Many of the tips we have on here are fairly basic or towards beginners. So I wanted to start writing some advanced poker strategy tips for the intermediate poker players. Once you reach the “advanced” level and start playing higher stakes games, a higher level of skill is required. You can get by with just basic poker skills when playing $1-$2 NLH, but once you get up to the $5-$10 NLH level and higher, you absolutely must have these advanced poker strategy tips down pat:

Tip #1: Get that bankroll up to par

Want to play $5-$10 NLH daily? Then you better have at least $20,000 set aside for poker. Even the $2-$5 NLH game requires a sizeable bankroll. You need a minimum of 20 times the buy-in to your game. That doesn’t include money to cover your bills and expenses. That is ONLY money for poker. A poker player with a small bankroll will be a broke poker player more often than not.

Tip #2: Adapt to the style of play at the table

A great poker player is one that can adjust. If you’re a loose player, sometimes you have to tighten up. If your table is full of calling stations and loose donkeys, you can’t expect to just push people around. In this situation, tightening up and playing your big hands aggressively is the right play. At a tight table, play loose-aggressive and bluff your opponents off hands. Don’t play the same style of play as your opponents.

Tip #3: Adapt to how your opponents have adapted to you

My most important advanced poker strategy tip is to take what your opponents are giving you. Sometimes I sit down at a table with the intention of giving off a tight image so that I can get away with bluffs later. Other times I sit down and fire away at pots. Eventually, the table will catch on to your game unless they are complete morons. Once you sense they’re picking up on your act, switch things up. Following this advanced poker strategy tip will save you money on bluffs that won’t work (if you’re playing loose) and allow you to bluff more (if you’re playing tight).

Tip #4: Don’t play on tilt

The one thing that really sets the winning poker players from the losing players apart is the ability to shrug off bad beats and bad runs of cards. If you’re down a few hundred bucks and not playing well, do you continue to play, or do you walk away and come back another day? The hardest part about playing poker is walking away when the odds aren’t favorable. If you are on tilt, the odds of you winning aren’t favorable. So walk away.

ADVANCED POKER STRATEGY – Bonus Tip

My final advanced poker strategy tip is to have a purpose for every bet you make. That purpose could be to get the opponent off the hand, to build the pot so that it is large in case you hit a draw, to convince your opponent that you have a weak hand when you’re holding a monster, etc. Don’t just throw out random bets just for the heck of it. There should be a well thought out reason for each bet you make and the size of bet you make.

The post 4 Advanced Poker Strategy Tips that are Effective for Any Poker Game appeared first on Poker on a Mac.

Online poker freerolls are fun to play. Most of them, however, don’t payout much. The standard prize pool of a freeroll tournament is $100-$200. Sure, those can help pay for buy-ins to micro SNG’s and cash games. They just won’t give you enough money to play the higher stakes games. Here at PokerOnaMac, we seek out online poker freerolls that have large prize pools. We’ve found a great freeroll at Bovada.

Every other week (Thursdays and Sundays), Bovada hosts a $5,000 prize pool freeroll with 20% of the players getting paid. These are freerolls in the sense that you don’t buy-in with cash. Instead, you buy-in with your Bovada player points. 1,000 points gets you into either the Thursday Turbo freeroll or the Saturday regular freeroll. Or, you can win a daily satellite tournament for as little as 25 player points to earn a ticket into the bi-weekly freerolls.

Online Poker Freerolls With Large Payouts are as Valuable as Real Money Tournaments

Many online poker players have the wrong attitude about online poker freerolls. Even though it costs you nothing to enter – except player points – these poker games can help you win a nice chunk of change. When you play in the Bovada online poker freerolls, think of them as a way to make hundreds of dollars. What would a few hundred bucks – or even a thousand – do for you?

For most players, that money would help get their poker career off the ground. Just because you don’t risk money to enter a freeroll doesn’t mean they aren’t as valuable as real money poker tournaments. If you play poorly and don’t win, you DO lose money. Money that could have been won if you had played well is money lost. Speaking of playing well, let’s talk Bovada $5k freeroll strategy…

Tips to Help You Dominate Bovada’s $5k Bi-Weekly Freerolls

There’s a lot of money at stake in Bovada’s bi-weekly freerolls. In order to win some of it you absolutely must follow our tips. Start by playing extremely tight early on. There really is no benefit to playing aggressive and/or loose early on. Allow the clueless players to bust out before you start making moves.

At every table early on, there will be at least a few that will call off all of their chips with junk hands. That’s good news if you have a monster, but it makes it difficult to pull off a bluff. Once those players are gone, start playing your normal – hopefully aggressive – style of play. You can make moves once the donkeys have all been eliminated. After you get to the final table, play to win. Go for the big bucks. Most players will tighten up at the final table. Push them around and take the crown!

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The PokerStars Sunday Million is the best and biggest weekly online poker tournament. This is a golden opportunity for players of all skill levels to compete for enormous prizes without making a massive investment. Top poker pros, players new to the game and everyone in between compete in the PokerStars Sunday Million.

The tournament kicks off each Sunday afternoon on PokerStars. There is a $215 buy-in and a guaranteed prize pool of $1,000,000 (first place regularly pays out $150,000+). Most players opt to satellite their way into the tournament each week. Satellites run often at PokerStars for as low as $0.55 or free by using your FPP’s.

PokerStars Sunday Million Has Been a Popular Weekly Event for More than 8 Years

The PokerStars Sunday Million is a historical weekly poker tournament. Back in March, PokerStars celebrated the 8th anniversary of this popular tournament. Players from all over the world competed for a share of the record-setting $8 million prize pool. The winner – DrUPSWING – took home a cool $1,038,540.31 after playing 15 grueling hours of online poker.

“DrUPSWING” defeated a player with perhaps the worst name in the history of online poker – “hdjgkfkgsdl” to claim the title. More than 40,000 players entered the anniversary event. While the PokerStars Sunday Million doesn’t regularly have such a massive field, the 8^th anniversary tournament helped PokerStars increase the popularity of this weekly tournament.

PokerStars Sunday Million Strategy – Patience is a Virtue

Here at PokerOnAMac.com, we offer many free poker strategy tips. One tip we haven’t mentioned is the type of strategy you should employ when playing the PokerStars Sunday Million. So here’s a bit of valuable advice. You MUST play this tournament with extreme patience.

Don’t make too many moves early on in the tournament. There isn’t much value in stealing blinds or taking down small pots while risking your stack early on. The tournament typically lasts 10+ hours each Sunday. The payout is big ($150,000+ for first place), so you’re going to have to work for your money. Be patient. The best strategy to play is to bide your time. Find spots where you can win big pots, survive each blind level and then become aggressive later in the tournament. Good luck!

The post PokerStars Sunday Million Can Now Be Played for… FREE?! appeared first on Poker on a Mac.

There is a fine line between winning and losing in poker. Winning poker players don’t always play flawless. Everyone makes mistakes. Even the great Phil Ivey occasionally calls off his stack when he’s crushed. However, the difference between Ivey – and other winning players – is he doesn’t continually make the same mistake. More specifically, winning poker players don’t consistently make these mistakes:

5 Expensive Mistakes in Poker

Mistake #1: Playing “short stacked”

Bankroll management is essential. If you don’t have a bankroll of at least 20x the buy-in you will likely go bust eventually. Also, don’t buy into games with a short stack. For example, in most $1-$3 NLH cash games, players can buy-in for $100-$300. Never buy-in for just $100. I suggest always buying in for the max or, at the very least, twice the minimum buy-in. Low stacks get pushed around by big stacks. Winning poker players are gutsy. You can’t be afraid to lose money.

Mistake #2: Ignoring pot odds

One of the worst mistakes a player can make is to chase draws just for the heck of chasing a draw. For example, if you flop an open-ended straight draw, your decision to call your opponent’s bet should be based on the odds (implied and actual odds). Calling just because you have a “feeling” you’re going to hit isn’t going to cut it in the long run. Mike Matusow wasn’t giving sound advice when he chanted, “poker, poker it’s all skill, start with the worst hand and go uphill” on TV during a WSOP years ago.

Mistake #3: Playing too many hands

Folding isn’t fun. I get that. I hate it when I’m at a table full of loose donkeys and the best hand I am dealt all day is A-10. Days like this will test any poker player’s patience. However, I know that if I continue being patient, eventually that one hand that makes my day of folding hands worthwhile. Unless your name is Tom Dwan or Daniel Negreanu, chances are you won’t benefit from playing 80% of the hands you’re dealt. Don’t play too tight, but also don’t play too loose.

Mistake #4: Only playing their own cards

Poker isn’t a card game. Doyle Brunson doesn’t just say that to sound smart. He means it. Poker is a game of psychology that just so happens to be played with cards. You can’t play winning poker if your only strategy is to play your cards and base your decisions on how strong your hand is. You have to base your decisions on the hand you put your opponent on. “I have top pair so I’m calling this all-in bet” isn’t a winning strategy. “I have top pair and my opponent played this hand like he missed a flush draw so I’m calling this all-in bet” is a winning strategy.

Mistake #5: Bluffing out of position in multi-way pots

Position is key in poker. If you’re first to act, you are not in prime bluffing position because you have yet to see how your opponents react to the board. When there are 2 or more opponents in the hand, bluffing in first position is almost always a risky play. However, if you are last to act and all players have checked it to you, bluffing may be a viable option. Your decision to bluff should be based on your position, your read on your opponent’s and the board texture. Boards such as K-Q-J aren’t great boards to bluff at even in position (a player or two may be waiting to check-raise). Boards such as 2-7-10 are prime bluffing boards.

Learn more poker strategy by reading our full section of poker articles.

The post 5 Most Common Mistakes That Cause You to Lose Money in Poker appeared first on Poker on a Mac.

Crushing this table would be easy if you practice our 6 no limit hold’em tips!

I know what you’re thinking – you want to improve your no-limit poker game quickly. Most no limit hold’em tips will help, but they take time to truly master. So for those of you wanting immediate results, these six easy Texas Hold’em tips are for you.

Top 6 No Limit Hold’em Tips

Tip #1 – Stop playing so many hands (if you are)

I recently played in a tournament with a friend that was struggling with his poker game. He whined after busting out how unlucky he is. But the truth is he simply plays too many hands. I gave him some no limit hold’em tips and started by telling him that if he quit playing his suited connectors and other marginal hands – especially in early position – he would improve.

Tip #2 – Start playing more hands (if you are too tight)

Playing too many hands isn’t a smart idea and, unless your name is Tom Dwan, you probably can’t pull it off. But you’re not Tom Dwan because you even be here and certainly wouldn’t be reading these best no limit hold’em tips. Now, if you only play the nuts, it’s time to loosen up a bit. Raise with weaker hands like KJo once in a while. What’s the fun in folding 99% of the time? Plus, if you are too tight, you will be too predictable.

Tip #3 – Read more no-limit hold’em tips

The best way to learn poker is by watching talented players. Right here on Pokeronamac.com, you will find many helpful free poker tips. Many of us have been playing winning Texas Hold’em for years, so please feel free to read through our past articles.

Tip #4 – Become more aggressive

Just because you whiffed at the flop doesn’t mean you have to check the hand. If you’re in position, why not throw out a bet, especially at a flop with low cards? If there are five players in the hand and the flop is K-Q-J and you’re holding 5-6, of course you shouldn’t bet, even if you’re trying to bluff. However, if there are only 2-3 players in the hand and you have in position on a board that flips 10-8-2, throw out a bet if you’re checked to! Don’t be afraid to bet with nothing in the right situation, you’ll be surprised at how often it happens.

Tip #5 – Start trusting your instincts

The hardest thing I had to learn early on in my poker career was to trust my instincts. You’ll find that your instincts are right more often than not. If you feel your opponent is weak, don’t fold to his bet. If you are holding top-pair and feel he’s holding the nuts, lay it down. Stop playing cards and start playing poker.

Tip #6 – Change up your style of Hold’em play

Here’s what I want you to do the next time you log into your favorite online poker site (click the link to read reviews of top sites if you don’t have one yet!). Play tight the first half hour or so. Build a tight table image. Just fold hands unless you have a monster. After a half hour, switch it up and start bluffing. I bet you get away with a few bluffs because your opponents will put you on big hands. Once you sense the table now has you pegged as a loose player, tighten back up.

The post 6 No Limit Hold’em Tips That Will Drastically Improve Your Game appeared first on Poker on a Mac.

Online poker freerolls run hourly on 888poker.

Want to learn how to play poker and make some money without risking a dime? Then 888poker is the place to be. 888poker has an awesome promotion for poker players that enjoy playing online poker freerolls. There isn’t a better freeroll promotion currently running anywhere.

What does this promo offer entail? When you join 888poker, a 24-hour freeroll meter will begin which gives you a shot to win your share of the $10,000 given out by 888poker each day in online poker freerolls. That means you can play as many freerolls as you want for that 24-hour period. You don’t even have to make a deposit to get in on the fun. You just have to be a new player that joins 888poker.com by September 2^nd. All new players are eligible.

888poker’s exclusive freeroll promotion includes more bells and whistles than what we have mentioned. If, after the 24-hour promotional period you are ready to make your first deposit, you will get another 48-hours of freeroll awesomeness. So, you can play poker non-stop for 3 days without investing a penny. Think of it as a free poker vacation without leaving the house. Just don’t forget to get up from your chair to eat and go to the bathroom.

Online Poker Freerolls Are More Than a Way to Learn Poker for Free

Online poker freerolls are the perfect way to improve your poker game without the risk. They don’t cost any money to enter, so there is no risk. We do encourage playing online poker freerolls for players wanting to improve their poker game without losing money. However, there is more of a purpose to playing freerolls than just the self-improvement aspect.

Poker freerolls are legitimate ways to increase your bankroll. You won’t win big on any freeroll, but you can win a few bucks each tournament – sometimes $100 or more – and this money will add up. Before you know it, if you play your cards right, you will have a legitimate bankroll so you can start playing real money games.

By the time you have built a sizable bankroll playing freerolls, your skill level will be up to par. Of course, you don’t have to grind out the freerolls if you don’t want. 888poker gives away plenty of free money to real money players following their initial deposit. But even if you choose to make a deposit and jump into the real money games right away, we still recommend taking advantage of 888poker’s poker freeroll frenzy.

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First off, let’s start with FTOPS history. The first FTOPS – which stands for Full Tilt Online Poker Series – took place in 2006. We are now at FTOPS XXVI. There have been 3-4 FTOPS events each year. The current FTOPS series, which began on August 3^rd, features 31 exciting poker tournaments over the course of 14 days.

The event concludes on August 17^th when the granddaddy of the all – Main Event – takes place. There is a guaranteed $1,000,000 prize pool, with first place taking home somewhere around a cool $250,000. To learn more about the FTOPS series and to view past tournament winners, take a look at the FTOPS history Wiki page.

What are you waiting for? Join Full Tilt Poker Today!

We don’t want to come off as shills for Full Tilt Poker, but we definitely love the FTOPS tournament series when it comes around, and you will get the same answer from any other online poker player too. They’re going to tell you the same thing as we are and that is to give the FTOPS XXVI a shot. There are many reasons to join FTP, but there isn’t a better time than right now. The event only runs until August 17^th, so time is running out to play in one of online poker’s most exciting events – the FTOPS series.

Full Tilt Poker is known for great cash games, MTT’s, sit n go’s, famous poker players…and the FTOPS series. FTOPS is one of those events poker players simply can’t miss out on. Not only can you win a boat load of cash in the FTOPS but, even more important, winners receive recognition throughout the poker community.

Winning FTOPS gold is a big deal in the world of online poker. Don’t miss out. Before playing the FTOPS, we strongly encourage you to brush up on your poker game by reading through our poker strategy articles. We will leave you with a link to FTP. It takes just a few minutes to get signed up and make a deposit. Then you can register immediately for the next FTOP event.

The post FTOPS XXVI – Your Best Opportunity to Score Big in August appeared first on Poker on a Mac.

Starting immediately, Carbon Poker is giving away free training sessions via well respected poker training site DragTheBar. This is your opportunity to learn from experienced poker professionals. You’ll learn the basics of poker strategy as well as more advanced game theory. This will help your poker game immensely.

All you have to do in order to take advantage of this free offer – good for a full month – is the following:

1. Join Carbon Poker and rake $1. That’s it – just $1. That won’t take any time at all.
2. Then, with your CarbonPoker username handy, get signed up for the free lessons: http://www.dragthebar.com/freepokertrainingcarbon/

Free Online Poker Training, Priceless Knowledge

For non-Carbon Poker players, DragTheBar’s training sessions costs about $30 per month. You get these online poker training lessons for free when you join Carbon Poker and rake $1. This training is invaluable, however. You can’t put a true price on it. Online poker is a tough game, which means you absolutely must learn from the best poker players possible.

DragTheBar is a large group of professional poker players that understand game theory, the right starting hands to select, how to dominate ring games/SNG’s/MTT’s, and much more. The free poker training includes 1,000+ videos that teach you everything there is to know about poker strategy, access to more than 40 coaches that are all respected poker pros, and an exclusive forum reserved especially for DragTheBar trainees.

Additionally, before joining DragTheBar’s free training sessions, you might want to take advantage of our own free poker training by reading through our poker tips and poker articles. In those articles, you will gain insight into the strategies used by successful poker professionals. They will help improve your game instantly, along with the training through DragTheBar and Carbon Poker.

Get your FREE Lessons now by signing up at Carbon Poker, then coming back here for the DragTheBar link above.

The post Carbon Poker & DragTheBar Offer Free Poker Training Lessons appeared first on Poker on a Mac.

The first thing that just might wet your appetite is Shark Week, which begins on August 10^th and ends on August 16^th. Shark Week on Carbon Poker is a series of daily freerolls that lead up to a $2,000 Shark Week Championship event on August 16^th. The only way to enter the championship event is by freerolling your way there. Here is a bit of information about Shark Week on Carbon Poker.

Carbon Online Poker Series Begins on August 1, 2014

In September, the Carbon Online Poker Series is going to be HUGE. Can’t afford to buy into the events? Don’t worry about it. You can satellite your way into this epic online poker series starting in August. Carbon Poker offers many satellite tournaments. Also, you can earn poker tournament tickets to the Carbon OPS events in September by playing on CarbonPoker.

If you’re unfamiliar with Carbon Poker, we suggest you read our full review of the site for information. We also have reviews of other Mac poker sites. We’ve tested all the top Mac poker sites and we can assure you that Carbon Poker is an exceptional online poker site. It’s a great place to be 365 days a year, but August and September is REALLY the time to get signed up for Carbon Poker. With the Carbon Online Poker Series and Carbon’s Shark Week, you absolutely must get signed up for the site ASAP.

Good luck at the tables and take a bite out of Shark Week!

The post Take a Bite Out of Your Opponent’s Stack During Carbon Poker’s Shark Week Promotion appeared first on Poker on a Mac.

Important Study shows that “Interactive” Poker isn’t Addictive

These days, it can be hard to sort out reality from fiction with regard to online gaming. This is especially the case with all of the venom that Sheldon Adelson has been spewing at internet gaming in a self-serving effort to protect his Las Vegas Sands empire. Adelson has argued on more than one occasion that interactive forms of gaming like PC-based and mobile poker increase the likelihood of gambling addiction. He cites convenience and the lack of casino supervision as reasons why online gaming is more dangerous.

This seems like a logical argument, in theory, because there isn’t any casino personnel around to cut somebody off from playing poker. But logic doesn’t equate to facts, as a recent study called “Interactive Gambling” proved.

After polling 19,550 adults through face-to-face, phone and online interviews, the study showed that “there is currently insufficient evidence to conclude that interactive gambling is causing higher levels of gambling problems.” The researchers added, “for a substantial proportion of interactive gamblers experiencing difficulties, these problems are related to non‐interactive modes.”

So contrary to what Adelson says, the problems normally start at land-based casinos and cardrooms first. That said, if you’re fretting about instantly becoming addicted to poker Android smartphone, just remember what this study concluded.

Millions of Players enjoy Android Poker without Incident

The other topic that we mentioned earlier involves the safety of playing poker through your Android phone. With a number of large companies being hacked lately, thus leading to customers’ private information becoming available, you really have to wonder about this with Android poker sites too. But thankfully, a poker site getting hacked is of the rarest occurrences in the world.

Remember, these are technology-based companies. So securing customer and company information is of the utmost importance. Like Adelson, we don’t have any hard data on our next statement, but we’d venture to say that you run a bigger risk of your credit card account getting hacked than your mobile poker account.

So for the wide majority of poker players out there, trying the game through an Android smartphone will be nothing short of a fun and enjoyable experience. This is even truer when you consider how many different perks there are to playing mobile poker. The most obvious is the convenience advantage due to how small smartphones are when compared to a PC or Mac. And thanks to developments in recent years, you’ll also enjoy a larger game selection, excellent graphics, more mobile-specific promotions and big tournaments.

Taking all of this into account, if you’re thinking of trying poker on your Android smartphone, don’t hesitate!

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