Texas Holdem Poker

Poker games, not basketball or football, are the oldest, largest and most widely followed gaming competition in the world. The World Series of Poker (WSOP) began in 1970 as an exclusive match between the six legendary players of that time. Since then, its following has grown to massive numbers of people, amounting to thousands while its cash prize has grown to millions. Last 2006 its main event alone reached a record high of 8773 participants with a first place cash prize of $12,000,000.

The WSOP gaming season is made up of 55 televised poker competitions. It culminates with its main event, a $10,000 no-limit Texas Holdem poker competition between the best players in the world. Recently, Europe followed suit in 2004, coming out with its own European Poker Tour (EPT), also a series of televised poker competitions.

While only four years old, the value of EPT buy-ins have quickly caught up to the current standard. One difference however is that its final table is composed of eight players instead of the usual six.

This intense game of wits, luck and deceit has easily become a favorite among viewers. While many people are not able to participate in the WSOP or the EPT, amateur but passionate players can hone their skills through online poker tournaments. Avid fans are also able to satiate their hunger for the latest poker updates and commentaries through Littlewoods poker blog. If you’re interested in hearing more about the high rolling world of poker, you can go to Littlewoods poker for the latest poker action.

Have you ever signed into an online poker room and seen the same name on table after table and wondered how they could do that?  A single individual may have 8 or more tables going at the same time!  How can they keep track of each table and how can they possibly make money?  Well, there are several reasons that this is possible and you will soon find that regardless of the levels you are playing, you can take advantage of the same things that the online pros do to make money by playing online poker.

The first thing that you have to consider is variance.  By playing so many tables, you actually increase your chances of making a profit.  It may sound a little crazy, but it is true.  Have you ever sat at one table and got killed in a very short period of time?  Then you go the next table and don’t seem to be able to miss a hand and want to know where this luck was earlier when you actually had money.  By playing multiple tables, you are all but guaranteed that these single losses will be offset by the big win tables.

If you are playing on 8 tables, more than likely you will find that you have one table that you are not doing very well, another table that you are absolutely crushing people on and then the rest of them will be floating right around even.  The moment that one table goes bad, you remain in action on the other tables and eliminate the bad table.  You are now tilting the odds back in your favor.  Simply go to another table and start playing there.  Because of something we are about to discuss, you don’t need to make a lot of money on the table to be profitable; you just need to make sure you don’t take any heavy losses.

The next thing to consider is rakeback.  This is percentage of the money that you contribute to the rake that gets returned to you at the end of the month.  This alone is the reason why so many online pros make so much money when they play.  Consider the fact that if you are sitting at 6 man tables where $60,000 in rake has been collected over the course of the month, 1/6th of that would be considered your contribution to the rake, or $10,000.  Most rakeback sites will offer their players anywhere from 25-30% back on their rake.  Worst case scenario here, you would be getting back $2,500 at the end of the month for doing nothing!  This is as much as some people make at real jobs and you are getting it as a refund just for playing poker.

Whether you would consider this a good thing or bad is up to you, but the guesswork of playing is totally eliminated when you are playing this way.  Every decision you makes comes down to pure odds.  If they are there, you make the call.  If they aren’t you fold your hand.  Even with tracking software, you are not going to have the time to evaluate the players or figure out if they are making moves.  You are going to have far too much going on.  However, this is where most amateur poker players make the most mistakes.  They are trying to be the next Doyle Brunson and end up outplaying themselves with foolish moves.  Leave it up to the numbers and you will be surprised at how often it works out in your favor.

Playing this many table is never an easy thing and you are going to have to work your way up to it.  I would also recommend that you do this at much lower levels than you play on playing at permanently.  This is going to allow you to absorb those inevitable mistakes that will happen as you are learning to juggle 8 tables at the same time.

If there is one thing that is certain in poker, it is that television and Online Poker have changed the complexion of the game forever.  Going back as little as ten years ago, ABC poker players were very successful.  As TV started showing horrible river suck-outs time and time again, the younger generation of poker player learned the game thinking that this was the way to go.  If there is a draw, they feel as though they have to chase it down.

One thing that the televisions don’t show is the amount of money or chips that these players lose by not folding when they should.  There are always times to head in for the chase, but you cannot do it every time if you want to end up profitable at the end of the year.  By knowing the odds and the proper way to play them, you will increase your chances tenfold over the average player.

If you are a Limit Hold’em player, you are going to be making a lot of calls based on the odds.  In a multi-player hand, you are pretty much getting priced in on just about every draw that you will be chasing.  There are even times that you are going to call on the river because of the amount of money that is in the pot.  It may sound like you are going against everything you have been told about poker, but I assure you that this decision will pay off in the long run.

Say you are playing in a $10/$20 limit 6 handed game.  You get dealt QQ and pre-flop raise and have two callers with the SB folding.  You now have $65 in the pot.  The flop comes out with a board of 10s-6s-4h.  It gets checked to you and you bet again and both players call you, $95 are now in the pot.  The turn card is dealt and it is a Jh.  You bet out on the hand and are immediately raised; the third player folds and you call so there is now a total of $175 in the pot.  The other player could be on a draw, maybe he had 10J in his hand, or maybe he had AJ and caught on the turn.  Regardless, you still feel as though you are ahead in the hand and your call on the turn means you are absolutely going to call on the river regardless of the card.

Now the river card is dealt and it is a Ks.  You check and your opponent fired out another $20 bet and before you make the call, there is a total of $195 in the pot. If you think the move is to fold because you are afraid of the straight, high card or flush, you need to smack yourself in the head.  You are getting 10:1 odds to see what your opponent has at that point.  This means that all you have to do is catch him bluffing one out of ten times and this move pays you off.  If you can catch them twice, you are up a ton of money.

You cannot always assume that everyone hits their hand when they raise.  In this scenario, your opponent very well may have been chasing the flush, but he also could have just as easily gone it with AJ and hit the turn.  Just because he bet on the river does not mean that he chased down the flush.  Make that call every time and remember that you can lose 90% of your hands like this and you are still even.  Win 20% of them and you are on easy street!

If you have spent any amount of time playing in MTT Hold’em tournament, you know how frustrating it can be when you make call downs on draws and they never hit.  The next thing you know your stack is down to nothing and you have little or no choice to go all in with a questionable hand.  Maybe you need to think about taking some more chances and try to get a big stack early on and actually hit the final table with the big stack instead of getting blinded out.

The first thing you have to decide is if you want to play aggressively or you just want to sit back and wait for hands.  While you can be successful by waiting around, you are doomed if you don’t catch cards early on and you are going end up getting bullied off of hands.  While you risk getting bounced out of the tourney early by playing this way, if you get a couple of breaks, you can find yourself deep into the tourney and able to cash a big payday.

Something that you may want to consider is pushing the issue when you are on a draw, especially if you can set up a check raise situation.  Ideally, you are going to set this up with an aggressive player that is bullying the table.  If he raising pre-flop on the bulk of the hands and then going forward with a continuation bet, he is an ideal candidate to pull this move on.  Doing this will also set you up later one when you have hit a hand.  You can do the same thing and possibly get a call when you are sitting on the stone cold nuts.

The ideal situation for this move would be three handed with you playing before the aggressor and after one other player.  Let’s say that the aggressor raises the pot before the flop to 4 times the blind.  You are sitting on the BB with KQc.  The flop comes out 10c-Jc-2d.  You are now sitting an open ended straight draw along, a royal flush draw and of course the flush draw.  In addition to that, you have two over cards that you can catch to improve your hand.  All in all, you have a total of 23 possible outs to improve your hand.

Now assume the other player in the hand is the SB and he checks the flop to you, you in turn check the bet over to the initial raiser and he fires a pot sized bet out there.  The SB folds and now it is up to you.  For arguments sake, assume the pot was $120 before the flop and he is now betting $120 into that pot.  It would be early in the tournament and you have $1,000 left in chips.  The call in this situation is a no brainer, you are getting 2:1 odds on your money and you have about a 90% shot of hitting your hand.   However, a call does not allow you to truly take advantage of this situation.  This is an ideal position to push your stack in and double up.

If the aggressor makes the call and has you beat and is not holding two suited cards with the Ace that will match the board, you are still in the driver’s seat.  You literally have half the deck to draw to him calling and having the lead is not a bad thing here.  The other scenario is that the aggressor folds his hand and you end up taking in a pretty nice pot.

Remember though, you make a habit of this move and you are going to get called down every time.  Save it for a time when you hold a significant advantage on your draw and even if you are behind, you are in a strong position to win the hand.  Then the next time you make the play and have a hand, the aggressor is going to think you are bluffing and will make the call.  When you turn over your set, his mouth drops and you rake the pot.  Well timed aggression will lead you to the final table.  Use it in the right spot against the right player and that chip stack will continue to grow.