02.05.07
Posted in Poker Theory at 11:19 pm by Valentino Viccetzar
The Allure of the Casino For most people, even those who shun gambling in their own life, casino’s are somewhat seductive in their dark and seedy allure. Unfortunately, you need to get over any fascination you may have an you need to get your head around a certain understated etiquette before you’re likely to get near to a table.
Before you consider gambling at a casino, playing poker at a casino table, casinos are sophisticated and highly successful enterprises. They don’t get to be successful by giving away money. Your best bet – the best bet for anyone who is new to casino poker – is to learn the basics of casino operations so you can manipulate the experience to your advantage.
Know Thy Enemy Casinos really know their clients. They see you coming a hundred miles away. They know exactly who you are, how much money you make, what you like, what you dislike; whether you’re married, single, or divorced.
Marketing gurus employed by casinos know exactly what makes you tick and they will use that knowledge to extract as much business from you as possible. When you enter a casino, you need to understand that everything, every element, everything you see around you from the carpet to the lights on the ceiling is designed to draw you in and keep you in until you’ve lost your bankroll.
The objective of the casino is to make you and everyone else there comfortable and happy. They want to keep you feeling happy even when you lose everything you came in with.
The House Rules Another point to consider: the house always wins. In poker, you’re at less of a disadvantage than at, say, roulette, but the house is still going to ‘beat’ you no matter what happens.
Wondering why? What if you win a huge stake?
Well, the house charges commissions in most games. They have a mathematical edge, and, in games like roulette, true odds aren’t given out.
Although poker is slightly different, being a skills game, the casino still has many ways to fulfill their first commandment. You should be aware of this and accept it, to a degree. Don’t let the casino’s advantage set you off balance.
Money Matters When you decide to play poker at a casino, you need to familiarize yourself with the chips on the table; learn their respective values to save yourself thinking too much about it later. To make it easy for you, casinos tend to use the same colors schemes. The most common values corresponding to color are:
White: $1
Red: $5
Green: $25
Black: $100
Purple: $500
Burgundy: $1,000
Brown: $5,000
Table Manners When you go to a casino to play poker, standard practice is to sign in at the desk and, generally, indicate to the host what game (“poker”) you’re interested in playing (e.g. “Texas Holdem or Omaha”). Generally, if a table is full, you will be put on a waiting list and called as soon as a place opens.
In casino poker you play for table stakes. You play with the chips that you have on the table and you’re not allowed to go into your pocket for more money in the middle of a hand. If you run out of chips, you should indicate that you’re “all in”. Any additional bets made by others after you come into the game will be put in a side pot. You’re not eligible for this pot even if you have the best hand on the table.
Be aware of some of the most common at-table mistakes. Most common is betting out of turn or making an improper raise. Wait until it’s your turn to play before you make a move. Don’t call, raise, check, or fold – don’t do anything until it’s your turn because you’ll confuse proceedings for everyone else. It’s also bad etiquette to talk about your cards while the hand is still going. No one will appreciate it if you do this. You must not show your cards either, save that for the showdown, at which time you should show one and all!
A couple of bad habits generally put out there by movies featuring poker include splashing the pot and making string bets, neither of which is appropriate in actual casino poker. You shouldn’t toss you chips into the pile when you make a bet. This is splashing the pot. Because it’s important for people to know how much you’ve bet, stack your chips neatly in front of you. And avoid saying things like “I call and raise another 300.” When you want to call, call. When you want to raise, say that you will raise and indicate the amount. Don’t string everything together.
Above all, be polite at the poker table and stay calm. Remember, it’s only a game and the objective is to have fun and let everyone else around you have fun as well.
Tags: Casino Poker, Poker Rules, Poker Table Rules, Poker Theory
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02.02.07
Posted in Poker Theory at 11:57 am by Valentino Viccetzar
Overview
One of the most demanding version of poker, 7-card stud poker involves a lot of cads on the table and demands a very different approach to betting and play. Two of the most important factors in this game are memory and strategy.
In Stud poker, the minimum buy-in is typically about ten times the low limit. Usually, the buy-in for a $2.00 to $4.00 game is $20.00. Playing with the minimum is not recommended for obvious reasons; you should generally buy in with a minimum of $80.00 in the $2.00 to $4.00 games; $320.00 for $8.00 to $16.00 games, and so on. If you play with less than this 40-times recommended value, your chances of loosing are increased. Negative tilts will inevitably expose your under-funding, leaving you nervous and overwrought.
Betting Limits
In Stud games, the betting limits are defining. The low stakes games run online are very common, particularly online and the betting limit typically tells you everything you need to know about the players at the table. In the low stakes games, particularly low-stakes games online, you are going to encounter weak to very weak players. Logically, then, in the higher stakes games, you’re likely to encounter experienced and expert players. They will play with stakes as high as $100.00 to $200.00, but usually between $8.00 and $16.00 or $10.00 to $20.00.
Using the stakes as guidelines, you should determine the nature of the game, the nature of the players, and the demands on your bankroll to play at particular tables.
Play Strategies in Stud Poker
Like Omaha, Stud poker requires considerable skills to generate wins. A winning player will strategize. They will memorize cards and undertake to analyze the cards they are holding, putting them together with the cards on the table and making determinations about the hands of opponents.
In stud poker, three-of-a-kind is the best opening hand and the higher ranked the cards, the better the chances of following through to a win. If your opponents know, or strongly suspect you have a triples or ‘trip’, then they will almost certainly fold so, in the interest of raising the pot, when you have three-of-a-kind you should bet modestly so as not to raise too much suspicion. Encourage your opponents to bet by checking or calling as necessary. When you have a strong hand in Stud poker you should try to keep as many players in as long as possible because the chances are extremely strong that you are going to beat them.
Second to three-of-a-kind, the best starting hand is a high pair of ten or better. If the paired cards are in
Other strong hands are three to a flush and three to a straight.
Three to a flush is sometimes referred to as a drawing hand because you need cards to making it worthwhile. That said, you need to continue to encourage your opponents to make bets. Three cards to a flush is a hand worth raising but you need to calculate, using your experience of your opponents, how much money you can put up without raising suspicion or worse, giving away completely the strength of your hand. The general guidelines: if your door-card is ‘faces or aces’, an ace, king, queen, or jack, then a raise will give away your strength. Otherwise, you will probably escape suspicion.
Holding three to a straight puts you in a similar situation to three to a flush, except that it’s harder to complete the three card straight than the flush. These hands can be somewhat difficult to read so you should raise and reraise cautiously, while still remaining competitive.
Adjusting Your Playing Styles for Stud Poker
In Stud poker, it’s important to play quite aggressively but shrewdly. Choose both your raises and your folds very carefully so you keep your opponents guessing. You should try to force money on to the table so checking is a good policy, sufficiently aggressive and sufficiently passive.
Be conscious of your table position as you would in any other style of poker. You need also to be aware of your opponents. What their play and assess whether they play aggressively or passively; tightly or loosely and let that have some impact on your decision making when you are assessing individual hands.
In Stud poker particularly, don’t bluff strong players, those who win regularly, because they can afford to call your bet and they probably will. If you decide to bluff anyway, make sure that you have some value to your hand because this will help to make your bluff seem more credible, more threatening, particularly to opponents who are watching your actions closely.
Tags: 7 Card Stud, Poker Game, Poker Rules, Poker Theory
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01.30.07
Posted in Poker Theory at 6:18 pm by Valentino Viccetzar
Overview
One of the things that so attractive about online poker is the prevalence of play money. Some casinos have special programs for offering customers free ‘money’ to gamble with. Of course, the principle behind these programs, online as well as offline, is that you will get such a thrill gambling with the so called free money, you’ll decide to keep it up gambling with real money. The aim of this article is to outline the advantages and disadvantages of real money versus play money.
Playing With Play Money
A “free-roll” tournament is one that doesn’t require real money although it pays out real prize money to the winner. Particularly for those who don’t have much tournament-playing experience, free-roll tournaments are really a lot of fun and very low-risk. There’s no risk of losing any money.
You should certainly use play money if you’re a new player or if you’re looking to brush up on your poker skills. There is no need to make any kind of purchase or provide credit card information for play money poker.
The most common types of freerolls are “frequent player points”, called FPPs. This is the best kind of free because all you need to do to acquire these FPPs is to sign up and play. You can then amass points; earning points as part of the loyalty program. Many sites allow you to earn FPPs by playing in the play money games. Many less experienced players should get started without going to the trouble of depositing real money.
Playing With Real Money
A real money buy-in, as the name suggests, requires you to use real money. Online poker sites require you to deposit real funds into a secure account. In casinos, you generally have to buy chips. If you do a bit of money-management, you can plan ahead enough to make online money transfers in a few seconds without transaction fees.
Once you are confident of your poker skills you can decide to take the plunge. Making a deposit of cash to play online involves using one or more of the following money transfer methods:
1) Credit Card
2) FirePay
3) Neteller
4) Switch/Maestro
5) Bank Draft
6) InstaCash
7) Visa/MasterCard
8) ePassporte
9) Wire Transfer
Things to Consider: Real versus Play
It’s increasingly important to consider the legal aspects of online poker playing and online gambling. You need to try and get a handle on the laws that affect online poker play. Unfortunately the laws in most of the countries around the world really are very slow to mature; they’re slow to pickup and change their policies and programs. This is equally true of individual companies. Several online poker sites now do not allow US-based players access due to changes in the law that look to outlaw online gambling, apparently including poker.
Although the best advice is to consult with a legal expert if you have specific concerns, it is still challenging for lawyers and other experts to make definitive assessments of what is a lawful activity and what is not. At the time of writing this article, no person in any country has yet been charged as a criminal for playing online poker with real money.
Another thing to consider: negative tilts in poker can be extremely destructive and bankroll management is something you really need to be on top of if you’re playing with real money. Everyone goes on a negative tilt every now and again. It’s a reality even the best and most experienced players have to deal with; if you make a transition from play money to real money, you must have enough of a bankroll to cover the down tilts and protect your game from your own psychology. Although this is more important when it comes to real money management and it should factor somewhere in your decision-making process about real money versus play money. You should also take into account the kind of game you’re involved in and the kind of players you’re up against. Just as you should shift tables every now and again, there’s nothing stopping you playing with both real and fake money.
Above all, you should remember that poker is a game. If you find yourself playing with real money and being preoccupied about your bankroll in a way that seems at all unhealthy or destructive, you should certainly stop playing with real money and revert to free money.
Whether you play with real or free money you should have fun.
Tags: Online Poker, Play Money, Poker Theory, Real Money
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