Wanna be Pro Poker player?

A wise old sage once said, “Poker is the hardest way to make an easy living” and if they never said anything else, that saying guaranteed them a place in the wise old sage hall of fame. Playing poker is easy, making a living at poker is not, in fact if you’re debating playing poker professionally, take a moment and consider that it would be your J-O-B. And before you laugh that off consider how much you enjoy sex, and then ask yourself how you’d feel about doing it for a living.

Just because you can turn a card and win a pot, doesn’t mean you’ve got what it takes to become a successful Poker Player. If you want to become an UNsuccessful poker player, please be my guest and let me know where you’re playing. You may think that you’re Mr Frosty the coolest cat on the block, because ou can write Occupation: Poker Player, on official forms but if you’re not making a living wage (or even minimum wage) then you might as well go work down the golden arches.  Why is it difficult? And what’s the big difference to playing cards socially? Read on.

First off don’t quit the day job until you are sure you have the basic technical skills to be a winner at the Poker Table. Second of all you need some serious start up money, you wouldn’t go into business expecting to turn a profit on week one and in poker you need money to make money, (no cash = no sit, no sit = no win, no win = no wages). If you think this, doesn’t matter, and you’ll be in the money soon enough, ask yourself if you would happily start a job and then be told you wouldn’t take home any money to for eth foreseeable future, but you’re expected to keep turning up and working away.  Thirdly you need fall back money, it keeps you going after a bad beat, it sees you through the times were you just lose and it should ensure no one takes away your car or your house (or breaks your thumbs).

Sounds easy?

If you’re going to make a go of it you MUST treat your money and your bankroll like the tools of your trade, (because that’s what they are) I’m talking bankroll management. By all means be aggressive with your bets, but don’t throw your cash away! A painter needs paint, a carpenter needs wood and a Poker Player needs cash (most tournaments supply their own tables and cards). It may be easy enough to get occasional big wins, but the same way that small pots are you’re bread and butter for a long session, likewise small daily (or five days a week) wins are what you need to focus on (first). Give it time as well, the top pros, know when to ride out the bad times, and cut the raises down accordingly, if you do that you should be able to play well enough during these stretches so you break-even, rather than lose money. Swinging from feast to famine, isn’t healthy in any job and certainly isn’t healthy in poker.

It’s not easy, but I wouldn’t want to do any other job.

The 19th edition of the Mega Stack Challenge, held at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut, is to include a new event that will pit the world champion Jonathan Duhamel and the 2010 “November Nine” against qualifiers in a special three-table tournament.

“This will be a legendary reunion watched by the entire poker community … Not only will the November Nine meet at Foxwoods to resurrect memories of their last game, the players will also test their skills against the casino’s strongest poker players,” enthused organiser Bernard Lee in a press release.

Duhamel became the first Canadian WSOP Main Event bracelet winner last November, beating Jonathan Racener in the heads-up battle to take home almost nine million dollars. Michael Mizrachi, an undisputed success story in the poker world, especially during the WSOP of 2010 in which he won the $50,000 Players’ Championship and was chip leader during the latter stages of the Main Event before reaching the final table with a smallish stack of 14,450,000 chips and finishing in fifth place. Between the 5.5 million-dollar prize that Racedner took home, to the 811,000 bonus to 9th-place finisher Soi Nguyen, came Joseph Cheong, Filippo Candio, Mizrachi, John Dolan, Jason Senti and Matthew Jarvis, in descending order.

The XIX Foxwoods Mega Stack Challenge begins on 4th February 2011. The Challenge consists of a series of six events with an accumulated $400,000 in guaranteed prize money. The $1,200 buy-in No Limit Texas Holdem Poker tournament has a guaranteed $150,000 prize bucket. The series includes a more-modest priced $75,000 Guaranteed tournament with a $300 buy-in; from 10,000-chip stacks, levels will only last half an hour – survivors of the two starting days on February 7th 8th will play out on February 9th. Single-table satellites to each tournament are also available and start at an affordable $75.

The reason I say that you should become well rounded is because you never know where opportunity is going to strike.  Most home games are either a compilation of a bunch of silly games like After the Queen, Low Hole and 7, Middle Hole and the like or straight up Texas Holdem Poker tournaments.  Any game with a wild card is pretty much pot luck so you can focus on hold’em and clean up with your buddies.

When you are looking to play cards for a living, you have to be able to play where the money is.  For instance, you walk into your local card room and all of the hold’em tables are not only filled, but are occupied by people that you know are better than you.  On the other hand, the 7 stud table has 2 seats open and has nothing but suckers sitting at it.  Do you want to be on the list to donate your money or would you rather go sit down and make 2 month’s rent in one session?

The other money making opportunity for this is playing poker on poker sites.  H.O.R.S.E. tournaments are becoming more and more popular at the poker sites. While there may be a lot of players in them, they do not always have the best skills once you get into the stud variations.  It is always funny to watch someone play Razz for the first time as it can get quite confusing. These poker sites offer more popular games which might be an opportunity to make more money.

This is where being a well rounded player will help you.  Let them fight it out on the hold’em and Omaha Poker games.  You can sit back and wait for big hands there, but when the stud games roll in, all bets are off.  This is where you can lay down the hammer and take advantage of the weaker players.

As a matter of fact, this is also true of the live game.  I’m not sure if you noticed for not, but the majority of the variation games had all pro’s going deep in the WSOP.  The reason behind this is the fields are smaller and the play is much weaker.  A skilled player can rip right through these games.  In all honesty, if you want to win a bracelet, this is your best chance.

Now is the time to start practicing.  Get as much experience as you can at the micro levels online and then get into the live games at the casino.  Start at the lower levels to get a feel for how the game is played and then start sitting in with the big boys.  You may even find that you like it better than hold’em!

Players tend to get tunnel vision the moment that their hands hit and pay little attention to anything else.  Now this was a notable pro player at one of the most prestigious poker tournaments in the world and he never thought for a second that he was second best. This is proof that it can happen to anyone.

This is something that will also happen with high pairs or when someone hits the high portion of the board with a card.  For instance, you are sitting on K9s and a K hits the board along with two babies.  You lead out and someone comes over top of you and you immediately push.  What makes you think that a 9 kicker is going to hold up?  Even if you are ahead at that moment, more than likely it is a bad play to commit your stack with that type of hand.

The same can be said for the small flush.  Even when the odds are slim that the other player also has a flush, it is pretty safe to assume that they are on a massive draw and if another card hits, you are dead and your chips gets shuffled across the table.  There is no worse feeling than seeing the aftermath and asking yourself, “What the hell was I thinking?”

There is a time and a place to make a stand and a baby flush is not it.  If you are going to make a play, you are much better off waiting until the river anyway.  At this point, you can get a better read on your opponent and pretty much know if they were going after the draw of if they had the same flush as you did, only stronger.

This also gives you the ability to still get out of the hand with relatively little damage to your stack.  If you are leading out, you can do so with smaller bets that won’t cripple you if you end up losing.  You can still make a move on the hand on the river with a healthy raise, but if they come over top of you, you can be pretty sure that they are not just bluffing.

The problem when you get aggressive early in a hand like this is that any draw will come right back at you.  You are then faced with the decision to give someone two more cards and hope that your baby flush holds up or worse, have the cards turned and realize that you are drawing dead.  There is always as time to make a stand, but choose a better hand.

The Maniac plays exactly as the name describes. He is crazy, wild, and shows no regard for typical poker theory. In fact, it almost seems like he hates money. This holds true until someone calls one of his crazy bets while he is holding the nuts. This player can win or lose a lot of chips in a hurry. Once they have a lot of chips they can be very dangerous because of their aggressive nature. So strap in as we dissect The Maniac.

Spotting the Maniac will be easy. He makes the biggest bets in the strangest spots and most likely will be doing the most talking. This is due to the fact that everyone will be questioning what the heck he is doing. This is definitely the type of player that we want to beat themselves, but you also want to make sure that you get some of the rewards before he is out of money. First, the setup. Try and play a few pots with this player. Heads up would be nice, but if some others sneak in it won’t matter. The idea is to let the Maniac bluff you out of some pots.

Make him think that he will just run right over you. Once he finally gets the idea that you are soft, you bait the hook. It may take some patience, but we are looking for a decent to good hand that connects on the flop. The ideal situation would be for him to raise pre-flop and you slow-play a top ten hand. Once he has his money in there, he will continue to fire at the pot. Setting a trap seems like the logical course of action, but let’s stop and consider it for a moment.  If you lead out to this person, he will at least call because he already created a big pot. Most likely he will raise because he remembers how soft you are. This is where we get the extra bet out of him or even an all-in.

Remember to trust your instinct when he fires out at you. You may have to grow a pair right there at the table, but you will be glad you did when you scoop a monster.

I am not a big fan of the phrase, “that’s poker,” but it really is.  The nature of the beast is that bad beats are going to happen and you need to be able to deal with them if you are going to be a successful poker player.  What you need to do is keep your mouth shut and deal with the bad beat instead of giving a poker lesson at the table.

When someone makes a play like that, they more than likely think that they have done the right thing and you need to applaud them for their incredible play.  The reality of it is that you want this guy to make that play each and every time.  Sheer odds dictate that you are going to come out on top in this situation far more than you are going to lose.  He may have beaten you on this occasion, but in the end, you are going to be the one holding the chips on him.

If you give him the lecture, you are teaching your opponent how to play the game.  Why would you ever do that?  Not only that, but you are also giving the entire table information on how you play the game and exposing yourself to bluffs and getting outplayed in later hands.  This is one of the absolute no-no’s of poker.  Again, keep your mouth shut and take the beat.  If you open it up at all, it should be to tell him he made a great play.

Dealing with something like this is going to take some discipline.  You were expecting to win a huge hand and all of sudden someone else is taking down the pot.  Start thinking about the times that you sucked out and put a smile on your face.  File the information away for later and eventually, that money will be back in your stack.

When the hand presents itself again and he does not hit, tell him how scared you were to play against him.  Tell him how lucky he has been and you figured he would hit again.  All of this will re-enforce his playing style and get him to continue to feed the pots and help you get that stack back in the positive.  Dealing with a suckout is part of the game and you better learn how to do it if you are going to get the most out of bad players.

  Details: Country of Origin : United Kingdom License : Gibraltar Year of Foundation : 2004 Software : Microgaming Currencies Used : EUR, GBP, USD Audited By : PWC Available Games : Texas Holdem, Omaha, 5 Card Stud, 5 Card Draw, 7 Card Stud Bonus : Sign up Bonus of Up To $500

Ladbrokes are the oldest and the most prestigious gambling providers with a rich history that goes down to 1887, when they started off with horse race betting. With more than a century of experience the world-renowned company has opened its doors to online gambling as well. Its reputation as one of the finest bookmakers in the whole of Europe stands guarantee to the fact that its online services will be as trustworthy and efficient as its offline services.

It has a lot to offer in the form of games and promotions with huge cash rewards for their esteemed players. These wonderful offers draw a good amount of traffic to the website. There is a lot of cash to be won and players wanting to make money will find this a very good place.

Software

Ladbrokes Poker has made a recent shift from its own software to the vast MicroGaming software. The new software has added some improvements to the earlier dull look that the website possessed. The graphics are clear and offer 3D effects and the interface is user-friendly. The ‘My Lobby’ option gives you access to all the information such as the various games on offer and their variations and level, player statistics, real time hand histories, average pot size, number of players at a table, flop percentages, chip stack amounts and other necessities.

A chat facility is enabled where players can interact with one another. Also available is a calendar that helps players organize themselves for upcoming events so that they are given reminders as the date approaches.

Traffic

Peak hour traffic can go high above 10,000 players playing at various cash tables and tournaments simultaneously. The peak hour here is generally calculated by the European peak time. The Microgaming software is also the reason for an improved amount of traffic visiting the Ladbrokes Poker website.

Games

The games offered at Ladbrokes Poker include Texas Holdem, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, 5 Card Stud, 5 Card Draw, 7 Card Stud. The most popular as with all poker sites, are the Holdem games with more concentration of traffic at the fixed limit levels. The games are juicy and loose, resulting in a lot of action and huge amounts in forms of bets can be seen and won. Micro limits starting at $0.05/$0.10 are available for players on low budgets while high rollers can have their fun at the $200/$300 limits.

Tournaments

Ladbrokes promotes a lot of tournaments as they stand to be the favorite among poker players. You can choose to play single or multi-table tournaments, while Ladbrokes Poker offers satellite tournament qualifiers that give players a chance to make it to big international events such as the European Open Tour and World Satellite Open Poker Tournament.

Apart from this there are various other tournaments to select from and these take place at intervals of ten minutes 24 hours a day. Free rolls are offered so that players can accumulate points besides which there are guaranteed tournaments and jackpots too.

Promotions

Ladbrokes Poker offers Player Points to all those players who players who play at the cash tables. These points are accumulated and exchanged for cash into your account or for buy-ins to live satellite tournaments. The points you gather are also calculated and listed on the leader board placing you at a certain rank on the board. The rake race leaderboard promotion has been designed by Ladbrokes Poker in order to reward the top 3,000 players according to their rank on the leaderboard.

To be able to get yourself listed on this board, you need to play a lot of raked hands. The more you play the higher you go on the ranking board. This is a good way of rewarding those players who play at the poker room with utmost dedication. The amount that is given out every month to players on the leaderboard is a generous $1,000,000 distributed according to the ranks of the players.

Deposit/Withdrawal Options

Deposit options as always are more than withdrawal methods and include VISA, MasterCard, PayPal, Neteller, Solo. Switch, Delta, Bank Transfers and check while for withdrawals you could make use of VISA, MasterCard, PayPal, Bank Wire and Check.

Support

Ladbrokes Poker offers customer support 24 hours a day through toll free telephone numbers and via their email service. The staff is very supportive and comes up with immediate help and answers to queries.

One of the most common tells in poker is the amount of time that it takes people to react to making their play. This is especially true for beginner players. Taking too long and acting quickly are the most common tells, but it is easy to get confused if you are not careful.

Check raising is something that you will see quite often, especially if you are in isolation against a player. In order to make the right call when it comes time to make your play, you really need to watch at how the player reacted to each bet that was made.

Assume you are on the button and it has folded around to you. You place a 4x the blind raise and the sb folds, but the bb stays in the pot with you. First take notice if he does a snap call or takes some time to think about it. If he is taking his time, he could be on suited connectors or small pocket pair. Any big hand here would have him throwing his chips in quickly. If he is taking his time, he is more than likely trying to decide if the investment is worth it.

A flop comes and the board hits you with a pair, but also has two suited cards. Now you are sitting on trips and have a huge opportunity to make some money depending upon what your opponent is holding. More than likely, he will check the action over to you, but once again, see how long it takes for this to happen. He checks and then you fire again. His check happened immediately and how he is taking his time to decide what to do. After taking the max time, he comers right back over the top of you.

This gives you a ton of information when you put everything together. His quick check followed by the long decision tells you that he has probably not hit the board, but has the possibility of a huge hand. He may have an over pair to the board or may be sitting on a flush draw. You are now going to be faced with the decision of calling him down or putting him in for all of his chips.

The best play for you in this case is to get them in and make him decide. The thinking here is that he has suited connectors and is pushing on a flush draw. This is a common move and gives the player a lot of outs. In many cases, their opponent will fold the hand to the check raise, but by coming over the top, you now have him on decision to risk his stack or tournament life on a draw. In a cash game, you will probably get called because they can rebuy. In a tournament, you can count on taking this pot down right here with an experienced player. While the odds are in their favor, most players will not risk calling off their stack to a draw.

There are a lot more tells to look for when playing online poker. Remember, just because you are not in the same room with the person does not mean that they are not giving off information.

Virgin Poker Review

This is another of Virgin’s great ventures, which has turned out to be the best online poker gaming sites. Its exceptional quality information on poker playing techniques along with many other benefits has made it such a frequented website.

Virgin Poker has around 507 tables available online which are simple and user friendly. These tables are clearly visible in the Lobby screen. You can choose from a variety of games such as Texas Hold’em, 7 Card Stud Poker, and 5 Card Draw and also the type of tournament you would like to play. Each table has a different kind of betting limits, so that you can select the one you wish to use.

Firstly you have to register, which hardly takes any time, before you can begin to play. Instructions are very easy to understand, so you will not have any problems handling it. If you have any questions, you can contact the 24 hour customer support team.

The site also boasts of fabulous bonus points known as the V*POINTS which can be cashed for various Virgin offerings, such as Virgin Vouchers and Virgin flying miles. There are a number of other promotional offers as well.

Virgin Poker also offers a vast amount of information on the gaming techniques, which can be useful for new players as well as the experienced ones. A Poker School is also organized every Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday.

Also at the Virgin Poker site there is a poker blog, a Poker Tales tab which brings you all that you wish to know about poker and the Virgin pro’s tab, which gives you a list of all its added benefits.

So, to sum up the whole thing, we can say that the Virgin Poker site is the best that you can get online, for a great gaming experience for both amateurs as well as poker playing experts.

I must say that a lot of Poker players find it hard to work on various formulas presented by mathematicians and poker experts around the world. But you don’t have to worry because I am here today to make it simpler. You can figure out pot odds through simple division and multiplication. This, I’m sure, will prove to be more effective than those that require advanced mathematics. We call this method as 4-2.

To begin with, you have to compute the number of outs you have on Poker hand. As you know, an out is a term for card which you can pick for a winning hand. Let’s make use of the clubs A-10. Can you count the outs you have on hand when the flop turns to Jc-9c-8h? Also, you have to ask yourself what is a winning move for this flop. You should remember that you actually have an open-ended straight draw and a nut flush draw. You can also get the chance of winning the hand when an ace hit the board. In other words, you have all queens, 9 clubs, all seven, and winning aces. Now can you express these in a 4-2 method? It will result to a 9+4+4+3=20. But it’s not yet over as there is problem that I see here. You have counted 2 outs twice.

Please do remember that the 9 outs flush include the 7 of clubs and the queen of clubs. Therefore, we can change your outs to be able to come up with 18 hitting outs, which we can express this way: 9+3+3+3=18.

After you figured out the outs you have on hand, let’s come now to the percentage figures to hit your hand.  This is the best time to see clearly the gist of the 4-2 method. Multiply the total number of outs you have on hand by 4, add 2 to its result. Using this example, it can be expressed in this manner: 18×4=72+2=74. The end result will determine the percentage of hitting your hand through river pot after the flop. Just in case you have to turn, you will then have to multiply the total number of outs you have on hand and multiply by 2, and add 1. We can express it this way: 18×2=36+1=37. Since the end result is 37, therefore, the percentage of hitting your hand is 37% by the pot of river.

A tricky part, however, is when it’s time to learn the pot percentage before you make a call against a bet. Say for instance, a pot has $75 placed in there; a Online Poker opponent placed a $50 bet. Now can you figure out how much percentage is the pot that you need to call?

Before you proceed, determine the amount present in the pot. $75+$50=$125. So $125 is the end result for the original pot size and your opponent’s bet. And to be able to come up with the calculation, you have to include your call into the pot. Then divide 50 from what is the amount in the pot. It will result to 175 when you decide to make a call. We can express this as: 50/175. You will know that its end result is in a decimal percentage form, .285. To get the real percentage form, you have to move the decimal over two spots which results to 28.5%.