Cards Cut

There are a few things that we , as regular online poker players, tend to forget. One of these things is the idea that online poker chips actually represent real money. We all know that on a conceptual level the chips represent the hours that we toil away at our nine to five jobs doing what we need to do to fund our game, but do you ever really stop to think about that in the heat of the moment? This would be an apt moment to bring up televised poker online shows that have gotten us to think in terms of large chip stacks, or online poker games that convert our cash to something that we never even get to hold, but it is not enough to blame others for our lack of consideration for the humble chip. Next time you play poker, whether you play a digital game or one on a classic green felt, think about the meaning of those chips before you through them into the pot. Would you be as willing to go all-in if you realized the purchasing power of those chips. The stack that you are so willing to waste on a bluff could be a fine dining experience, a trip to the movies, or that long coveted flat screen television.

ESPN, the official broadcast station of the World Series of Poker, recently published its list of the best poker online players in the world. The list, dubbed “The Nuts” was compiled according to votes cast by several industry reporters and commentators from Bluff Magazine, Poker News Daily, and Pocket Fives. Their votes could include any player from the land-base casino circuit and online players. Not surprisingly, the top finishers were familiar names. Taking the number one designation was Phil Ivey - certainly no surprise to any poker player familiar with the game’s superstars. The number two vote winner was Patrick Antonious, who won the largest pot in online history — $1.3 million - in November 2009. Daniel Negreneau took third place. His accomplishment include making back-to-back final tables at the WSOP Europe Main Event in 2008 and 09, and he also finished “in the money” at eight events at the US WSOP 2009. Besides his winnings, Negreneau is also universally admired in the online poker world for his friendly representation as an ambassador for the game. The other players who made “The Nuts” were: 4. Tom “durrrr” Dwan 5. Barry Greenstein 6. Jason Mercier 7. Jeffrey Lisandro 8. Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier 9. Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond 10. Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko

There are a lot of different factors that define the professional poker player, but the one most pertinent to modern day players is the choice of venue. Most people now a day’s play online poker instead of making the long and arduous journey to the brick and mortar casino. Can these new online poker players ever really be considered professional poker players if they have never come in contact with a classic felt table? Are online players considered professional players on the basis of how much they earn or where they choose to play poker?

If we start at the original definition of a professional player as someone who makes their living off of poker, it is entirely feasible that these online players could technically be considered professionals. However, most of these online upstarts have never played in a professional game. They stick to the amateur ranks because that is the only option online. Necessarily, these players need to be defined by the ranks that they choose. Online players, whether they earn their living from poker or not, are not technically professionals. They only become professionals when they start playing against people of their same rank instead of wasting time with the fish.

Lots of online poker players tend to panic when the cards don’t seem to be going their way. A few rounds of dry cards can make the tightest poker online player bet with garbage if they start to panic. Luckily, you can rock a tournament without flopping a full boat every other poker online hand. I recently cashed in a casino hold ‘em tournament this week, and I managed to do it with just three winning hands. I hadn’t really realized it, but when I realized that I was in the top four, that I hadn’t won very many hands. It doesn’t take a lot of work to make it to the end of a poker tournament, just a few big hands every now and then. The trick is to make those hands count. When you get a winning hand make sure that you do everything you can to fatten up that pot. Aggressive players love to bet when they sense weakness, so checking may induce a bet from them .If you’re playing aggressive players, suck them in with feeler bets and some well-timed checks. Passive players will be happy to check to the river, so be sure to bet into them and make them pay to play. If you’re not getting a lot of exciting cards, don’t worry. Try to set a goal of winning one big hand every hour or so, and if you can pull that off, you should be doing well.

Every online poker player can think of a time when he found himself overcommitted to a pot that he no longer wants any part of. It can be hard to know when to hold. If you don’t have any set boundaries, it can be difficult to know when to gracefully back out of a hand.

A good rule of thumb to play by is the rule of 10%. If you go into a hand with 10% of your stack, consider yourself at the pot commitment threshold. If you go into a hand with more than 1/10th of your stack, you’re entering a range of chips that, when lost, can seriously debilitate the effectiveness of your chip poker stack.

Think about it-if you’ve got $200 and you’ve already put $20 into the pot, any more betting will put a significant portion of your stack at risk. Another $20 bet or a $40 raise and you’ve got almost a third of your entire stack at risk. Even if you know that you don’t have the winning hand, it’s not easy to fold when that much of your stack is at risk. If you’ve already got %10 of your stack involved, don’t commit any more chips unless you’re willing to go all in. Remember this when you play online poker.

Among the wide variety of players you might encounter at a poker table, ‘The Consummate Professional’ is at least one that can make your time comfortable, if not always profitable. Always attentive, ready when the action reaches him, and in general quite polite and kind to other players, the Consummate Professional is genuinely interested in online poker as a competitive event. He is knowledgeable of the intricacies of the game and cares about making sure the event goes down as it should.

The Consummate Professional will often dress like he’s come to the table for business, because he has. He likes to win, and he has money.

From this type of player you can often expect a level of smart and careful play. Probably less apt to gamble, though certainly capable of bluffing in the right spot, when the Consummate Professional type of poker online players gets involved in a massive pot, you can expect he has the goods. Odds are more likely than not than when you show down against this type of player you will need to be ready to beat a big hand. Tread lightly, and be glad that you are competing against someone that actually knows what he’s doing. They are rarer than you think.

Ace-King, traditionally known as “Big Slick”, is one of the best starting hands in poker. Not only does it give you a chance to draw the highest straight possible in poker, it also gives you two chances to end up with high pair and a monster kicker. On the other hand, if the flop misses you completely, you are close to drawing dead. How do you keep your chances at their best when you get this potential poker game-breaker? Here are a few ways. A big raise before the flop is a great way to protect your hand from potential suck outs. With your Ace-King, you can confidently place a large bet before the flop. If you are at a conservative table, you can count on chasing out any marginal hands that might draw out on you. For example, if you’ve got A-K and the big blind has a 9-8, he can play his hand since he’s already committed with the blind. If he flop comes out 9-8-2, you’re probably up the creek. A large raise before the flop should make it too expensive for him to risk seeing the flop and would protect you from having your hand broken by a far weaker one.

For any home poker game, it is absolutely pivotal to choose an appropriate that to play on. It is rather hard to play poker on a normal table because the cards tend to slip around on varnished surfaces. If you are absolutely bent on playing you home poker game on your dining room table, lay some form of fabric down so that the players can easily pick up their cards. The worst thing would be to host a poker night where people couldn’t actually play poker.

If you are a habitual poker player, you will want to invest in a dedicated poker table. The size and shape of your table depend on the type of game that you prefer and the amount of people that you normally invite over to play. If you and your friends are strictly Texas Hold’em players, for example, you will a large oval table that can seat ten people. On the other hand, if you prefer draw poker varieties, you may like an octagonal table.

Another important point to consider when looking into poker tables is price. Texas Hold’em tables are the most expensive because they are the largest tables. The prices descend after that corresponding to size. If you are on a budget, but still want to experience poker on a proper poker surface, you may want to consider a poker table top. These table tops are simply placed on top of a preexisting table to provide a proper surface, but without the high cost of a whole table.

Every once in a while we get what we think is the perfect poker hand. We play it just right, making all the bets we should, using our probability and hand strength to make good decisions, and yet we still end up losing the hand. We call it the suckout, being run down, our opponent catching a card on the river. Whatever you call it, it’s a bad beat.

You can think of bad beats this way, it’s a hand you should have won but didn’t because of some unlucky twist of fate.

And contrary to popular belief, it happens a lot in the world of poker. A whole lot, especially with new players and less experienced players.

Let’s face it, an online casino and poker tables are only gaining in popularity. And this means that a lot of players are coming in to these games with less than good skills, and almost no knowledge of the mechanics of the game. What this creates, is a widely different atmosphere in the poker sphere.

Let’s take a look of an example of two bad beats, one that is truly part of the game, and another that is self created.

The first:

You begin your hand with KK in early position. Blinds are 100-200. You start off the betting with 600, 2x the pot. Three players fold, one calls. Two more fold. BB calls. Now you have a pot of 1800, bet is on you. Flop comes K, A, 8. You’re looking pretty good, no aggressive bets against you suggesting AA in the pocket, so you bet again, 3000, about 2x the pot. Player 2 Calls, BB folds. Turn card comes, J.

So here’s the sitting. You have trip kings, and the only thing you’re worried about here is trip aces. Pot is now 9600. Your opponent is has about 12000 left, and you have about 15000 in your stack. You bet 10000, leaving him with only 2000 in chips left. He goes all in. Pot odds alone tell you to call the 2000.

He turns over AK. River comes, A. He rakes the pot with this Aces Full beating your trip kings. And in this case, there was nothing particularly bad about your play. Both of you had a strong hand, his just ended up triumphant at the end of the day. It was a bad beat.

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