There is a new way to get poker updates and feeds from your favorite poker players. Twitter is a new site that allows you to follow your favorite players or poker sites and get updates on anything from how they are doing in their tournaments or what kind of coffee they ordered. It is different from Facebook and Myspace because you can follow anyone and get their live updates, but there isn’t the fuss of photo albums and searching through your friend’s pages to get their updates. The updates show up directly on your home page and you are able to respond or congratulate on the latest bad beat or monster win.

Twitter is quickly catching on in the poker world. A number of professional poker players have already started sending tweets updating on their tournament plays or updating on their vacation status. Sometimes there are some pretty funny conversations that you can follow between one poker player to another. Poker players like Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth are fairly active in providing updates. Here is a list of the pros I’ve found so far that are fairly active:

Phil Hellmuth @phil_hellmuth
Daniel Negrenu @RealKidPoker
Berry Greenstein @berrygreenstein
Jonathan Little @JonathanLittle
Annette Obrestad @Annette_15
Vanessa Rousso @VanessaRousso
Tiffany Michelle @TiffnyMichelle
Maria Ho @MariaHo
Annie Duke @RealAnnieDuke
Andy Bloch @Andy_Bloch
Joe Sebok @JoeSebok

pokerblog.com

Why ten big blinds? Well, the truth is there’s no set amount of chips you need to have before you should absolutely push all-in, but the common agreement amongst most experienced players is that ten big blinds represents the bare minimum of chips you need to be able to go all-in with, as doubling up that amount should put you out of harms way at least for the time being. Let yourself slip to just five times the big blind and even if you win your all-in bet, you still are heavily in the danger zone and will now have to once again go all-in very soon, often times with a very marginal hand.

If the situation is correct, you can absolutely expand this range even higher. Many players consider it ok in particular scenarios that you can/should make this move with 15 times the big blind and sometimes even more. What dictates this situation is when there might be a lot of money in the pot already pre-flop and maybe someone’s already moved all-in and you hold a very premium hand.

So say you find yourself in a ten big blind or less problematic area, what kind of cards should you be moving in with? Ideally, you want to try and push with any ace and any king, and even hands like Q-10. If you’re down to less than 10 big blinds, you may have to open up your hand selection to include any Q-X combo as well. You obviously would want to be the first person to move all-in, as it is much weaker to have to call an all-in with these marginal hands, but sometimes you just don’t have a choice.

Try to add this Ten Big Blind Rule to your game as soon as possible, because it really is the only way to successfully defend yourself from elimination when your stack starts to dwindle. You won’t win them all, but in the long run you’ll be much better off because of it.

pokerblog.com

Unless you’re able to fork over at least $1,000 or more to play in a WSOP event, your only chance to play in a tournament with a giant field is going to be online. These super events can be a lot of fun to play in, but the number of entries is so deep that it can take a very long time to find yourself in the money, and even then, the early paid positions usually just provide your money back plus an extremely small profit. In order to survive and strive, you need to be constantly looking to increase your stack, not just watch it slip away slowly while you stare at the money bubble.

Just yesterday I played in a $1.00 buy-in online tournament, and since this was the first time I had entered an event this cheap, I had no idea just how large the field was going to be. Well, by the time the first hand was dealt, over 7,000 players had signed up, making this easily the biggest event I had ever participated in. The tournament was a “double stack” feature, meaning everyone started with $3,000 in chips instead of the usual $1,500, with blinds at a modest $10/$20.

With a buy-in this cheap and stacks this deep, you know that chips are going to be flying from the get go. Ideally, what you want to do in the beginning is limp into as many pots as possible as you can with marginal to medium strength hands, hoping to flop something big. The players at these small priced tournaments will move all-in without thinking twice if they flop top pair, and with the blinds so low in comparison to the chip stack, you can really just sit back and wait for monsters without putting yourself at too much risk.

And that’s exactly what I did, I would call with suited connectors and small pairs, hoping to hit big and double up quickly. Well, things went a little TOO MUCH according to plan, and I was up to $30,000 in chips from my original $3,000 stack in about 20min thanks to flopping a set one hand and a straight a few hands later against multiple opponents. At this point, I can now go almost completely into cruise control with my hand selection. The blinds aren’t big enough to try to steal, and raising with anything other than top premium hands isn’t worth it at this point since I don’t want to put my dominant stack at risk this early on.

A quick look at the tournament detail board informed me that the payout positions started at 1080 players, meaning I had to wade through approx. 6,000 members of the opposition before I would get in the money, with the first payout position only doubling your entry ($2.00, yeah!!). I checked the leaderboard and my $30,000 in chips placed me roughly in the top 50 at about 30min into the tournament and already we had over a thousand players knocked out already.

Firmly placed with at least four times the stack of my nearest competition, I was able to sit back and take in a lot of information on how my table was playing. It came as no surprise to see that players were making terrible calls left and right, sometimes putting in all their chips to chase a very low percentage draw. I can understand that the money means nothing to do with a $1 buy-in, but not even enter if you’re not going to play seriously? All the more reason to pick your battles smartly and wait for the perfect dominant situation.

Over the next hour or so I slowly chipped my way up to approx. $36,000, which still put me far ahead of the average stack with about 3,500 players eliminated. Again, hand selection at this stage of the tournament is key. Why go all in with A-Q pre-flop when you can very easily find a much better spot to put your chips in? These deep field events are not aggressively type Sit & Go’s, you need to keep your patience and fold even fairly strong hands.

About a hour later we hit the money bubble, and as soon as it burst and the only the paid 1080 players were left, boy did things change. Apparently everyone was so happy about doubling their $1 entry (which equates to a single dollar in profit for over three hours invested) that now they wanted to play like the chips had no meaning. At this point you need to exhibit extreme caution with your hand selection, as players are now raising and pushing all-in with weak pairs and hands like K-10. Ideally, if you can afford to, you want to be able to single these players out and try to get them heads up when you have a big pocket pair. Still, if you’re in first position, you need you put in a large enough bet so that you can draw one or two callers at the most. Pocket aces can dry up quickly when you’re called by four other players simply because you just min. raised.

When it got down to the final 600 players, my stack had fallen down to about $22,000, the victim of a bad beat, when I caught A-K suited on the button. I put out a $4,800 raise (blinds were at $600/$1,200 at the time with $50 ante) hoping to collect the blinds and antes when the big blind raised me all-in. We were about equal in chips and I needed to double up in order to make it to the next payout bump, so I called. He turned over A-J off suit, flopped a Jack and then another Jack on the turn, and that was it for me. I ended up finishing in 525th place, outlasting about 6,500 players and netting myself a cool $3.50 for almost four hours of constant concentration and patience.

The moral of the story? Maybe I’m the crazy one for taking a $1 buy-in tournament so seriously, but to me, good poker is good poker. If you’re going to play these giant events, you need to abandon the survival mentality and instead adapt a chip collecting mentality. Big stacks lead to less pressure and better decisions. Better decisions lead to bigger stacks. Amazing how that works, isn’t it?

pokerblog.com

If you’re playing Sit & Go’s competitively and looking to actually use these events as a way to build up your bankroll, you need to understand that the only way to truly be profitable at S&G’s is to always strive for 1st place. 3rd and even 2nd place money won’t be enough in the long run to sustain your roll if/when you go on a downward swing in your poker career, therefore once you get into the top three spots during a S&G, it’s now time to aim for the stars.

Despite no longer being on the money bubble, many players will continue to fold decent hands and wait for one of the other two players at the table to eliminate the other. While this will work once in awhile, often times this will put you at a large disadvantage in chips heads-up, greatly lowering your chances of a 1st place victory. Instead, you want to aggressively play medium strength hands like A-8 and better, hoping to either take down the blinds of weak/tight players, or to pressure them to move all-in with less than preferred cards.

As a final thought, in order to stay in contention for 1st place during the final round, you cannot let your chip stack stray too far below the equivalent of ten big blinds. At this point, doubling up won’t put you into a comfortable chip position and you’ll be forced to go all-in again before you’d like to. If you do start get near the ten big blind mark, you’re going to need to open up your hand selection fairly wide to include not just any A-X combo, but also probably K-X and even Q-X if the situation is dire enough. You simply can’t afford to just fold constantly and let your stack disappear; you need to make a stand. Remember, play for 1st or don’t play at all!

pokerblog.com

For their first public event, Dream Team Poker has had an overwhelming response of interest. They’ve even had to close registration three days before the event starts because they have already sold out the capacity of their room. As of now, there are more than 10 teams on the waiting list to be allowed to play the event. This $1650 buy in tournament ($550 per player), is not shy of its celebrity players either. Johnny Chan, Shannon Elizabeth, and Michael Binger are just a few that are signed up on teams so far.

pokerblog.com

Ace rag is not a good hand to call an all in unless someone is going all in blind. Even then, you only have one over card to whatever they are going all in with (excluding small pocket pairs with are a coin flip anyways.) You have to consider what kinds of hands your opponent will push all in with. In the best circumstances you are 57%-43% against KJ off suit. Against a pocket pair you are 30%-70%, and any bigger ace has you dominated. This does not prove to be very good odds when calling off most of your chips to someone’s all in. Even in the instances where you have someone covered by a substantial margin, the odds that they are pushing with a bigger ace is considerable. In most cases, it is not worth it. When calling an all in, you want to avoid doubling up the short stacks because they can quickly become a force at the table. You want to give yourself the best chances of taking them out and adding their chips to your stack. In the case of calling an all in with a low grade hand like A3, just fold it and wait for a better opportunity. It would be more beneficial to wait for a better hand or a better spot to take advantage of their chips.

pokerblog.com

The good thing about folding is that it really isn’t too hard to figure out when you should do so. If you’re playing online, there are a ton of hand calculators that you can use simultaneously while in a game that will help you make the correct fold/call/raise decision in almost any situation. However, if using tools and knowing the math on your own isn’t your strong suit, you need to be able to identify the warnings signs of when you might be behind in a hand, as well as when its time to chase a draw or not.

Numerous factors can play into this decision. Flopping second pair against one opponent is somewhat strong, while flopping second pair against multiple opponent’s can be very dangerous. Normally the only way you can improve your hand at that point is to hit trips on the turn or river, and very rarely will the pot odds add up correctly to warrant doing so. Against even a single opponent there are still many things to consider, such as your opponents chip stack, position, what knowledge you have of his previous hands, etc. There are normally so many variables to consider in these situations that making the correct play can be very hard to deduce. If your opponent is first to act and he bets into you, most of the time you’ll need to lay it down and pick a better spot

Keep in mind that the goal in poker is to minimize losses and maximize profits. With a weak pair or drawing hand, you are not going to be able to get a lot of chips out of a opponent who’s hand you can beat, but you can give up a lot of chips trying to do so. Don’t get married to your hands, develop fold discipline and have the patience to put your money in at the right time as often as possible.

pokerblog.com

Thinking about playing this way and actually doing it, however, can be difficult. No one wants to be taken advantage of at the table, but if you really break down the components of what’s happening, you’re just getting a taste of your own medicine. Any good poker players knows that you attack the weaker players at the table far more often than you do the experienced ones. This doesn’t mean you should fold premium hands to the best player at the table, but it also doesn’t mean you should be reraising him constantly just to get him to lay down a pot.

The most important thing to remember is that at its core, poker is about making money. None of the players at the end of the night are going to remember if someone got the better of you in every hand, all they’re going to think about is the money they personally won and lost. The point is, don’t put too much thought into having to look tough or like someone who will defend their cards til they go broke, you will not be admired for such play.

Ideally, you’ll want to avoid the sharks at your table unless the situation is heavily in your favor, such as when you flop a set or a comparative monster hand. Use these occasional moments to take a few pots off the best opponents at the table, and then go back to pressuring the weakest ones. Your stress level will lower, your profits will rise, and you’ll have a better overall experience.

pokerblog.com

Personally, I have never called a clock on anyone and in most circumstances I wouldn’t advocate calling a clock. For the most part, I believe that some players genuinely need more time to make a decision. Perhaps the money that is on the line is a lot of money to them, and it isn’t easy for them to justify making a call for that amount. Maybe they need to replay the entire hand in their head, calculate odds, and play back previous hands with that opponent. There are several factors to consider, and some people take longer than others to siphon through all the information. A lot of times I will take several minutes to observe my opponent to get a read off of them. I know a player who takes a few minutes to decide because he is waiting for his instincts to kick in. In tournaments players who take a long time to decide can be even more frustrating because it affects how many hands are seen at that particular blind level. However, in tournaments these decisions are even more crucial because they are the difference between life and death.

I’ve seen players who use the clock to their advantage, especially in tournaments. There was one guy I played a tournament with, and any time it was heads up he would either go all in or place a bet and immediately call a clock on his opponent. It was definitely a strategy that put his opponent at a disadvantage of only having a minute to make a decision to make a bad call or fold the best hand. I think this is entirely in bad form to do this, and it’s just downright rude.
There have been several occasions where I’ve run into those repeat offenders of lengthy decision making. When a person is making a habit of taking an extended period of time to make even the smallest decisions, then I wouldn’t knock someone for getting inpatient and calling a clock on them. Maybe they will get the hint and start being more aware of the other people that are at the table. I recently sat at a table where this woman was slowing down the action every hand. She would continuously ask the dealer who raised, what the amount was, and continue to dramatize every little decision that was put to her. The whole table was getting upset and I was falling asleep, so I was glad when someone started calling the clock on her. In the future, I can’t see too many situations where I would call a clock on someone, but it is these instances that I think some action should be taken against those that are inconsiderate of others at the table.

pokerblog.com

Thankfully when I get there the games seem good and they have a selection to choose from in case I get stuck on a dreadful table. My game is actually decent and I like the action that is going around. The standard preflop action is raised 5 times the big blind with an average of four callers. It doesn’t take long to figure out who are the loose players and who are the tight players. The best part about this table is the big stacks are actively building pots, but they are not aggressively trying to take it down post flop. This is a great table for a medium to small stack to build off of. I limp into several pots with a wide range of hands including AK-J10, any suited ace, suited connectors, and suited gapped connectors. With a table that is fairly loose preflop, I opened up my range of hands when it was opened for a standard raise. On a tighter table I would probably fold a large range of these hands for a raise unless I was getting great odds, but on this table I knew that the two big stacks were raising with anything, and the other callers were most likely calling with two face cards or pocket pairs.

It only took about two hours for this method to become detrimental to my chip stack. I was getting a lot of suited connectors in late position, and I was calling the raises preflop and missing. Even more frustrating is I couldn’t find any good spots to pull off a bluff to recuperate some of my losses. At this point I was definitely considering going back to my standard hands for calling a raise. Once again the pot was raised 5x the BB, there were three callers in front of me, and I noticed this lady was already getting her bet together to call. I looked down at 6s 7s and said to myself, “Ok one last time we’ll give this a try.” I called, and to my surprise the lady minraised. With the three callers in front of me I reluctantly called as well. The flop came out 6h 7d 9d. It checked around to me, and I checked seeing that the lady was already counting chips to bet. She bet half my stack and I moved all in. She called with aces and luckily didn’t hit a set. I was grateful to double up as my method finally paid off.

For me, calling raises with a wide range of hands works best when you are doing it against a tight player or when there is big pot building action. When playing against a tight player I open my range of hands tremendously because I know what kinds of hands he is playing based on his raise. If I miss the flop, I can easily lay the hand down. In multiway pots, I like to call with a wide range because the investment I put into hitting my hand is worth it in regards to the pot size. Also, if you can determine who the tight players are on the table and they are involved in the pot, you can be fairly sure that they have each other’s outs. I try to avoid calling raises with mediocre hands when the participants are looser players or other players that play a wide range. It is more difficult to play against these players when you hit two pair with your suited connectors. For all you know they have a straight or higher two pair. When trying this strategy out, it is good to make a plan for the amount of chips you are willing to play loosely with. There is no point in calling so many raises and missing that you become desperate to double up. Consider your cards and position in relation to your opponents cards and position to make better decisions on when to call a raise. Make a plan and if it doesn’t work out you’ll have to start waiting for good hands. When you get a good hand you can limp reraise with it to take down the pots preflop.

pokerblog.com