Thursday, May 24, 2007

Learn The Secrets To Winning At Online Poker For Money


It is often said that poker is the card game where skill plays a more significant role than in any other card game. It has always been a fun game and pastime but the internet has enabled the average joe to compete and use online poker for money.

But how can you play and win at online poker for money?

Here are some hot tips:

Never bluff unless you can pull it off. This sounds simple but many players try to bluff at online poker for money and it is obvious what they are trying to achieve. For instance, if it is someone's turn to play and they spend a long time thinking about their move and suddenly raise by a large amount, they are probably bluffing (or rarely -- double guessing you) and can be flushed out with a higher raise or advancing to the final showdown.

Be disciplined -- do not chase hands that you know you will lose. Poker is about limiting your losses on poor hands and maximizing your gains on winning hands. If you have a poor hand, fold before you spend too much. Equally, if you have what is a winning hand, don't let your opponents know by suddenly raising. Many of them will fold, leaving you with a reduced pot. Be consistent and don't let your emotions get the better of you -- otherwise you will quickly lose money instead of succeeding at online poker for money.

Lastly, develop an effective poker system. Using the above tips as a basis, develop your own system -- when to play, when not to play, how much to play and when to make various other important decisions. Augment your system by comparing it to others and borrowing from here and there -- whatever suits your system and can be incorporated into it. In the long run, this will give you a consistent way of achieving large gains and you will have a refined technique for using online poker for money.

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What Are The Best Texas Holdem Poker Strategies?

Poker, and its most popular variant -- Texas Holdem -- is a wonderful game and affords the player the chance to make a lot of money. It has been often said that poker is the casino game where skill plays the greatest part when compared to other games. To play skillfully though, you need to use one or more good texas holdem poker strategies.

Strategy is fundamental to poker. Initially, the game can be picked up with little thought for strategy, especially when playing the free tables. As soon as you switch to real money, however, a lack of strategy is very dangerous and you will likely lose very quickly and be labelled as a "fish" by your fellow players who will see easy pickings.

To suceed, you must employ several texas holdem poker strategies. There is no one single best strategy -- it is best to follow the basics that you need just to compete, and over time develop your own unique, strong and competitive texas holden poker strategies.

To make consistent profits in the long run, you should consider that you cannot win every hand. Therefore, you want to limit your spend or outlay on the hands that you lose. This means folding when you get dealt very bad hole cards at the beginning. This also means folding when your cards are still bad at the flop and you think that your opponents could do well from the community cards. Folding at an earlier stage and living to fight another day is better than bluffing on a long shot and losing in a final showdown. Poker is as much about limiting your losses as it is maximizing your winnings -- don't forget these simple texas holdem poker strategies. It is surprisingly easy to lose your money very quickly in poker! Don't become a victim to this.

On the other hand, you also need to maximise your winning hands. This means getting others to throw plenty of chips into the pot. If someone raises by 2 chips and you suddenly call him and raise by 20 chips, many people will fold immediately and deny you your chance to build up the pot. The key to winning big and creating a huge pot is to hide the fact that you are holding a killer hand. This means raising small amounts or simply calling or checking. Be patient and you will get your just rewards.

The above two points describe a simple equation where your profits equal your winnings minus your losses. It's as simple as that but a point that many beginners do not care to understand and carry on playing in an undisciplined manner. Employ these simple texas holdem poker strategies and avoid the pitfalls!

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Poker Rakeback - An Easy Way To Be Rich


Poker philosophy says that the best players are those who win all the money. This conventional wisdom is true but it's not just due to the player's potential or skill, the biggest hidden cost in poker is RAKE. The rake prevents poker from being a zero-sum game -- one in which the winners all win and the losers all lose.

It wouldn't be an exaggerated story if we say that poker rakeback is one of the greatest innovations of the online poker boom. Fundamentally, it's a deal between you and the house to redeem a part of the rake you pay and return it to your bankroll. Online poker rooms make a better option than running a brick and mortar poker room because the expenses of running online rooms are dramatically lower than other poker rooms.

Playing Rake Back

Many players still don't have complete understanding of the theories behind the rakeback and its positive effects. The rakeback process goes like following:

One way to begin winning money back from the rake you pay, is by signing up with an online poker affiliate. Basically these websites advertise poker rooms and keep track of the amount a player pays during a month. If a player has signed up through any of the affiliates, the poker room pays that affiliate a percentage for making that player join poker game. For almost every single hand that is played, the poker site receives their share and gives a part back through the affiliated rakeback site. The percentage raked varies from site to site, generally it is around 5%. The game is not about winning or losing; poker rakeback is all about making good profits.

For example, Tom wants to play some online poker at XYZ poker. He finds an affiliate who offers him 25% rakeback there. That means the affiliate will pay Tom 25% of the money XYZ poker charges him to play every month.

Though 5% is not a big amount but if you closely watch the increasing popularity of poker and the number of players involved, the total number of hands dealt reaches enormous proportions. Now just imagine how much 5% of all the hands dealt in a week means. You will observe that 5% is not a small figure that you were assuming and the winnings of gambling rooms are not just peanuts.
What is the importance of Poker Rake Back?

As poker sites take the rake automatically most players don't come to know that they are being charged. What many people don't realize is the effect of rake on their play. It's not just about beating other players on the table but you must beat the rake also. If rake is not a part of the game, one who would not win money will end up as a loser after factoring in the house fee. Approximately 50% of all poker players fall into this category. But once you introduce rakeback in the formula for poker there will be less losers in the game. Poker rakeback could possibly turn you in to a winning poker player. If you are already winning rakeback will be a valuable added bonus every month.

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Several Reviews Of Today's More Popular Poker Books

Finding a good poker book these days is not quite as easy as it seems. There are more and more poker books popping up everyday. Especially books on no limit holdem. I am going to be reviewing several books on poker. Here are the covers I will briefly discuss: Harrington on Holdem Vol I, II and III, Mike Caro's book of poker tells, and Sklansky 's Holdem Poker For Advanced Players.

I am reviewing these books on poker theory and tells because they have been most helpful to me in becoming a profitable poker player. Educating yourself on no limit holdem is not to difficult to do with all the books out there. Just visit Amazon and type in no limit holdem and you will get lots of selections. I recommend Amazon for this because they have a big selection, you can buy the books used for a fair price and their are reviews of the books right below the book. These reviews are written by people that have purchased and read the book. I have found some of them helpful and found them to be truthful because not all of them are good. So if you are looking for a book on holdem I think Amazon is a good source.

Review of Dan Harrington 's Volume I-III: Dan Harrington has been a successful No Limit Tournament player for a long time now. He has 3 books out that are actually best used as a set. Volume I talks about the beginning stages of a poker tournament and hand selection. Its a great book for beginners that want to learn the basic idea behind playing in tournaments. Harrington goes over lots of different things in this book that every beginner should know. The big one is hand selection and odds. He talks about how to play tight aggressive which is his playing style. The next Book Volume II assumes that you have read Volume I so it goes right in and builds on the principals from the first book. Volume II talks about the end game, meaning towards the middle or close to the money stage of the tournament where blinds are high and people tend to get real tight. If you combine the knowledge of these two books and have a little talent for the game of poker you will soon be successful in playing no limit poker tournaments. I know after I read these two books I made significant changes to my game and went from being a hit and miss tournament player to consistently making the final table or at least close too. No matter what you do you can not always win in my opinion however if you follow the Poker strategies Harrington lays out in these two books you can get pretty close consistently. Volume III is actually a test of your knowledge. What you will find in all of Harrington's books which I really like is that he will explain a theory and then give several scenarios where it can apply. This way not only do you get an explanation of the tactic but also a couple of examples of where the tactic fits in to your game. Well Vol. III is basically the test it is full of scenarios for you to navigate thru and after wards the book scores you. Now depending on your score you can go back and review certain parts of the other two books to improve that aspect of your game. This is almost like having a pro go over your game and then show you the flaws you need to improve upon.

Sklansky 's Holdem Poker For Advanced Players: Let me start of by saying that this book is not an easy read or at least it wasn't for me, however Holdem Poker For Advanced Players has lots of gems in it and is well worth reading. I have actually read the book 3 times now and I pick up something I missed every time. This book is definitely not for total beginners but if you have logged some time at the poker table you will find it very useful. I have found this book to be helpful in playing cash games rather then tournament style poker. Most of the theories in the book are more geared towards cash play in my opinion. The book splits different tactics in to different types of games. It talks about average games, tough games and loose games for example and then gives you advice on the hands you should be playing according to the game you are sitting in. This book is definitely worth reading over an over if you play in cash games. You will find that if you use tournament tactics in cash games you are not going to be as successful.

Mike Caro 's Book of Poker Tells: Mike Caro's book of poker tells is a great read for any poker player that is interested in reading their opponents. This book is full of poker tells that you will see at the poker table and how to interpret them. Their are different types of tells. You have tells that suggest a strong hand and tells that suggest a weak hand. This book by the mad genius of poker is an eye opener to anyone that is trying to figure out what their opponent is doing. This is the aspect of poker that deals with playing the player not the cards. I say this because if I can read a player properly the cards he are not as important. For example lets say you notice that a player is weak and is wanting to lay the hand down. Now with this information you make a bet and he folds the winning hand. If you could do that would that not put big time bucks in your pocket? Or lets say you have a tough call to make and you pick up something on the player that lets you know he has you beat and you fold therefore saving you money. This is what Mike Caro's Book of Poker Tells tries to teach you. I can honestly say that at least on one occasion the only reason I made the final table was because I read this book. I made 3 tough reads that got me in the money. This is not the only time that tells that are talked about in this book have made it possible for me to get out of a hand or to make the right call. If you are serious about playing live poker I highly recommend this book on poker tells.

I hope these poker book reviews have been helpful in giving some insight in to the books mentioned above.

Make a Gamble in a Poker Game

The game of poker is the one that is easiest to identify with gambling. Unlike in the case of the slot machines, you do not need to take yourself to a casino if you want to play a game of poker. All you have to do is call some of your poker-playing friends over and sit down with a few mugs of beer and a decent amount of money to throw away.

As with all modes of gambling, an amateur generally starts out by putting in a small amount, but with every win he becomes more confident, more reckless, and every loss thereafter merely eggs him on to throw in even more cash.

A large number of movies have very dramatic scenes where the protagonists get together to play a game of poker -- which often becomes a symbol of a full-out battle, replete with anger, jealousy, fear, hope and strategy. In his Essays on Elia, the eighteenth century English author Charles Lamb had said, "Cards are war, in disguise of a sport."

The game of poker is easily one of the most popular card games of all time. And this is evident not just in the number of casinos that have sprung up, or in the number of people that play the game, or even in the number of movies that have poker game scenes. The games popularity is also evident in the number of phrases that began as terms in a poker game, but went on to entrench themselves in common everyday speech in the English language. Phrases such as "call one's bluff", "when the chips are down" and "beats me" had their humble beginnings in the poker games of yore.

The game of poker became a full-fledged sport in 1970, which saw the beginning of the World Series of Poker in the United States. Amarillo Slim and Johnny Moss were among then earliest winners of this tournament.

Today, with the emergence of online poker as a way of playing the game, we can play poker on our computers as well. There are countless websites urging us to throw away our money by "upping the ante" or "calling someone's bluff".

If you are new to the game of poker, or are surrounded by ace players, make yourself the wild card by reading up on some of the tips and tricks that the best of poker players swear by. It is easy to call it a game of luck, but it also involves a great deal of strategy and psychological manipulation. It certainly isn't a sport for the faint-hearted.

History

The history of poker is a matter of some debate. It closely resembles the Persian game of as nas, and may have been taught to French settlers in New Orleans by Persian sailors. The name of the game likely descended from the French poque, which descended from the German pochen ('to knock'). Yet it is not clear whether the origins of poker itself lie with the games bearing those names. It is commonly regarded as sharing ancestry with the Renaissance game of primero and the French brelan. The English game brag (earlier bragg) clearly descended from brelan and incorporated bluffing (though the concept was known in other games by that time). It is quite possible that all of these earlier games influenced the development of poker as it exists now.

English actor Joseph Crowell reported that the game was played in New Orleans in 1829, with a deck of 20 cards,four players betting on which player's hand was the most valuable. Jonathan H. Green's book, An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling (G. B. Zieber, Philadelphia, 1843), described the spread of the game from there to the rest of the country by Mississippi riverboats, on which gambling was a common pastime. As it spread up the Mississippi and West during the gold rush, it is thought to have become a part of the frontier, pioneering ethos.

Harry Truman's poker chips
Harry Truman's poker chips

Soon after this spread, the full 52-card English deck was used, and the flush was introduced. During the American Civil War, many additions were made, including draw poker, stud poker (the five-card variant), and the straight. Further American developments followed, such as the wild card (around 1875), lowball and split-pot poker (around 1900), and community card poker games (around 1925). The spread of the game to other countries, particularly in Asia, is often attributed to the U.S. military.

The game and jargon of poker have become important parts of American culture and English culture. Such phrases and clichés as ace in the hole, ace up one's sleeve, beats me, blue chip, call one's bluff, cash in, high roller, pass the buck, poker face, stack up, up the ante, when the chips are down, wild card, and others are used in everyday conversation, even by those unaware of their origins at the poker table.

Modern tournament play became popular in American casinos after the World Series of Poker began, in 1970. Notable champions from these early WSOP tournaments include Johnny Moss, Amarillo Slim, and Doyle Brunson. It was also during that decade that the first serious strategy books appeared, notably Super/System by Doyle Brunson () and The Book of Tells by Mike Caro (), followed later by The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky ().

Poker’s popularity experienced an unprecedented spike in the first years of the 21st century, largely because of the introduction of online poker and the invention of the hole-card camera, which turned the game into a spectator sport. Viewers could now follow the action and drama of the game, and broadcasts of poker tournaments such as the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour brought in huge audiences for cable and satellite TV distributors. Because of the increasing coverage of poker events, poker pros are becoming more and more like celebrities, with poker fans all over the world entering into expensive tournaments for the chance to play with them. This increased camera exposure also brings a new dimension to the poker professional's game—the realization that their actions may be aired later on TV.

Major poker tournament fields have grown dramatically because of the growing popularity of online satellite-qualifier tournaments where the prize is an entry into a major tournament. The 2003 and 2004 WSOP champions, Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer, respectively, won their seats to the main event by winning online satellites.