How To Learn Poker

Increasing The Pot Preflop Larger From Late Position In Poker

chris — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:47:29 +0000

There are certain situations when you do not have a monster hand but you still want to make the pot larger preflop. Your goal is to win a larger pot if your hand hits and for this reason you make a small or medium preflop raise. The great opportunity this hand provides is that your opponents will have a very hard time putting you on a hand. If you make this play many times in a session your opponents will have no idea of what kind of a hand you have.

To be successful, at least one of the following circumstances must occur in order to have an advantage over your opponents:

there are several players who entered the pot and you are in late position
you are at a table where you are stronger than (most of) your opponents
you have advanced post flop skills
you and your opponents have deep stacks so winning a large pot can compensate for the many other hands when you lose your initial investment

I show you a perfect example when the small preflop raise pays out very well. The game is $2/$4 Pot-Limit Omaha High with 9 players. You sit on the button with $166.80 and your hand is ♠A♦J♥9♠7. Three players limp in front of you. Your hand is not a premium holding but you have several straight possibilities and a nut flush draw. It makes sense to make a small raise. First of all because some of the players might fold their hand, secondly, you have position on all players so it makes sense to raise. You bet $12, the blinds fold and the three limpers call. The pot is $54.

The flop is: ♦6♦8♠5. The first player checks, the second bets $40 and the third player folds. What a perfect situation, you flopped the nuts! The question is what kind of a hand does player2 have? He will definitely not put you on the nut straight. He might have a set, a flush draw, a smaller straight or the same straight as you. No matter what he has, you are better than a flush draw or a set. A lower straight has no chance against you and against 97 straight you are both at 50%-50%. You even have a backdoor nut flush draw. The only hands you do not want to see in your opponent’s hand are:

set with a flush draw
set with 97 straight
97 straight with a flush draw
97 straight with a straight redraw

Based on the action at the table you do not have to worry that you are behind. You push all-in, player1 folds, player2 thinks for a while and makes the call. He shows ♠J♠6♣7♣4 for a smaller straight. His only hope is to hit one of the remaining nines and split the pot. The turn is ♠2 and the river is ♥4. You take down the $375.6 pot with the nut straight.

If you had not raised preflop maybe your opponent would have put you on the nut straight. However your preflop raise confused him and he just did not put you on medium high cards. Most likely he thought you had a pair of aces with the nut flush draw and that is why he made the all-in call with a dead hand. Your unpredictable play won you a very nice pot in the end.

Try your skills and register your new poker account with the best rakeback offers.

The Semi-Bluff In Poker

katie — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:22:17 +0000

Semi-bluff is more than a bluff but less than a value bet. In which cases do we talk about semi-bluff? What is the advantage of a semi-bluff and how should you use it?

We are talking about semi-bluff when the flop hits you in a way that might be the best hand but it is currently not a very strong holding. It is not a complete bluff when you bet because in case of a semi-bluff you have a draw at the same time (a flush or straight draw). I will show you the advantages and a semi-bluff example.

Let’s say you hold ♣A♣J and the flop comes: ♣3♣Q♥9. If you make a bet with ♦5♦6 for example, it would be a bluff because you do not have a made hand or a draw. You could basically only win with a bluff or give up the hand. However your ♣A♣J changes the situation and when you bet with it, it is called a semi-bluff. There are three reasons why the second version is a lot better than the first was:

if you hit your nut flush, you will have a monster hand and will most likely win the hand (except if your opponent hits a full house)
even if you do not hit your flush you might win a show down with A high (if your opponent is on a lower flush- or straight draw with JT) or you can hit an ace or jack on the later streets
and of course you can win the pot with a bluff as well

As you see your high cards and flush draw changes the value of your hand and because of this it has a lot higher value than a bluff.

The tough decision to make is when to use a semi-bluff. If your goal is to take down the pot right away then the best is when you have one opponent and he is a tight player and is likely to fold his hand when you bet. If there is a loose opponent or it is a multi way pot and you want to build the pot then it smells more like a value bet and you count more on winning a huge pot when you hit your hand. This second strategy works well against many opponents because in this case it can happen that there is someone else out there with a flush draw (I suppose you hold the ♣A♣J which is the nut flush draw in the given example).

Semi-bluff is an interesting play and can win you a lot of money when you know how to use it. I suggest you register your new poker account and use the best rakeback deals.

Justin Bonomo Wins The 100 000 € Super High Roller Event in Monaco

tamas — Thu, 03 May 2012 21:57:33 +0000

As we have already written about it, the first ever Super High Roller event in Europe was organized at the end of April in Monaco. Despite the expected 25-30 players, 38 participants started the 3-day event in order to take the glory at the end.

Justin Bonomo started the final table as the chip leader with 4 393 000 chips. His lead was huge compared to Tobias Reinkemeier who had the 2^nd place with 1 682 000 chips. Patrik Antonius was the short stack with only 338 000 chips. When the game was over the first two places did not change as American Bonomo finished first, beating Reinkemeier in the heads up. Bonomo won 1 640 000€ and the German player (Reinkemeier) took home 1 064 000€. Bertrand Grospellier finished 3rd and got 621 000€ while Antonius fell back to 4th place and collected 443 000€. The other two players who cashed in were Masa Kagawa on 5th place winning 354 500€ and Daniel Negreanu on 6th with a 310 000€ win.

Bonomo said he was on a dream spot in the Final Table because when the bubble spot came into effect he was the only player not at risk of getting knocked out of the tournament. His high amount of chips gave him the chance to play aggressive and even improve his stack size. As he mentioned, his most dangerous opponent was the 2nd place Reinkemeier who he had to play the heads up battle with later on. Bonomo also stated he is happy for the win but he wants to be back on stage at the Main Event so he does not have much time to celebrate.

Although the event took place in Europe, most players came from the USA (13). Canada had 7 representatives; the Czech Republic, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and Switzerland 2; and last but not least, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania, Ukraine, Japan, the Netherlands and France 1.

To participate in great live events, check out many poker sites and register with the best rakeback options.

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The €100 000 Super High Roller Event In Monaco
Gus Hansen And The High Stakes Poker In Macau
Who wins the WSOP Player of the Year award in 2012?
The 43rd WSOP Tournament Schedule Has Come Out
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A Well Known But Tough Decision: The Squeeze Play In Poker

chris — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:24:37 +0000

Most poker players have heard about the squeeze play but some of them do not know what it exactly means, in which situations they can use it. This time I will introduce this tricky play where your analytical skills play the most important role.

Squeeze play happens when someone raises, another player calls and you reraise (with other words you 3bet). The original raiser is squeezed because he might have a good hand and wants to play with you however he does not know what the player will do behind him so he folds his hand. A typical example of such a situation is when the original raiser has a low pocket pair. With a pair of fours he wants to make the call and get the right odds against you but he is scared of the player behind him who might 4bet. He would have to throw away his hand and in this case lose even more money. For this reason the original raiser, in other words the “squeezed” player, throws away his hand. The second player who called can still decide what he prefers to do. Most of the times he throws away his hand because of the lack of the right odds against one player or he is unsure if his hand is good enough to call a reraise (for example AJ, AT or KQ).

With what kind of hands should you try the squeeze play? The best hands for squeeze play are strong but not monster holdings such as: JJ, TT, 99, 88, 77 or AQ. These hands are strong holdings however they can make you feel uncomfortable against many opponents. Therefore you are happy to take the pot right away or reduce the field and play heads up. Squeeze play is also efficient when the table has many loose players and you have AA, KK, QQ or AK but you do not want to play against 4-5 opponents. With your reraise there will not be many opponents calling you.

In which situation is the squeeze play a great opportunity? When you have a great read on your opponent, you suppose he only wants to steal the blinds and it seems like he will fold his hand against a call and a 3bet. A squeeze play is also a great tool if the second player is a weak and loose type of player who is likely to call. In this case with the help of the squeeze play you can make the better player fold his hand and play heads up with the weaker one. I suggest you use the squeeze play in sessions when you have a tight reputation so the other players will give you respect and fold their hands (except the monsters).

Against which players should you not use the squeeze play? If the original raiser has a small stack and you do not really have a great hand. Short stack players will make the call or even reraise all-in very often so these opportunities are not profitable for squeeze plays. You should also proceed with caution if you know that the original raiser is a very tight player. In this case your 3bet can face a 4bet and you might be uncomfortable with the new circumstances. Do not use this play very often. If you use it once in every one or two rounds then players will not respect you and you will face many 4bets.

Try to make the right squeeze play in live poker against your friends. In case you want to start online poker, you can register your new poker account with the top rakeback deals.

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Calling The Flop And Reraiseing The Turn In Omaha High
Winning or Losing it all? Playing with AK
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Value And Continuation Bet In Poker

katie — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 08:50:19 +0000

Value and continuation bet are two of the most common terms in poker and they have an important role in your poker strategy, too.

Let’s see the most important aspects of value- and continuation bet.

Value bet occurs when you have a high pocket pair or two high cards and on the flop your hand seems to be the best. In this case you make a bet (most of the times) for value and you suppose your opponent has a weaker hand when he makes the call. The size of the value bet is usually between half and two-thirds of the pot. If your opponent is a loose player then your bet can even be the size of the full pot. The size of your continuation bet does not matter (half the pot, two-thirds or larger) but you have to vary the size of your bet time to time because if you always bet the same amount your opponents will have an easy read on you.

Continuation bet is different from value bet because some actions have to happen to get the chance at all for a continuation bet. For a continuation bet to occur there has to be a preflop raiser and only this person can make the bet on the flop. If another player makes a bet on the flop and not the preflop raiser then it can be a value bet, bluff, etc. but not a continuation bet.

You have to see the difference between continuation bet and value bet. With value bet you did not have to lead out before the flop. With continuation bet you actually continue the action you started in the first round. And while a value bet happens when you have most likely the best hand, a continuation bet does not say anything about the value of your hand. It might happen that your continuation bet is a complete bluff, a semi-bluff or it is the best hand. Also, when you make a value bet you hope to get called. It is different with a continuation bet because in this case you are happy to take the pot right away.

One more issue with continuation bet. It had a totally different message for players at the tables some years ago. Before the online poker boom, continuation bet was a very easy way of making money. Most players just folded to the bet of the preflop aggressor on the flop. If you made a continuation bet, your opponent only made the call if he hit the flop. In the last years as poker players improved their skills, continuation bet lost a lot of its value. Players do not give much respect anymore to the preflop aggressor and there are a lot of check-raises on the flop against continuation bets. For this reason you should not make a continuation bet on every flop because your opponents will learn your patterns and you will face many check-raises.

If you are a poker beginner it is time to try your skills. Register for the best online poker rakeback offers.

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The €100 000 Super High Roller Event In Monaco

tamas — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:38:44 +0000

At the end of April the EPT Grand Final starts in Monaco. The 1^st event is going to be the first ever Super High Roller event in Europe. The €100 000 buy-in 3-days long NLH event starts on April 23^rd. The event is also a rebuy tournament. The question is how many players have the courage and money to commit another €100 000? Furthermore, the schedule has 37 events in 11 days for lower stakes of course.

The featured €100 000 tournament will have top poker players and rich businessmen. 25-30 players can be expected on the tournament and 20 players have paid the entry fee already. Here is the current player list: Patrik Antonius, Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom, Jonathan Duhamel, Tony G, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Eugene Katchalov, Masa Kagawa, Artem Evgenievich Litvinov, Jason Mercier, Sorel Mizzi, Daniel Negreanu, Tobias Reinkemeier, David Sands, Scott Seiver, Dan Shak, Dan Smith, Jason Somerville and Leon Tsoukernik.

Edgar Stuchly says about the tournament: “We’re extremely pleased to have such a fantastic response to the first ever European Super High Roller event and we look forward to welcoming some of the biggest names in international poker”.

No one knows which players will enter the field until the start and with such a starting list it is unpredictable to say who is going to win. Keep looking back to our site and read the result of this memorable event.

In case you are more interested in online poker, register on our site for the best rakeback offers.

Gus Hansen And The High Stakes Poker In Macau

chris — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 06:49:47 +0000

There are some games which are too high stakes even for the top poker players, like Gus Hansen. If you visit the high stakes Casinos in Macau, you will not only find the best poker professionals of the world but the very rich Asian businessmen, too.

Gus Hansen is playing in these Casinos and he shares his experiences at asmallpokerworld.com. Hansen started his trip with a great winning as his 98 suited turned into a full house on the 998 board and his opponent’s A9 did not improve. At this time Hansen was very optimistic because of his great start and it seemed like his Asian trip can end up with a very positive result. As he said: “Good start on my trip to Asia. In a big game with a lot of aggressive players it is nice to have the cold decks on your side”.

In his last post he writes about his bad luck of losing two pairs against kings (the river paired the board). His bad luck continued as Dwan hit a full house against him. The stakes got higher, $3 900/ $7 800/ $15 600 and even Hansen had to sit out. He continued to play when the blinds were again at $1 300/ $2 600. As you see, sometimes it does not matter how good you are, but if the stakes get too high you just have to quit. Hansen showed a good example of what bankroll management is.

He finishes his post mentioning that he won two preflop all-ins. His thoughts on his winnings: “Getting lucky at the right time – Two medium sized pre-flop all-in pots against the same opponent KK vs. TT and TT vs. KK – it doesn’t seem fair that I would win both but I am definitely not complaining about it.” And as he said, if his hot streak continues then at the end he might end up and finish without a negative record.

Maybe you should not fly and play the high stakes games in Macau, but you can sign up for great rakeback deals.

Calling The Flop And Reraising The Turn In Omaha High

katie — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 17:03:59 +0000

One of my favorite plays is with strong Omaha High hands when I call the flop and reraise the turn. I do not see many players using this weapon although it is very powerful.

In which situations can you play this “calling the flop and reraising the turn in omaha high” strategy? I suggest you use it against loose aggressive players on who you have some read experience.

Great situations are for example when the board is ♦2♥T♥J and you have jacks in your hand. If you reraise on flop and your opponent makes a call you will be in a very uncomfortable situation. Very often the turn can make a flush or a straight and you do not know what you can do with your hand. It means your opponent has a great chance to bluff you out.

However if you only make the call and the turn is scary, you can make a second call after your opponent bets. In this case your opponent will definitely not put you on a set of jacks. He will not really know where he stands if he does not have the nuts. The river can be a check-check and in some cases you will win anyway because your opponent does not have the straight or flush. If the river pairs and your opponent hits a lower full house, you can win a large pot as he probably thinks you have either a straight or a flush. And of course it is also an option that on a scary turn you bluff your opponent out even when he has a lower straight or non-nut flush!

Now we will assume that on the same ♦2♥T♥J board a neutral card comes, the ♠4. Most likely your opponent will continue his large bet because he will put you on some kind of a draw. As the draw did not hit he thinks he can scare you away with another large bet. By then time the pot will be so large that with the maximum reraise you will be all-in or almost all-in. This has the advantage of not having to care much about what comes on the river because the rest of your money will go into the middle no matter what. In many other cases your opponent will just fold to your reraise. It does not matter which case happens you give yourself a chance to win a large pot.

With this strategy of course sometimes you “lose money” as well, because when your opponent has TT and the scary card on the turn hits, you both will slow down and turn and river will be checked down. In this particular situation your opponent is likely to go even all-in on the flop because he can put you on multiple draws and your set of jacks is not that likely. Despite this negative example I think you will have more revenue in the long run when you play slow on the flop and make your decision on the turn when the pot is already large.

Once you realize the power of this strategy and when you start making great reads on your opponents you will not need top sets for such a play. For example the flop is ♥2♥4♣T. Your opponent raised preflop and bet out again. You call and the turn is the ♦9. Your opponent will bet out large again because he puts you on a draw. Most of the times he will have one pair, nothing or he is on a draw himself. As he bets large again on the turn, usually the T4 two pair will be the best hand. You can reraise the maximum and he calls you with his draw or folds. If he folds it is good because your hand was not super strong. If he calls, many times you will be ahead. And sometimes you will be just unlucky and find out he holds TT or a pair of deuces. It happens of course but most of the times you will do just fine.

Use these tips to win more money! Register for great rakeback deals and get money back when you play poker!

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PokerStars Opens Zoom Poker For Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em And Pot-Limit Omaha

chris — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 20:49:24 +0000

If you were a fan for Rush Poker at FullTilt then you have to try Zoom Poker at PokerStars. It is basically the same concept and the same game with the same rules. It runs under a different name. After the success of Rush Poker, PokerStars decided to have the same kind of game in its repertoire.

The game only exists in small stakes at the moment but the updates and options for higher stakes are likely coming soon. If you want to play it now, you have the option to sit at 6-max and full ring tables for No-Limit Hold’em (NLH) and 6-max tables for Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO).

You can play both games for play money and for real money, too. For real money the smallest stakes is $0.01/$0.02 and the largest is $0.5/$1. Many players decided to play Zoom Poker which is perfect because you do not have to wait for upcoming hands. It is really quick and you can play many hands/hour.

According to PokerScout.com, a few days after Poker Zoom was opened, about 25% of total players were playing Zoom Poker, generating about 50% of the total hands on the site. This is about as high as it was earlier on FullTilt. As we can see, the interest for this “action poker” is very high and players were waiting for a substitute of FullTilt’s Rush Poker. At the same time other poker sites lost traffic. The question is whether it is related to PokerStars’s Zoom Poker or other factors also play an important role in the loss.

Obviously PokerStars has to fix some bugs before it releases the higher stakes games and the Zoom Tournaments, but you can already enjoy the game on the small stakes.

If you are a fan of Zoom (Rush) Poker, I suggest you register your new poker account with great rakeback deals and have fun!

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Who wins the WSOP Player of the Year award in 2012?

tamas — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 21:28:26 +0000

Ben Lamb won the Player of the Year (POY) award in 2011 with a great performance. He had 909.05 points, 2^nd place finisher Phil Hellmuth collected 755.25 points and Chris Moorman finished 3^rd with 753.95 points.

Ben Lamb won a gold bracelet and qualified for four final tables. Hellmuth did not get his first non-hold’em bracelet, however he finished three times as runner up and before the Main Event he was even in first place. Still, Ben Lamb dominated 2011 and he was just unstoppable. Besides his gold bracelet, he also had a 2^nd place, he finished 3^rd on the Main Event and got 8^th place on the prestigious $50 000 buy-in The Poker Player’s Championship.

There is a good chance that we will see these two heavy weights fighting each other for the first place in 2012 as well.

When talking about the potential winners, Brian Rast should not be forgotten either. He was the only player who won more than one gold bracelet (Event #15 Pot-Limit Hold’em and Event #55 The Poker Player’s Championship) in 2012. Rast is definitely one of the best tournament players in the world and has the capability to win the title.

Last year I thought of Mizrachi, Hellmuth, Juanda and Negreanu as potential winners. My guesses were quite accurate as three of the four players finished in the top 25: Hellmuth 2^nd, Michael Mizrachi 14^th and John Juanda 25^th. It is of course not so easy to predict the final standings when hundreds/thousands of poker professionals are trying to finish 1^st.

There are numerous young professionals who can also grab one of the top spots. Such players are: Bertrand Grospellier, Jason Mercier, Jake Cody and Sean Getzwiller.

One of the main questions is whether Ivey will return to the WSOP this year and if he does, what can he do to beat the young guns? Do the top cash players like Dwan and Galfond try to win bracelets or do they rather play cash games? During the WSOP they can win a lot more money in cash games than they could with tournaments.

There are many questions to be answered but at the end of May the 43^rd WSOP takes place and thousands of players will travel to Las Vegas to write history. The ones who accomplish their goals will return to home as heroes, like Pius Heinz did after the 2011 Main Event. We can be sure that great action and battles are guaranteed in 2012!

To win seats to the WSOP, get the best online poker registration deals and qualify for your dream events.

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