker play

Introduction

Any truly competitive poker player must surely want to play in poker tournaments. Whether they consider themselves still to be somewhat of a rookie or an advanced poker player, there’s always a casino or online poker tournament starting up somewhere or other, which will suit both their level of experience and pocket. Accordingly the prize money on offer in tournaments can also vary widely and whilst paying an entry fee of a few dollars and only the final table being in the payout seats might not be over upsetting, pay an entry fee in the thousands of dollars and you might well expect to have a better chance of at least recouping some of your money.

Casino tournaments and the affect of entry fees on the play

For a casino poker tournament the higher the entry fee the tighter everyone will play. After all you’ve just paid a stack of money just to sit down at the poker table, so you don’t want to be walking away early and absolutely no one wants to be the first to leave. Even becoming the short-stack has been known to send some players into melt-down, unable to make any sensible decisions. With so many sessions to follow expect raises and re-raises to be treated with extreme respect. Of course, knowing that if you are confident of your own poker abilities or are naturally and automatically a loose player – then you really could clean-up with so many tight players around the table.

Online tournaments and the affect of entry fees on the play

For some, rather unfathomable, reason online poker tournaments do not attract the same level of tight play – even if the entry fee is a large one. Quite possibly a reason for this is that there are simply so many online poker tournaments and, being online, somewhere in the world  there’ll always be another one to play in tomorrow. Whereas for a casino tournament you’d have purposely made your way to it, be it at your local casino, one in Las Vegas or abroad etc. The net result of this is that online poker tournaments see quite aggressive play, even in the early stages – perhaps time to tighten up a bit yourself?

Introduction

Whilst playing online poker is great fun, most of the time most online poker players will stick to Texas Hold ‘em, so if you should fancy a change to Seven Card Stud poker, just what exactly should you do for good Seven Card Stud strategies?

Seven card stud play

Probably the biggest difference between Hold em and Seven Card Stud poker game is that you get three cards dealt to you, two face down and one face up. The player with the best card face up bets first and after each betting round another card is dealt. These extra cards are dealt face up as fourth street, fifth, sixth and seventh; but there is a twist on seventh street in that card being dealt face down. So, there’s no flop placing community three cards face up that anyone can use. The first three cards, and especially the two that your opponents can’t see, are the most important cards in your poker hand as the winner is whoever makes the best five card hand (highest or a high-low split) from the seven they’ve been personally dealt; meaning that secrecy at the beginning is vital to your hand not being pre-guessed easily by an opponent.

Strategies for playing Seven Card Stud

A weak hand from the first three cards usually stays weak; whereas a strong hidden pair with a strong card showing at the start will invariably end well too. If nothing’s happening after fourth street – prepare to fold. You need at least a high pair, four card flush or three card straight to stand any sort of a chance. Fifth street definitely needs a four card straight or flush, or at least a pair of Queens. If you make it to sixth street you’ll probably be in good enough shape to stay in all the way to seventh street. But, obviously if an opponent has a really strong hand showing then it’s time to fold. Also, if the odds of filling your hand are below what’s in the pot – then again it’s time to fold.

Introduction

Everybody wants to win at poker and everybody wants to win as easily and consistently as possible, so is there a strategy or system that can help a poker player to regularly win their poker games? The fact of the matter is that whether you’re playing online poker or playing poker in a casino, the very best system or strategy is that which you learn by experience in playing poker. In other words, reading articles like this that contain hints and tips is fine and can help you; but ultimately you need to discover your own strategies and systems according to your preferred style of poker play.

Poker strategies

Adopting strategies for playing poker will include things like playing tight or loose, looking for poker tells, bluffing etc. If you’re a relative novice at poker you’re probably playing most, in not all, of your poker online; you will find that you’ll need to adjust your strategies when you make the move to playing in ‘bricks and mortar’ poker room or casino. The mere physical presence of other players around a poker table will unsettle you initially and so you’ll need some extra strategies to combat any potential feelings of discomfort, if you don’t want to start losing heavily.

Poker systems

One thing you can guarantee about poker is that you’ll never be short of advice as to how to play and how this or that poker system could work for you. However, I think you’d do a lot worse than to consider the advice on poker systems given by that doyen of poker writers – David Sklansky. Without wishing to do him a disservice his poker system is simply to keep looking for opportunities to move in before the flop. If you’ve got aces, or ace-king or even just ace-king suited – and someone has raised before you, move all in; if not then fold. Or, if you’ve got aces, any ace-king, a pair or even any same suit connected cards (but not a four or two with a three) – then again move all in.

Introduction

With the Christmas vacation getting ever closer now, you’ll no doubt be hoping to spend some of that time relaxing with some online poker games. Of course the more online poker games you play the more experience you will pick up. However, you don’t want to get in to games with players who are simply way above you in terms of experience too quickly,  So, it seems quite timely to remind you about things to watch out for telling the less experienced from the more experienced online poker players.

Flair or bravery in the opposition?

The most difficult thing in picking up tells in an online game> is – has the opposition simply got a flair for playing poker or are they just a brave player? If someone has a flair for poker then, whether by experience or innate ability, they will quickly show themselves to be anything but an inexperienced player by always seeming to make the right calls. Merely being a brave poker player will not give them the consistency in making those correct calls, so the ‘merely’ brave player is invariably just a lucky one when they win. Of course an experienced player can also be a brave, but the one factor that will always let you differentiate between experienced and inexperienced brave poker players is that – the experienced one will always know the pot odds, and will go against them only very sparingly.

Spotting the inexperienced players

Inexperienced poker players will often get a little carried away and try to bet out of position, they’ll also choose to only raise on the river bet but not raise any where near as much as they should from the button. Not showing an awareness of the pot odds, as mentioned above, can indicate an inexperienced player, but it can also be a confusing tell to watch for. Playing internet poker I cannot understand why rookie players don’t use their pot odds calculators to keep them informed – but many don’t! However, showing a lack of pot odds awareness in itself could be just a bluff – so look for the other inexperienced player signs as well.

Introduction

Looking at the games being played at some poker tables you could be forgiven for wondering whether or not some players actually want to win the pot or just try and outsmart the other players. Let’s face it there are times when you see players not following the fundamental theorem of poker and playing their cards differently to the way they should do if they knew an opponents poker cards, just to try and get back at them for a previous defeat. So, how can you avoid poker traps?

Odds rule – OK!

Surely the golden rule to never forget is that – pot odds, above all, reign supreme. The pot odds are, of course, the ratio of the pot size to the bet needed to stay in with a chance of winning the pot. So, betting $10 to win $40 gives you a one in five chance of taking the pot, where one if five is the maximum risk you should go up to. However, don’t forget, of course, that pot odds can be complicated early on in a hand according to the implied odds you might expect to win at the end of a hand. Just remember, don’t get carried away in a poker hand where the pot odds are bad for you.

Play to your strengths

Another sure-fire way to drop yourself in it playing poker is to play in a style that’s not really you, and we’re not talking about playing against your better judgments regarding the fundamental theorem of poker here either! As an experienced player you’ll know if you’re normally a tight or lose player, whichever you are you need to be on your guard against outwardly aggressive poker players. It really is all too easy to get dragged along playing aggressively and out of style; and before you know it your chip stack’s gone. That’s not to say never play a bluff or vary your play; just play your own game, if things are to fast or hot and you’re taking painful hits – find another poker table to play at. Don’t forget as well, you’ve more control over your own destiny when in a position well away from the blinds.

Introduction

Everyone loves a tweet – and poker players are no different to anyone else. So it should come as little surprise that there are now several great poker tweets available for you to both enjoy and keep abreast of all the latest poker news. With a maximum of 140 characters per message twitter is fast and simple to use for both the sender and the receiver whether conveying information about a poker celebrity, tournaments, gossip or even online poker games.

Big Poker Twitters

Currently top of the poker twitters is Joe Sebok, @JoeSebok, not one of the greatest poker professionals you’re likely to have heard of with his best claim to fame so far being making the 2006 WSOP finals table, but, perhaps because he’s one of the younger generation of poker players being just 32 years old, his tweets always seem to hit the spot when it comes to being first with the best poker news and plays. Joe currently has some 950,000 followers.  Perhaps less surprising is that one of the doyen’s of the poker game, Doyle Brunson, has around 100,000 followers of his tweets as @TexDolly.  Tex is probably better known for his amusing asides about the poker game – not to mention his inevitable ‘blondes’ jokes.

Other poker tweets to watch out for

Poker players seem to have been a bit slow to catch on to the power of tweeting for promoting themselves and the internet poker games they endorse. However, other poker tweets to watch out for include: @basebaldy from Eric Baldwin. A WSOP bracelet winner his tweets tend to concentrate on his own play, but do also include comments on funnier moments he encounters during his play. However, if you want a poker tweet with real authority try @Erik_Seidel.  Eight times WSOP bracelet winner Erik has over 4000 followers of his dry poker humor. If you fancy some female poker twittering then there’s always @Maridu from Maria Mayrink whose tweets include the almost philosophical “i long for a world where chickens can cross roads without being questioned about their motives …”.

Introduction

Some folk mistakenly think that using poker bots will reveal to you the inside workings of a poker website and how to ‘beat the system’. If you’re one of those people then unfortunately you’ve been mislead by whoever told you so or may have miss-read some other article on the topic. A poker bot is no different to any other internet bot, web robot, in that it is a piece of software automatically performing a repetitive task faster than a human could do – in this case that of a poker calculator capable of folding, betting or calling according to pre-determined scenarios.

Poker bots are banned

Now that might well sound excellent news as a way to win big in internet poker games – having a poker bot doing all your playing for you, guaranteed not to make an error due to miscalculating the odds etc. However, before you look for poker bots for sale on the internet – be aware that poker bots are simply banned from any of the poker gaming websites you’re likely to visit. Whilst most of the online poker games will have in-built calculators to help you, known as house-bots, if they detect a poker bot working against them – they’ll shut it out of the game. I think you’d have to agree that, for once, the poker website operators are quite right to shut out these poker bots, which are really just a form of cheating at poker. After all they could be playing 24/7 on multiple sites forging an enormous advantage over all the millions of legitimate online poker players.

Poker house-bots on the level?

Ah Ha! I can already hear the grumblings – but how do you know that the house-bot isn’t ‘loaded’ against you and on the level? Well without the poker websites inviting everyone and anyone to inspect its coding there will always be those who doubt the honesty of the poker websites, or at least doubt it when they aren’t winning! That’s the essential point to always remember regarding house-bots; you have to take the poker website on face value as being an honest one – exactly the same as walking into a ‘bricks and mortar’ poker room. If you think it’s not on the level – simply go elsewhere to play your poker.

Introduction

The more you play online poker the more you’ll find that your online poker betting strategies will be pretty well the same as if you were in a bricks and mortar casino. In a casino that you’re visiting, be it in your hometown or on vacation, you’ll all the time be sizing up your opponents, as you know that the sooner you’ve figured them out – the quicker you’ll be able to start taking their money. Having got the measure of your opponents you’re then in the position of being able to make informed decisions as to the plays they’re likely to make and, for example, whether or not you really should make a raise after the flop in a game of Texas Hold ‘em.

Watch and learn at online tables

The process of watching and learning at online poker tables works just as well and can pay dividends for you. Whilst we all like to think our style of play is absolutely unique, in fact to some extent or other we all conform to certain types of play. This means that even when playing poker online you’ll quickly be able to build up profiles of the different player types. If you truly study these players you will, over time, be able to determine and spot their style of play early on in the game, and use that knowledge against them to make sure you win the hand – or at least don’t lose a lot of money unnecessarily.

Keep watching and learning even when you’re out of a hand

 Don’t forget that the observing and learning doesn’t stop if you’re out of a hand in an online game. If you go out of a hand early on it can be very tempting to take a comfort break or get another drink etc. However, whilst you’re away from the online poker table – the game continues and the other players will be giving away all sort of information about their poker strategies. So, whilst play continues – keep studying them and you’ll have even more ammunition to turn back on them later on in the game.