02.18.07
Posted in Poker History at 3:58 am by Valentino Viccetzar
Some sources have suggested that India may have been the origin of playing cards. There is a striking resemblance between the symbols on some early European decks and the dated Indian decks, which featured a ring, sword, cup, and baton, depicted in the four hands of Indian statues. That said, it seems far more plausible at present that playing cards were born in China, sometime after the invention of paper. Ancient Chinese money cards had four suits: coins, strings of coins, myriads of strings, and tens of myriads. There were represented by ideograms with the numerals of two to nine in the first three suits and one to nine in the tens of myriads. It’s possible that the first form of playing cards were actually paper currency; that is, they had a dual purpose as both the tools for gaming and the actual stakes for which the game was being played. Some evidence suggests that the first deck of cards was printed as a domino deck.
When and where playing cards were introduced into Europe are also a matter of dispute. It appears that the 38th cannon of the council of Worcester in 1240 recognized the presence of cards in England during the middle of the 13th century. A game known as de rege et regina is mentioned in the cannon, and for some time, this game was thought to involve playing cards. While it seems now that rege et regina was a game more closely related to chess, there is also a mountain of other circumstantial evidence that cards were not well known in Europe as late as 1278. Petrach never mentions cards in his work, De remedies utriusque fortunae, which deals with gaming. Likewise, Boccaccio, Chaucer, and a host of other writers never mention cards.
The likely path of playing cards, from China (or possibly India) to Europe began with a move from the Mamelukes of Egypt in the late 1300s. The Mameluke deck contained fifty-two cards and closely resembled the modern decks. There were also four suits known as polo sticks, coins, swords, and cups. Each suit contained ten cards with a number and three court cards: the king, the viceroy, and the second or underdeputy.
There is some evidence to suggest that this deck may have evolved from an earlier 48-card deck that had only two court cards per suit, and some further evidence to suggest that earlier Chinese cards brought to Europe may have traveled via Persia. From there, they had a profound influence on the Mameluke and other Egyptian cards of the time.
In the late 1300s, the use of playing cards spread rapidly across Europe.
The first recognized reference to cards is confined to Spain in 1377, in Switzerland in 1377. In 1380, they are referred to in many locations including Florence, Paris, and Barcelona.
One early mention of a series of playing cards appears in an account by the treasurer of the household of Charles VI of France. The entry dates to 1392 or 1393, which records payment for the painting of three sets or packs of cards.
The earliest cards were made by hand, making them quite expensive. The printing of woodcuts on paper may have developed because of the demand for cards. The technique of printing woodcuts was transferred from being used to decorate fabric to use on paper around 1400, very shortly after the first recorded manufacture of paper in Christian Europe. No examples from before 1423 survive.
Most early woodcuts of all types were colored after printing, either by hand or, from about 1450 onwards, using stencils. The manufacture of playing cards en masse was undertaken in Germany to coincide with the development of the printing press. As cards became increasingly popular throughout Europe, each country tended to develop their own designs or variety of designs, eventually leading to the modern 52-card deck we play with today.
Tags: poker cards, Poker Game, Poker History
Permalink
02.17.07
Posted in Poker Strategy at 6:30 pm by Valentino Viccetzar
You have control over at least two factors that help determine a win in poker: your psychology and your opponent’s psychology. Ok, you don’t have control over your opponent’s psychology, exactly. It’s artistic license to phrase it that way; it sounds better. However, you do have some power when it comes to your opponent’s psychology and you need to be aware of it if you’re going to in any serious number of games.
Welcome to the world of power tells!
A tell is a habit, behavior, or reaction, somehow physically manifested, that reveals some information about the player’s hand. Rather, it reveals information about the player’s response to their hand – whether it’s good or bad. Tells can be used most effectively to figure out if your opponent is bluffing or not; whether they have a strong or a weak hand; whether they are trying to give you false tells!
The tells most often featured in top ten lists are, not surprisingly, the most common tells you encounter at the poker table (in real life).
The Eyes: A window into the sole, the eyes of a player are goldmines of information so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that many professional poker players have taken to wearing sunglasses when they play.
There are the most common tells for the eyes and what they suggest about the player’s hand:
- Long looks at cards: many players can’t help but stare at big hole cards.
- When a player looks to the left, this suggests they are looking to steal the pot. The look suggests they want to see what the remaining players are going to do.
Facial Expressions: Facial expressions are another window, not always as clear as the eyes, but certainly quite revealing. Many professional poker players have gone to great lengths to hide their face as well.
- Look for signs of discomfort, unhappiness, or nervousness as these are classic signs of a weak hand.
- Watch out for repetitive characteristics too (twitches and such) as these are a strong indication of the same.
The Act: A lot of poker players, particularly inexperienced ones, try to act a particular way, thinking that it will deceive their opponents. Well, it doesn’t. At least, it shouldn’t. In it’s most simplistic form, the act in a poker game is an effort to communicate the opposite message. A player trying to act as if they have a good hand – raising their voice, trying to look intimidating – is probably bluffing. One who is trying to look intimidated – twitching deliberately, for example – is working to suggest that their hand is weaker than it is.Watch for classic signs of anxiety. Use your own judgment to detect anxiety as much as the advice here, but remember that anxiety is often revealed by the flexing of muscles, palpitating heart rate, dry throat, eye and pupil dilations. Look out for what psychologists call the fight or flight stimulus response. In poker, someone with a big hand can exhibit these characteristics, so too when someone is bluffing.
When someone has a big hand, their voice may become slightly higher. They may try to make comments to off-set the other players.
Something you may decide to try: some of the most experienced players will look at the vein on the top-side of their opponent’s face to check for changes in blood pressure. Trembling hands can be another sign of a big hand.
Glancing at chips and hole cards: Many player look quickly at the chips and it can be a sign that they are planning to attack; peeking at the chips is generally a subconscious reaction. Some players have the similar habit of looking at their hole cards. Generally this is a sign that they are bluffing but again, you should use your instincts and experience to make a determination.
Repetitive betting patterns: These are common in novice players but they may work their way into advanced games too. Experienced players are not infallible and they may overlook their own habits. If you pick up on a repetitive pattern, respond to it as you feel appropriate. If your opponent always checks when he has a strong hand or folds after being re-raised, take these patterns into consideration to assess the value of their hand.
Body Posture, Attitude, and Chip Stacking: Watch out for hunching, slumping, and straightening of the posture. Mostly, players slump when they have a weak hand and lack confidence. If a player appears increasingly attentive to the game – looking physically and mentally more alert – this is generally a sign that they have a strong hand. Watch out for leaning in as this is generally a sign of weakness masquerading as strength.
Chip stacking habits are another give away – perhaps the ultimate give away of a player’s general habits. If your opponent presents unorganized and sloppy stacks of chips, they are probably a loose aggressive player. Well-organized chip stacks naturally denote a conservative and tight player.
Tags: Poker Gameplay, Poker Tells, Table Play
Permalink
02.16.07
Posted in Poker History at 10:36 am by Valentino Viccetzar
The game of poker is a relatively new card game; the best guess about its origins runs to somewhere between 1800 and 1820. The game made its first appearance in New Orleans, a territory ceded to the United States by the French government in 1803. Somewhat predictably, poker was born somewhere in the seedy gambling saloons along the mud-banks of the Mississippi River.
The first dated reference to poker appears in the account of Dragoon Campaigns in the Rocky Mountains by John Hildreth, published in 1836; Hilderth describes a late-night game of poker in the soldiers’ barracks. Apparently the game was already very popular in the South and West of the country. It was hardly know in the Eastern United States at the time.
In 1843 and 1844, the game was also referred to in the respective words of Jonathan Green, Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling, and Joe Cowell’s Thirty Years Passed Among the Players in England and America.
By Cowell, the game, as it was evidently played in the 1840s, is described in considerable detail:
One night… close by us was a party playing poker. This was then exclusively a high-gambling Western game, founded on brag, invented, as it is said, by Henry Clay when a youth; and if so, very humanely, for either to win or lose, you are much sooner relieved of all anxiety than by the older operation. … I must endeavor to describe the game when played with twenty-five cards only and by four persons. The aces are the highest denomination: then the kings, queens, jacks and tens: the smaller cards are not used; those I have named are all dealt out, and carefully concealed from one another; old players pack them in their hands, and peep at them as if they were afraid to trust even themselves to look. The four aces, with any other card, cannot be beat. Four kings, with an ace cannot be beat because then no one can have four aces; and four queens, or jacks, or tens, with an ace, are all inferior hands to the kings when so attended. But holding the cards I have instanced seldom occurs when they are fairly dealt; and three aces for example, or three kings, with any two of the other cards, or four queens, or jacks or tens, is called a full, and with an ace, though not invincible, are considered very good bragging hands. The dealer makes the game, or value of the beginning bet and called the ante - in this instance it was a dollar - and then everybody stakes the same amount, and says, “I’m up”.’ Starting of as a 20-card game, it appears that the 52-card game we play today began to make its mark in the mid-1830s and was eventually adopted as the principle form of the game so that more people – more than the four players of 20-card poker – could join the table.
The first mention of draw poker features in the Bohn’s New Handbook of Games published in 1850. Other versions appeared along side it in the 1875 edition of The American Hoyle. This book mentions draw, stud, jack pots, and whiskey poker.
Based on the steady development of the game, it’s worth noting the history of winning hands. The 20-card game of poker featured the A-K-Q-J-10 being dealt between four players. Betting was limited to one pair, two pair, triplets, full, or four of a kind. The original top hands were four aces or four king and an ace. These two combinations were unbeatable.
The acceptance of the flush was relatively stilted and complicated. By 1864, the winning combination were one pair, two pairs, straight sequence or rotation, triplets, flush, full house, and fours, although there were still some so-called traditionalists who maintained that the sequences of cards, such as A-K-Q-J-10 or 10-9-8-7-6, should not accorded value.
The earliest versions of Texas Hold’em, the variation of poker that feature communal card, appeared a early as 1919, as wild Widow. A card was dealt face up before each player at the table was dealt their fifth card. The winning hand was the best five-card combination based on the individual hand and the turned-up communal card.
Poker has been a popular game for well over a hundred years, in one form or another, but its current popularity online is largely to do with the establishment of the World Series of Poker; the tournaments that have run since 1970 and received considerable media attention.
The bottom line since the establishment of poker tournaments is this: the game is intensely popular and is likely to remain so; a great American pastime and one that, combining luck and skill, can transform a beggar into a rich man.
Tags: Card Game History, Gambling History, Poker History
Permalink
02.15.07
Posted in Poker Strategy at 7:18 pm by Valentino Viccetzar
One advantage of playing poker online as opposed to in real life – at least if you’re an avid player – is the option of playing more than one table at the same time. At first, the thought of multiple table play is awe-inspiring. You start to think about how much money you can make. Playing two tables, you can make double the money…playing three, you can make triple what you make on one table. When these thoughts start running through your head, it’s important to think twice and really consider how much of a problem it will be to juggle tables.
Yes, before you go headfirst into multiple table play, there are a number of things you need to think about. Playing multiple tables can decrease your edge, it can make tilt worse, and you can become careless. Unfortunately, playing multiple tables creates huge unnecessary risks if you don’t manage your bankroll and stay 100% focused at all of the tables, thinking about everything from you card values, your table position, your opponents’ positions and playing habits.
That said, if you’re a seasoned player, if you’ve mastered the art of tight aggressive play and table position strategies, playing multiple tables, two tables instead of one, might be something to try.
The first thing you should do if you want to try two tables at once, is adjust the display resolutions on your PC so that you can see the tables as clearly as possible without damaging your eyes. It’s a bit of a balancing act.
You should then exercise considerable caution when you choose your tables. You need to choose tables that allow you to see your hand all the time. You can’t afford to miss a single detail of play; mistakes are too costly.
When and where you play online are two other things to think about. Table selection is underrated in poker but it’s something you need to practice.
The best way to choose a table online is to assess the available information. Specifically, you need to assess the average pot size and the flop percentage. These two statistics should be visible online. You should choose the table with the largest average pot size and the highest flop rate. The larger the pot, the larger your potential profit. The higher the flop rate, the more players are staying with poor or mediocre hands.
Identifying the types of players at the tables is another key to multiple table playing. You should watch for tight players, as they are the most predictable types of players and the easiest to play again. One of the best ways to play them is bluffing. They tend to fold unless they have a very strong hand.
Loose players should never be bluffed; they should be trapped with strong hands. Tight aggressive players should be avoided. You should play this way yourself. Don’t have tight aggressive players as opponents.
One of the last things to think about when it comes to multiple table play: the time of day you play.
If possible, play late at night and on weekends because drunk players and those who are playing for fun are more likely to be accessible. If you’re serious about making money, you need to pray on these weaker players. Playing late at night and on weekends will help you maintain a strong edge.
A couple of tips for multiple table play. You need to reduce the action required on your part. If possible, avoid flipping between screens. Try to keep both screens visible. Also, you should be very careful about hitting buttons. You can easily make a mistake, hitting call when you meant to fold, or raise when you meant to call.
Another problem of multiple tables is that you’re unlikely to be able to concentrate on assessing your opponents and watching the betting sequences because you have to move between tables. One solution is to play one game on a site your familiar with – against players your familiar with – and then another game on another site to which you’re relatively new. This way you can compensate on the site you’re new to by focusing on the play there and allowing your instincts to take over against players you know well enough.
Most players who advocate multiple table play say that two tables at once are manageable if you’re rested and not too distracted by other things. Particularly if you have the opportunity to play against a bunch of weak players, playing two, even three tables can have a very positive effect on your poker income.
Tags: Multiple Table Poker Play, Online Poker, Poker Strategy
Permalink
02.14.07
Posted in Poker Strategy at 8:15 am by Valentino Viccetzar
There are several types of poker players out there. If you play often enough, you’ll encounter most of them.
The loose passive player becomes involved in almost every hand with weak cards. Their philosophy is that any card combination can win and should be played; that’s the loose play. However, the loose passive player is just that, passive. They decide to play with any hand but they rarely play with any aggression. They rarely raise despite calling most of the time. They play too aggressively with weak hands and too cautiously with good ones.
The loose aggressive player is also involved in a lot of hands, all most all of them in fact. They are the polar opposite of loose passive players in that they raise as often as possible, with virtually nothing to go on. They’re bluffing most of the time and although they may hit you hard in the short term, in the end, you’ll be glad to have these players at your table.
The tight players, whether they’re tight aggressive or passive, they tend to get involved online with strong cards. That said, tight passive players are easy to bluff and, because they only play good hands, fairly predictable. The way to deal with these players is quite simple: back off if they’re playing with any aggression.
The only type of player you should be is tight aggressive. This is the type of player you will want to be after you’ve had a run of bad luck playing any of the other three styles.
The tight aggressive player makes the right decisions. They tend to get involved with only the strongest cards, but when they get involved they play aggressively so they’re difficult to bluff. They raise, check-raise, and force other players. They build up a good pot.
If you aren’t a tight aggressive player already, you need to become one and ideally, you will be the only one at the tables you decide to play.
When it comes to handling the different styles of play, loose to tight, aggressive to passive, a whole range of strategies may serve you. Among the best strategies for loose aggressive players is the biding of time. They tend to trip themselves up with over eager play; bidding too much with cards that have little value. Bluffing often presents a risky proposition but it may be a judgment call if your cards are marginal and you’re doing a good job of managing the old bankroll.
Tight passive players, on the other hand, (avoid tight aggressive players) can be bluffed quite easily. When they are aggressive, and it’s rare, you know they’re likely to have a strong hand; backing off becomes a good idea. Otherwise, you can steadily wear away at these players who by nature pass up many opportunities to cash in on strong hands.
Perhaps one of the most devastating and frustrating experiences for experienced players online is losing big to new and bad players, the players who know next to nothing about the game. Unfortunately, many skilled players have lost out to newbies since the explosion of internet poker. When Chris Moneymaker walked away with 2.5 million in 2004, hundreds and thousands of people began dreaming of similar success at the table.
What seems to irk experienced players is the version of beginner’s luck these poker newbies enjoy. When you’re on a tilt against a newbie, you’re psychological strength is really put to the test. They know nothing about the game and it’s usually apparent. They win with crazy cards and you’re left wondering why you read so many books on poker over the years if you can loose so much to such ridiculous moves.
The thing to remember, though: experience and skill do eventually triumph. Believe it. They do. Don’t let your vexation knock your game off balance. Stay focused and stay calm against all crazy beginners. Be gracious. Don’t give them any advice about how they should play (unless you want the advance to sting you in the future). Let mistakes be made; let all newbies pay for their inexperience. Even if they have a run of good luck, newbies will pay you in the end.
Regardless of the type of player your up against, you should concentrate on playing tight and aggressive poker. Don’t give your money away making daring bluffs but do fight to the death when you know your cards are good. In the long run, tight aggressive play is the only method that brings in results. Don’t forget it.
Tags: Poker Player
Permalink
02.13.07
Posted in Poker Strategy at 5:29 pm by Valentino Viccetzar
Since the first organized World Series Poker tournament in 1970, poker tournaments have become extremely popular. In the last few years, poker tournaments televised on major sports channels have attracted millions of viewers. The multi-million dollar tournaments that attract the leading poker players around the world have spawned hundreds of online poker tournaments of various sizes. Although the prize pools vary in size, the larger tournaments have prizes of more than one million dollars.
Although the winnings are great in most cases, there is a major difference between successful money players and successful tournament players. Tournament players cannot bide their time in the same way that a money player needs to. In a tournament, the player has to win all the chips on the table if they want to progress; they cannot afford to wait and bid their time. They must play with an aggressive edge.
One of the most important tournament skills is a strong psychological presence. It sounds odd and a little unnerving, but luck has a lot to do with tournament success in poker. To compensate for this, you need to try to make yourself as lucky as possible; think positive, don’t let your moods swing with the tilts. Be sensible but keep up the aggressive plays. In tournament poker, you need to get all the chips on the table in a certain amount of time, against the added pressure of increasing blinds. You can’t afford to let a run of bad luck hit you if you want to get anywhere in the tournament. You must do whatever you can to maintain a positive outlook.
As a general rule, you should play tight at the beginning of the tournament, when the blinds are low; this is the only time you can afford to sit and wait for other players to make mistakes. As the blinds rise – as they do in tournaments – you need to start gambling aggressively.
Controlling your tournament gambling should be the gap concept, introduced by David Sklanksy. The basic principle and practice of this concept is that you should open the betting whenever your hand makes it prudent. You can open the betting yourself with a marginal to semi-strong hand and it’s a lot easier to bet with yourself. However, if the betting has already been opened, if someone else makes a bet before you, then you must have a strong hand to call.
Table positions also come into play in tournament poker. You should play tight in the early positions and let the people playing after you take the lead most of the time (unless you have a hand that warrants aggressive play, such as high honors). As you move to later positions, particularly the end positions, you should look to bluff and play semi-strong hands.
Online distractions aren’t such a problem, but you can still get put off by some of the pop-ups and information bombardments. You shouldn’t worry about the other tables or the other players in the tournament. Your focus needs to remain on the table and chips you’re trying to accumulate.
Your focus in a tournament needs to be on your table, on your position, and on your opponents play. Good tournament players look to shift gears, alternating between tight and aggressive plays as the situation calls. Watch your opponents for sighs that they are following one or other of these strategies.
Follow the strategies yourself. Remember that survival is key to winning a tournament, more so than in money games. You can’t be eliminated from money games, per se, but you can and will be knocked out of tournaments for careless mistakes.
To win at tournament poker you need to train your brain to focus above and beyond money game play. In tournaments, how you behave towards your opponents, how you respond to your opponents on a psychological level, can have an impact on your game if you don’t check yourself. Some of the best advice from tournament champs is to play our own cards. Don’t think about anyone else’s cards and don’t try to analyze or critic the plays of anyone else. Never voice your opinion about anyone else’s plays, strategies, or styles. It’s never worth dwelling on someone else’s game except to understand them as an opponent.
And the last snippet of tournament-play advice: trust your instincts. Know the guidelines for poker play – for tournament and online tournament play specifically – but trust your instinct and feel for the cards. The leading tournament poker players play by feel much of the time. You should too if you want to win.
Tags: Freerolls, Poker Strategy, Poker Tournaments
Permalink
02.12.07
Posted in Bankroll Managment at 5:27 pm by Valentino Viccetzar
Poker bankrolls should protect your emotional well being as much as your financial well being. In other words, your bankroll should prevent you from playing scared when you’re going through the inevitable, everyone has them every once-in-a-while runs of bad luck.
Luck is an important factor in poker, equal or almost equal to skill, so you’re bound to have days that your most sterling, brilliant play ever just can’t stop the hemorrhaging of your cash.
To keep your risk at a minimum, you must make sure you have enough money to keep you sane during a downswing. Money management is should be ranked up there as a top priority when you’re playing in a tough game because good bankroll management can get you through the swings and keep you from going broke.
Beginner to intermediate level players should be particularly careful about how they manage their money when they play. Most of the time, newcomers go broke at the table because they become too excited. Playing high limits with insufficient bankroll and insufficient skills is going to lead to problems. That said, as we’ve mentioned, even the best players go broke because they play limits that are too high when they’re clearly having off days.
To avoid these problems and to avoid playing scared – an inevitable result of a depleted bankroll – you should watch your limits like a hawk. If you’re playing too high with too little money – a common occurrence – you’ll be at a major psychological disadvantage through out the game. Before you’re conscious of how you’re thinking, you’ll be bluffed out of your money by playing cheap.
If you decide to play for no limits, you should start the game with at least 100 times the bind. If you want to play $0.25 to $0.50, for example, you should have at least $50 to start.
When you’re experiencing a swing in the wrong direction, be aware that most downward swings, if properly managed, trail off at about 100 points – whether it’s 100 of $0.10 or 100 of $100,000 value depends on your game but take it into consideration. Remember also that you can find your bankroll depleted by 200 points, even 300. What this means is, you need to have the starting bankroll to cover such eventualities. Not only do you need to cover the possibility that you might loose up to 300 points at whatever the value you’re playing, you also need to have enough money in your stack to keep playing with a cool head – easier said than done.
Minimizing your risk depend on understanding the stakes in a particular game. Your method for understanding the stakes could be based on any one of a hundred strategies that have been developed by professional gamblers and enthusiastic poker players alike. The trick is to find the method that works for you – check out a couple of weighty books on poker and you’ll soon come across a few.
However, when it comes to risk minimization and bankroll management, regardless of your game or stakes, these are the rules you should always follow:
Never play scared: a fundamental principle of good poker playing and, incidentally, good gambling. Never play with scared money (your rent, grocery money, or children’s college funds). Never play with more money than you were planning to: do not exceed your initial bankroll because if you have a run of bad luck, you’ll soon find yourself playing scared and loosing.
A widely accepted practice amongst gamblers is: never bet more than 5% of your bankroll on a given wager. Poker players often advocate this rule. Again, it’s another method of preserving your sanity during a downswing to minimize the risk. If you can limit your scared play, you may begin to fall into that small percentage of online poker players who make money in the long-run. It’s a sad fact that as many as 90% of online poker players lose money in the long run, primarily due to bad money management.
Here’s some tips on how to manage your bankroll online by controlling your stakes:
All players: Never open an online account with less than $150.
Limit players: If you have $200 or less as your starting bankroll, your stake limit should be around $0.5-1.00 and around $5 if you’re playing Sit and Go Tournaments.
If you have between $500 and $900, you should still play $0.5-$1.00 as a safety. Only when you know the competition and have a few hundred in your pocket should you start playing at $1.00 -$2.00 limit; Sit and Go Tournaments you can play at $10.
No-limit players: To play no-limits online and manage your bankroll properly, you should buy into a game at 100 times the Big Blind (BB) and your bankroll should be at least 20 buy-ins of 100 BBs. If you’re playing $0.10-$0.25, you should buy in for $25 and your bankroll should include 100 x 20 x $0.25 = $500.
To play $0.5-$1.00, following the same guidelines, you should enter the game at $50 and have a bankroll of at least $1000.
Sticking to these guidelines should help you play safe and will thereby reduce the risk you’re playing at.
Tags: Bankroll, Bankroll Managment, Fund Managment
Permalink
02.10.07
Posted in Poker Strategy at 5:26 pm by Valentino Viccetzar
The ability to assess the effect of your table position and your opponent’s table position on the value of bets will improve the outcome of your poker play. You’ll make a more accurate assessment of the value of your hand and you’ll also have a much better sense of what your opponents are playing with.
Poker has four different table positions, regardless of how many people are playing in the game: there’s the dealer’s position, the early position, the middle position, and the late or end position.
Players in early positions should avoid playing marginal hands and should limit themselves to playing only strong to very strong hands. The middle position players should assess how the early players have acted. If the early players haven’t raised the stake, then the middle position player can raise with a marginal to strong hand.
For obvious reasons, those in the end position know the most about their opponents and can play aggressively. Last position players can bet with a wide variety of starting hands, even relatively weak hands, if their opponents have not acted. They can decide to call a bet knowing that no one is going to raise, thereby reducing your risk.
In a full game with ten players, as an early player or EP, you are one of the first three players to act. The person immediately to the left of the big blind is said to be “Under the Gun” or UTG. They are under the most pressure to act, to start the action with a raise.
Middle position usually begins at the fourth player in sequence; the fourth player left of the dealer or the button, as is sometimes the situation in online poker. Like early positioned players, middle position players or MP players still have relatively few advantages and considerable drawbacks relating to their position in the game.
As an MP player, you are at risk of “squeeze” plays. A squeeze play, as the name suggests, is about being forced to act, generally to call a bet by an early position player, when you know you’re likely to get raised. On the other hand, in the middle position, you have an advantage over early position players and you can make a strong assessment of their cards. Particularly if you have a strong hand, you can bet and play aggressively in the middle position, and you should. If your hand is marginal, you have to consider the likelihood that the last position players will take a stand.
The end position or late position players, called LP players for short, have the strongest position at the table because they are the last people to act. The cut-off player, called the CO for short, is the player in the second to last position. LP player have the strongest position because they can make a strategic play, a steal or bluff, to win the pot if no one else has made a move. In Texas Hold’em, the last player’s position-based advantage is the strongest and their opportunity to make a steal bluff is the strongest.
On the other hand, if EP or MP players have raised, as an LP player, you need to determine whether they’re bluffing or playing with a strong hand. If you make the wrong assessment, drawing on what you know about the cards and your opponents’ styles of play, it can be costly so weigh the information you have carefully.
Another situation that the LP player experiences almost exclusively is the semi-bluff, which involves raising an EP or MP player who made a bet. To make a semi-bluff, you need to have a fairly strong hand, such as a straight or a flush. You can raise to scare your opponents, encouraging them to fold. The semi-bluff also encourages your opponents to consider you and what you might have before they make their next move if they are considering a raise on the second round.
To make the most of position strategy, you need to be aware of your position all the time. It sounds easy but it’s not; getting caught up in your hand leaves you oblivious, so you need to practice focusing on your position for each individual hand at each individual turn.
The general rule to keep in mind goes something like this: play strong hands in early positions; the later your position, the better your chance of making a winning play with a marginal hand, such as a flush or a straight.
Tags: Multiple Table Poker Play, Poker Strategy, Table Play, Table Position Play
Permalink
02.09.07
Posted in Poker Strategy at 5:24 pm by Valentino Viccetzar
Heads up poker involves only two players. A recent phenomenon, it gained popularity in recent years thanks to internet poker sites and the sit ‘n’ go games they offered. For players looking to develop their poker playing skills, heads up play is an excellent opportunity. It’s not only a fun way to play the game it’s also a great way of learning to think and stay on you toes – a very important and good habit to develop for your poker game.
Sites offering heads up play include most of the online poker world heavyweight. Buyins are anywhere between about $1 and $5000 dollars and the competition range includes easy-to-beat newbies and world-class aficionados.
However, there are a few major differences between heads up poker and regular poker, from Texas Hold’em right through to Draw poker. In heads up, you can’t afford to be timid with mediocre hands. Yes, even with on honor card, a jack or a queen, you should take a chance. In heads up, you pay for ever hand you play. If you wait for the high honors, particularly if you’re waiting for an ace to make your move, you’re going to be losing some serious bankroll before you get anywhere.
Heads up teaches you to bluff and how to read your opponents. Post flop play also becomes very important to your success in this game. You also need to hone your awareness and understanding of positions at the table because they become extremely important in heads up poker as well.
As a general rule, you should play aggressively when you are at the button position in heads up. You should play the majority of your defensive poker after the flop, reducing the risks you’re running. Although a lot of your short-term success depends upon your opponents and how they play, if you always attack from the button and defend off it, you’ll come out on top.
You should be aware of your opponents, as you would be in any other situation. You should be prepared to spot weaknesses; frequent raises and check raises that leave the vulnerable, passive plays from the button; excessive or limited bluffing. Watch out for these traits and be prepared to respond to them, compensating your aggressive or defensive plays depending on your position. Watch out for strategy errors and analyze them whenever they occur.
When you’re in last position and you have a strong hand, you should definitely at least call. In most cases, you should raise with a strong hand to minimize your opponent’s chance of bluffing successfully, weight up your chances in the knowledge that it is generally – not always but generally – best to play tight in last position when in doubt.
In first position you should be more aggressive, check-raising your opponent when you have a strong to very strong hand. When your hand is weak and you’re in first position, you are in a strong position to bluff but, depending on your opponent and your read of their strategies, you may want to check and fold if they are likely to bet.
It’s worth noting that high limit players tend to be every aggressive in heads up games. You can spot these players easily by their propensity to raise and reraise as often as they can with mediocre and bad hands.
As far as your own play goes, heads up poker should give you a very powerful wake up call about any weaknesses you have. It’s a trial by error for a lot of players when they first try the heads up game. Many play a few rounds, realize their weakness (the reason they’re losing), quit, and adjust their problem. The more you try the format and use it as a way to learn and improve your game, the more you will get from the experience.
In heads up poker, as in every other format, you should try to play by instinct and feeling as much as possible. In fact, the heads up format offers a great opportunity to learn and hone this play technique, too.
When you play one-on-one, remember that a good player knows the guidelines and will follow them when in doubt, but they’ll also try to be in-tune with the game and the cards, trusting their instincts about their opponents, the relative value of position, and the general situation.
It sounds obvious, but the real key to winning heads up poker is being in touch with your own game and proactive when you spot a weakness in your strategy.
Tags: Heads Up Play, Poker Strategy, Poker Tournaments
Permalink
Posted in Gambling Law at 2:36 pm by Valentino Viccetzar
In all things legal, there’s no substitution for the advice of a qualified lawyer. However, a general idea of where the law stands on gambling and poker is a good place to start if you have concerns about playing poker for money online.
The first thing you should know about US gambling laws is this: recent events have brought a lot of attention to online wagering and the passing of the Safe Pot Act, which included an important statute about online betting, will make sports betting and most online wagers involving money transfers, illegal.
The second thing you should know about gambling and poker: there is a big difference between something like sports betting and gambling in a skills game like poker or bridge. There’s also a sizeable difference between betting in roulette or on a slot machine. As yet, these different forms of gambling have not been treated in the same way by the law; a ruling that applies to sports betting doesn’t necessarily apply – at least not yet – to online poker.
The situation is still very confusing though.
One of the leading gambling law authorities in the US had this to say before the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006: “No United States federal statute or regulation explicitly prohibits Internet gambling, either domestically or abroad.” However, the Wire Act contains the following subsection: “Whoever being engaged in the business of betting or wagering knowingly uses a wire communication facility for the transmission in interstate or foreign commerce of bets or wagers or information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers on any sporting event or contest, or for the transmission of a wire communication which entitles the recipient to receive money or credit as a result of bets or wagers, or for information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”
It’s fairly easy to see why this statue, the Wire Act, was most often citied as the law that makes online gambling, specifically sports betting, illegal. Yet, even this important statute doesn’t explicitly state that online gambling, let alone online poker playing, is illegal. The wording of the statue suggests that it only applies to the individual involved in the “business of betting or wagering” not to the individual better or, in poker, to the individual player. See the case of Jay Cohen for more.
In 2006, the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act changed the situation for online sports betters and, probably, for poker players as well. The act looks set to specifically target the transfer of money in the betting world.
Free games and forms of gambling that don’t involve the transfer of money will be unaffected by the bill, but just about every other form of gambling is, although it’s still considered unlikely that individual bet makers, let alone poker players involved wagers, will be targeted by state or federal governments.
Most of the attention in the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act and the Wire Act is given to money transfer. As per the 2006 Act: “No person engaged in the business of betting or wagering may knowingly accept any money transfers in any way from a person participating in unlawful Internet gambling…[which]…includes credit cards, electronic fund transfers, and even paper checks. But it is limited to Internet gambling businesses, not mere players.”
The expectation is that all online transfers or transactions of money will require participants to provide valid and verifiable ID so that the transaction can be tracked and assessed.
When it comes to funding or withdrawing from an online poker account, for example, with a credit card, check, or wire transfer, the 2006 Act will probably make things more complicated for the player. Ultimately, it will depend on how readily the new laws are enforced and how readily the individuals sites agree to comply.
Playing poker online has not been considered illegal either by law or by consensus, but it’s important for anyone with concerns to consult with a lawyer for more information about how this new bill, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, will affect the situation. Everyone should stay informed of developments that may change the status of either online gambling in general or online poker playing. The Act hasn’t been signed yet but it will be and the regulations it proposes will go into affect by the beginning of 2007. You should also check the laws for the state in which you live.
For more information on the legal status of online poker, check out this great resource:
http://www.playwinningpoker.com/online/poker/legal/law.html
Tags: Gambling Law, Online Gambling, Poker Law, US Gambling Law
Permalink
« Previous entries
