Which of Your Poker Images Should You Hang on to?

• Author: Tom Kearns
• Filed under: Poker
• Date: Feb 8,2010

It may be entirely beyond the average poker player that at any moment of the game he or she projects a specific image. Players are either unaware of the fact that an image had better be consciously maintained or trying to avoid projecting any image by assuming a sort of somberly inexpressive expression. Shielded behind shades and baseball cap, unsmiling, moodily silent, they believe that they thus \”minimize\” communication with the rest of the table.

These players are not invisible and they will give out sufficient information for the experts to pounce on. Their very image of non-imageness will draw more highly skilled players towards them because the pros sense an amateur here. Not only that, but they may be frightening off the less skilled players, the very ones they want to profit from.

A neutral expression does not make you difficult to observe. Well-managed communication with opponents, if properly done, will give a much better result than holding on to that blank, wordless image. Blankness is undoubtedly a sign of frailty rather than robustness.

The blank attitude is a retreat from any active involvement and retreat is always a sign of weakness. In addition, these blank types are not aware that their more highly skilled counterparts can inevitably read their tells at some point during a hand because old stone face is still a human being after all.

Amateurs will for the most part prefer tables where they can have a good time. The successful businessman and the brilliant engineer, cruising around the room, are looking for a table where players are relaxed and friendly. They will look and listen for good times before they at all try to appraise potential partners\’ actual poker skills, and are most likely to opt for those tables where people seem to enjoy themselves most.

For a player intending to earn a regular income it is important to be able to cater to these basic desires of the fun-loving amateur. A constant stream of amateurs is the wise professional\’s regular income. A happy amateur is likely to stay longer at your table, dare more, bet higher, and loose more, more willingly. But the amateur is likely to leave a table full of Egyptian mummies.

Sparkling conversation and a sense of fun in combination with compliments on others play will keep an amateur in a trusting frame of mind and keep him returning to that table again and again. They don\’t play for an income or for the thrill of risk so they will not be upset by losing to an amusing opponent.

By keeping weaker opponents in a fun frame of mind, you encourage their high hopes of lady luck finding her way to them. Lady luck will visit occasionally and turn them into frequent players and attract still more fun-loving amateurs to the table. If you display a cold attitude, they will leave.

Top professionals know that they always project an image and are always careful about what they project. They design the image according to the best of their interests, not to avoid contact. Their key to success lies not only in superior technique but often in the ability to create, through persona and ability to manipulate the game cleverly, situations which project a positive experience for their unsuspecting prey.

The author is a full time online poker player and makes the majority of his income from his online play and rakeback at Betfair. To sign up for a Rakeback account of your own visit Rakeback Solution.

Poker Lingo for the Newbie

• Author: Tom Kearns
• Filed under: Poker
• Date: Feb 3,2010

It is only natural for a novice poker player to enter an online poker room, begin a game and find the players communicating in an almost alien language. After a while you begin to suspect that these are neither typos nor a plot against the newcomer, but terms and abbreviations which are obvious to any decent poker amateur. The game is full of poker-specific words and concepts. This article might be of some help to those of you who occasionally have trouble understanding some of the chat messages in online poker rooms or forums.

Let\’s begin with some of the more obvious things. Probably the most popular game is Texas Holdem. It can be a limit, pot-limit, and no-limit game. From 2 to 10 players can participate in a Texas Holdem session. The person dealing the cards is called the dealer; his position at the table is marked by a special \”button\” and may be referred to as \”the button.\” Do not confuse the dealer with the casino representative who deals the cards to the players but never participates in the game.

In back of the dealer are two players who make bets blindly. Only the table limit keeps the lid on their bets. They cannot bet over the particular table\’s limit. The first blind bet is for half of the table limit and is termed the small blind, the second player places a bet for the full table limit, the big blind. So, if the table limit $2/$4, the small blind will be for $2 and the big blind for $4. You often see abbreviations which designate the player\’s position. SB stands for small blind and BB denotes the big blind. Of course this seems too easy and it is. SB can also mean small bet and BB big bet, having nothing to do with blind. Be aware of this and distinguish between them while engaged in play.

The small blind player is always the first to make the move. His position is therefore counted as the first position, while the button (the dealer\’s) position is the last. The third player, the one immediately after the big blind, is in the early position and is said to be \”under the gun\” or UTG. The next two positions are likewise \”early positions\” and are abbreviated as UTG + 1 and UTG + 2.

Okay, lets continue. The next three players are in the middle positions: MP1, MP2, and MP3. Following these is the \”late\” position which is the player directly before the button. His position is known as the cutoff or CO. Lastly, the button himself plays.

The above names are for the positions in a Texas hold\’em game of ten players. If a game has fewer players, some of the position names are simply dropped.

With that out of the way, lets begin the play. The first step is the preflop, where each player is dealt two pocket cards. The next steps in the game are referred to as streets and are the flop, the turn (fourth street) and the river (fifth street). While this is going on, cards are laid on the table (AKA, the board). These cards are known as the relevant streets, first three flop cards, then one turn and one river card. The flop cards in different suits are referred to as a rainbow.

This is a bare beginning in the argot of online poker, but it should whet your appetite to learn more terms and gain more understanding of the games in the online poker rooms. So, good luck and enjoy the game and the education you are giving yourself.

The author takes advantage of the highest Aced Rakeback. Please visit Rakeback Solution to also sign up for Aced Rakeback.

Omaha Hold\’em: Texas Hold\’em with a Twist

• Author: Thomas Kearns
• Filed under: Poker
• Date: Feb 1,2010

There is always something new and exciting in the world of poker. The latest thrill is Omaha hold\’em. You all know the game of Texas hold\’em with its two-card deal, Omaha hold\’em offers the twist of a four-card deal.

The additional cards force you to make a choice of which cards you want to play. You have more options than in Texas hold\’em, but you also have more decisions to make. In essence, the crux of the matter is which two of the four cards in your hand do you want to play based on the community cards dealt on the table. With Texas hold\’em, there is no choice to make, you must play the cards you have been dealt to you to your best ability. With Omaha, you still play with only two cards, but it\’s up to you which two those will be.

The result is that you get to play more hands and have more opportunity to win. What many people don\’t realize is that poker isn\’t only about the cards. If that was the case, then you\’d probably have more fun playing bridge, but because of the betting involved it adds a new dimension to the game and forces you to keep your wits about you.

The rules and play of Omaha are the same as for other hold\’em games. Each player is dealt four cards to use in the round. At this point, if your cards are such that you wish to continue the play, an initial bet is placed. This bet is called the big blind. You determine from your hand whether to call, raise or fold.

The first set of community cards are dealt to the table face up (the flop) after the initial round of betting. Here is where you determine the strength of your cards. The next round of betting occurs here and you can once again choose to raise, call or fold. Once betting is complete, the next community card ( the turn), is dealt to the table and the next round of betting begins.

Once the last card is dealt (the river), the final round of betting begins and here is the card that will make you either a winner or a loser. Either way, you are ready to start all over again to either win back a loss or add to a win. The rounds of betting allow you to judge the strengths of your opponents\’ hands and with experience and developing your skill at perception and insight, you will know when to bet and how much.

Poker in whatever form offers the challenge of playing against people like yourself and not just cards. People are unpredictable poker players until your knowledge of their playing style makes them far less so. Once you get the modus operandi of their play, you can determine what they will do next.

Experience is the answer to making the unknown play of your opponents into something you can figure out and use. Keep at it. Keep challenging yourself and good luck.

The author takes advantage of the highest Virgin Poker Rakeback. Please visit Rakeback Solution to also sign up for Virgin Rakeback.

Improving Your Poker

• Author: Thomas Kearns
• Filed under: Poker
• Date: Jan 29,2010

If you wish to improve your game, ditch the arrogance and ego involvement, and don\’t depend on the constant repetition of a few rules you learned to get you safely by. The basic step to improvement is to recognize the need for it. Introspection is at the core of every good player as much as technique, luck or insight into their opponents\’ minds. Perfectionism is not the answer. The answer lies in the ability to be self-critical and correctly and precisely define your strengths and weaknesses.

Other than arrogant amateurs and those that play by rote, there are some players of talent who find that the skills they have will do them just fine. They will not improve because they do not see the need for it. These players lack inspiration and place their hopes on a few brilliant moves and lady luck to capture a few wins.

Neglecting weaknesses and relying on a few strong points is perilous behavior for a poker player. Opponents aren\’t all nitwits and can zero in on the fact that you constantly make the same moves, although successfully, and can figure out a way to get around them. They will eventually surprise you with one large move against you. Such players have paid attention to more facets of the game and have improved their skills. They have confidence in the variety of moves they make.

There are no successful one-armed boxers. There are no successful poker players with just one or two moves. A good player is at work to constantly sharpen all his poker skills. At the same time he recognizes his weak points and works at overcoming them, no matter difficult that may be.

The first step to enlightenment is to understand that the game isn\’t worth playing if you don\’t play to win. Secondly, improvement is based on acquiring the discipline to form a habit of undertaking tasks you would rather not do. This is not a mechanical exercise, you must understand why it is you are doing it, otherwise you will give up. Following a routine without knowing why and relying on only one or two skills in the hope that the stuff you don\’t like will just go away, is not realistic and not playing an engaging game of poker.

A good golfer will have visions of where he wants the ball to go and the ideal way to put it there. A good poker player must do the same: envision himself as more than a competent player of the game, feel the rush of excitement that leads to triumphant results, and come to the decision that this is a good thing. If your imagination is too stifled to experience this feeling, you need to admit to yourself that you really don\’t get it and explore other opportunities that will successfully engage you. If this vision, however, stirs your passion, work on improving all your skills and the results will amaze you. As an added bonus, achieving the discipline it takes to consistently do things that do not appeal to you and you may even fear, is in itself rewarding.

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

Poker: When to Stop Playing

• Author: Tom Kearns
• Filed under: Poker
• Date: Jan 28,2010

To stay and play or not to stay and play, that is the question. If we leave too early, we are tortured by the thought of future potentially winning hands. If we leave too late, we have already lost our shirts and not potentially, which is even worse, especially that last grisly hour. We will never know why we overstayed our hand and are doomed to repeat the error when next we face the table.

It is crucial to be able to stay or leave based on a logical analysis of the situation, not an emotional impulse. If logically you have matters to attend to – liking picking up your wife and kids or attending work – you must be able to leave immediately. Sometimes a desperate hope for by now certainly imminent better luck is so strong that you miss dates and business appointments. But, the longer you stay overdue, the worse you play, because you know you are supposed to be elsewhere and that possibly your are ruining your life and career.

Poker should be undertaken for amusement, not self-flagellation. If you are not having fun, leave the game, before your play and your psyche both suffer. Some players begin by taking up poker for R & R, only to find themselves overwhelmed by the game, yet are glued to their chair for some unknown reason. They are overcome by some obsession to stay the course, unwilling to leave as a loser, but continue to lose and suffer. The well-balanced player will chalk the loss up to experience, maintain their good humor and leave the game, knowing that it isn\’t always like this.

To overcome such pitfalls, the source of the problem must be discovered, and that can be done by the realization that the problem has nothing to do with the game intrinsically. If you insist on performing a pointless activity of self-torture that you cannot possibly enjoy but neither can you get up and walk away from, you have a problem. If you are not staying at the table for the poker, then you are deluding yourself and avoiding what is really troubling you.

If this is you, I\’m sure you will find that this psychology affects other parts of your life and activities as well. Try training your concentration on other aspects of your life when you find yourself pondering the stupidity of remaining in a losing situation at poker hand after hand. Envision yourself in other functions instead of half-assed playing in a doomed game. You may be able to identify the source of your idiotic obstinance and change your game and your life for the better.

Keep an open mind when doing this mental exercise, it may be anything from job dissatisfaction to suppressed anger or grief. Once you have come to a conclusion, deal with it, and you will more easily be able to cut your losses by leaving the table.

The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives Rakeback at Absolute Poker and competes in the monthly Races and Rolls Rakeraces.

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