A Guide To Playing Casino Poker Tables

• Author: Thomas Kearns
• Filed under: Poker
• Date: Nov 17,2010

Walking up to a table in a small or major casino today requires an understanding of the game play, house rules, opponents and overall strategy. As you slowly approach the poker room in a casino, you’ll walk past a variety of games including Pai Gow Poker, Caribbean Stud, Hold’em Tournaments as well as tables dedicated to Omaha and Hold’em. Being a highly observant player requires analyzing your competitors in advance of putting down your chips at a table – if you carefully select your position, learn your opponents and play with discipline then you can turn the advantage in your direction.

Traditionally table poker games favor the house. However, there are steps you can take to help increase your chances of winning, and you may even come out ahead when comps and other casino perks are taken into account. Successful poker players use their skill and intuition to play at traditional table games where they are going up against other players rather than the house.

Pai Gow and Caribbean Stud – House Poker Games

Casino dealer games have you competing directly against the house, and require a dominant strategy if you are going to minimize your potential for losses. Be aware that usually house games place the dealer at an advantage even when you practice your best plan of attack.

Pai gow, or double hand, poker played with a normal 52 card deck including a joker is one of the more popular games. There are six player positions, plus the dealer at the pai gow table. The game objective is to get a better hand than the banker. Players build two hands based on seven cards. One is a five card poker hand, the other a two card hand. When arranging the cards, the five card hand must be greater than the two card hand. Counts for the hands are based on normal poker rules, with jokers counting as aces or as a wild card to make a flush or straight. In order to win the players both hands must beat those of the dealer, and the dealer will win any tie hands. These rules provide a slight advantage to the house, and in some cases tables may require antes or commissions in order the give an even greater advantage to the house.

Also popular is Caribbean stud poker. In this table game, similar to stud poker, the players are dealt five cards and the dealer shows one of his cards. Players are not permitted to share hand information. After studying their hands player can place their bet (double their ante) or give up their initial bet (fold).Dealer hands at Ace-King or better are entered into play (or else the ante bets are returned) and the higest hand wins. This hand choice delivers a slight house advantage, but most players will choose to play all hands greater than Ace-King (at least a pair). Raising against a dealer’s week hand when your are holding strong cards can also result in the best possible play.

The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives Ultimate Bet Rakeback as well as Players Only Rakeback.

A Useful Outline For Playing Omaha Hold’em

• Author: Thomas Kearns
• Filed under: Poker
• Date: Nov 2,2010

One of the most intriguing aspects of Omaha Hold’em and the main feature contributing to its growing popularity is the hand which is dealt to each player during the game with four hidden cards. It is one of the more complicated games and therefore requires much experience to play it well. As usual in poker, the player with the nuts wins the pot, but in Omaha Hold’em that winning 5 card hand is constituted from the hole cards in their hand and any of the community cards of five. Limit Omaha and Pot limit are the two major betting formats you will encounter with Pot Limit coming out ahead. Omaha 8 is yet another betting structure found in some venues.

The game got its start in America as the result of a brainstorming session of some veteran poker professionals who wished to come up with a mind bending poker variant. In a twist, pot limit Omaha has become wildly popular in Europe and is the most played variant of Omaha poker even having the edge over Hold’em in its popularity.

How the Game of Omaha Hold’em is Played

A standard deck of 52 cards is used, no big news here, keeping the same dealer and double blind format common to most modern types of poker. Omaha Hold’em is distinct as the four cards received by each player are dealt face down. Any two of the hole cards in the player’s hand plus any three of the community cards can be combined for the best hand. Omaha poker has other distinctive features that clearly separate it from Texas Hold’em.

The Three Community Card Requirement

A full house in regular holdem consists of one matching card to a two-pair board. Omaha Hold’em in contrast requires that a minimum of three of the cards must come from the board. This leads us to the fact that a player can create a full house if he uses both of his own cards and adds them to three appropriate community cards. Significantly, if the board displays three of a kind, a player is able to produce a full house with a pair or four of a kind if he has a matching fourth card. A flush in Omaha Hold’em requires the player to have two suited cards in its creation.

After a hole card is dealt, come the betting rounds enabling each player to call, raise or fold. Pot limit Omaha allows each player to raise up to the extent of the limit. All betting rounds lead to the flop at which time the dealer divulges three cards followed by three more betting rounds.

At the end of the final round, there will be four hole card in each player’s hand and five community cards. Not unusually, the nuts is composed of five cards created from three community cards and two hole cards. Pot limit games consist of players placing bets until the ultimate limit is reached, the limit being set by the house. Many tables can be found where only three re-raises per betting round can occur. If there are only two players left in the game at showdown, the limit is usually lifted. As previously stated, no different from other variants, the best five-card hand at showdown reaps all the rewards, the entire pot.

For more information on how to play other poker games like Mixed Games Poker or Manila Poker please visit Rakeback Solution.

An Outline Of Mixed Poker Games And How They Are Played

• Author: Thomas Kearns
• Filed under: Poker
• Date: Oct 18,2010

Mixed poker games have grown in popularity lately in cash and tournament play because of their diversity – adding excitement, challenge and variety to poker. The play in mixed poker alternates between hands offering players the chance to build their expertise in a variety of games. Mixed poker is also gaining popularity in many online poker rooms and casinos as many have included it as part of their offerings. The outline of the games that make up the different mixed poker formats is summarized below.

For those players new to mixed poker, I would advise that they pay attention and carefully track the progress in the games and understand that the ability to adapt a strategy in coordination with the poker type is paramount. The strategy and method of play, for example, are worlds apart when it comes to pot limit Omaha and no limit holdem. This is why a player’s ability to go with the flow and do it well is so extremely important.

HORSE Poker

Possibly due its inclusion in the World Series of Poker, HORSE poker is the most often played variety of mixed poker and is made up of Holdem, Omaha (Hi-Lo), Razz, Seven Card Stud and Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo. The games are commonly altered on the rotation of the button and demand a firm grasp of the various games. HORSE poker can be played at the leading online poker rooms and casinos and at tournaments dedicated to the mixed poker format. The pros will affirm HORSE poker as one of the most difficult of the mixed poker games to master due its demands on the player to be flexible enough to adapt strategies, betting patterns and reads in step with whatever game is up. They will tell you that a tournament win of HORSE poker is a feather in their cap indeed.

Mixed Holdem

Another of the mixed poker formats gaining followers, Mixed Holdem is a game that toggles between no limit, limit and pot limit betting structures. For bankrolls to be appropriately guaranteed, the blinds and antes are modified in coordination. It is mandatory for a player to keep on top of the game’s progress and to not progress in their bankroll to make certain they are alive in the pot.

Mixed Omaha Poker

Omaha in itself is a difficult game challenging even the pros and Mixed Omaha with its swaps between limit and pot limit betting structures demanding great flexibility is at the top of the degree of difficulty scale. Mixed Omaha games are not uncommonly played in a hi-lo variant, adding even more to the test of a players strategy adjustment skills. And add to all of this that some types of mixed Omaha switch between hi-lo and the standard game where the high hand wins the gold, and you have yourself a major brain sprain.

HEROS Poker

This is a newcomer to mixed poker and is a variation on HORSE poker. In HEROS poker, the stud poker games are rearranged so that they are not in sequence. Players are attracted to HEROS poker as a enjoyable jumble of tempos that sparks up the game.

8-Game Poker

This one is played more and more often as it too is becoming increasingly popular in mixed game play. In 8-Game poker there is a total rotation of Triple Draw (2-7), no limit holdem, fixed limit holdem, Omaha Hi-Lo, Razz, 7-Card Stud, and pot limit Omaha. In order to get ahead in this game, one must be cognizant of the nuances lying within each of the game variants. It covers many poker formats and so is a great poker game to enhance a players overall depth of experience.

For more information on how to play other poker games like Omaha Holdem or Razz Poker please visit Rakeback Solution.