This is to do with a player lacking the confidence to have achieved results over a long period of time. Let us look at the example of a player who had been re-raised after trying to position raise. Imagine if you had a history of trying this and you had been successful twenty times out of twenty when you play poker online . This player would have the confidence to keep on trying to steal the blinds even if they had been re-raised on occasions twenty one through twenty three.

But if a player who had no previous experience of such a run had three consecutive re-raises against him then this could drive them into more passive play. I always think that patterns in poker are often similar to weather patterns that occur over long periods of time. Any pattern that takes a long time to reveal itself is difficult to pin point and this is why many players are forced into changing the way that they play. This is very similar to blackjack with areas like basic strategy.

Unless you see simulations over many hundreds of thousands of hands and even millions of hands then you simply are not going to see the truth. This is why computers are so important in the analysis of gambling and blackjack and poker fit that category. With poker then you have an extra layer of complexity in so much that it is not always easy to see something working in a clear cut way. Sometimes a particular tactic may work in one situation against one opponent but not work in another against someone else.

While it is clearly advantageous to be able to play a type of “basic strategy” in online poker, it is far more difficult to do as post flop play adds an awful lot of complexity. It is in the area of post flop play that players tend to get into the most trouble in no-limit hold’em and this especially applies to players who are playing deep stacked. This is why players tend to check and fold more often in deep stacked play and this is especially the case in full-ring games where the average hand is stronger simply because it is coming out of a field with more opponents. But to finish this article off then I feel that looking at the long term is imperative with regards your poker career and is a crucial quantum leap in your understanding.

Related posts:

1. Playing small pocket pairs from late position There are strong tendencies with many players to want to...
2. Can you handle the variance part two Following on from part one then…….you may say fine, that...
3. Playing out of Position in Holdem OOP is the term used for ‘Out of Position’. Poker...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

This is a great reason to open raise with them rather than limp in from a steal seat. Another reason is that raising yourself stops others from raising. Imagine if you have 4c-4h in the cut-off and open raise to $1.75 in NL50. The button who would have open raised himself with Ac-10d only calls and everyone else folds. The flop comes Kd-9s-6h and you make a two thirds of the pot continuation bet and they fold fearing that you have the king.

Now look at this same scenario if you limp and they raise. Now you are either going to fold and lose the $0.50 or you are going to call with poor implied odds as you only have one opponent who will unlikely pay you off even if you flop your set and that is not good poker strategy . But with three over cards on the flop even if you call and you being out of position then you are going to have problems on the flop.

Another reason for raising applies if you have an edge over your opponents and this is that it builds the pot and makes it easier to stack someone. You have already begun the process of escalating the pot and if you raise with your pocket fours in the previous example and get called by A-10 and the flop comes A-10-4 then you are likely going to win your opponents entire stack unless they hit a four out hand against you.

Also in tight games then simply raising by itself will win you many blinds when it simply gets folded around. But you must never raise in no-limit hold’em cash games when deep stacked merely to win the blinds. Winning those chips may be necessary in tournament play but not in cash game play. However they still do have their strategic use in cash game play as well. If you can win the blinds once per orbit then this pays for you to play the game as your playing costs are offset.

This is why you do not need to be too aggressive in deep stacked cash games as you are merely trying to win small pots while you wait for that big pay off when you get aces versus kings or some other type of hand that your opponent cannot get away from. You have already paid for your blind costs by skilfully stealing a few pots in selected positions when you have decent but vulnerable poker hands.

Related posts:

1. Playing out of Position in Holdem OOP is the term used for ‘Out of Position’. Poker...
2. Why Late Position is a Huge Advantage When in late position, this means that either you are...
3. No Limit Play in the Big Blind In this particular hand then the stakes are irrelevant and...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

A combination of no value and sitting out for too long waiting for weaker players to come along can leave a high-stakes player making no more money than a middle stakes player who looks to play poker online. My dear father used to say some years ago that bookmaking was a “licence to print money”. There is some truth to that statement but it does rely on one undeniable truth and this is that the bookmaker is still dependent on enough uneducated business from his customers to provide him with a decent living.

This applies to poker and if you do not have inferior players to play against then you are not going to make money irrespective of how good you are. So I decided some time ago to play lower levels but to multi-table those levels. This proved to be a highly productive step for me to take and I have never looked back. Let us look at a player who cannot make money in the actual games themselves when they multi-table. So their EV long term is neither positive nor negative and they are merely recycling money.

If this player is not taking advantage of this situation then they are making a very costly mistake. It is a seriously good result in online poker these days to be able to break even on the tables. This is because of rakeback deals, sign up bonuses and other types of bonuses that are frequently on offer. So if a player who was able to play ten tables at his favourite level could manage to break even spread over all of the tables then the rakeback and sign up bonuses would enable them to do very well.

It is for this reason why many players chase bonuses because you often see sign up bonuses of $1000 or more now and rakeback of 30% or more. These are sizeable sums of money that can be made and all you need to be in order to get them is to be a break even player. This sounds easier than what it is because the vast majority of players are losing players either because they blow their money in games like no-limit hold’em or because they cannot beat the rake even with rakeback. So in poker then you either plan to be good or you plan to be a winning player. You need to look at the long term strategic objectives in order to be a big winner in the modern online poker game.

Related posts:

1. Getting rakeback in Texas Hold’em changes the dynamic When you get rakeback in poker then it alters the...
2. The Effect of Poker Rake When you play Roulette either online or at a live...
3. Where The Money Comes From in Poker part three While we are on the subject of switching sites this...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Let us say that you played and multi-tabled NL Texas Hold’em $100 and so $3k a month represented 30 buy-ins or a buy-in of profit per day. Theoretically then you are starting each day $100 ahead and this was how I used to view it. Then depending on how the rake was contributed then I would sit back even more. Certain card rooms use the “dealt” method of collecting rake when you play poker and this can allow the player to sit back and accumulate rake simply by folding.

So it is clear then that certain dynamics in online poker change the way that you should approach the game. When you are getting rakeback then you are in effect receiving payments above and beyond the actual playing of the game. If you are paying $10,000 a month in rake and you have a 30% rakeback deal then you are going to be getting $3k a month paid into your account.

These are considerable sums of money and should not be underestimated. I once knew a poker player who over pressed so much that they broke even lifetime. This was criminal considering how technically good this player was but his attitude to risk was such that he never played above certain levels. So in order to try and make some meaningful money that would make the process of playing poker worth his time, he would frequently over press in the actual games to try and force the process of making money.

But once he knew what he could get with rakeback and other bonuses then it settled him down psychologically and stopped him from getting too impatient. This player is now making $5-$6k/month from online poker and has left his old job. This is the power of rakeback and bonuses and it is also a factor in how you play your individual hands as well. You can afford to pass up on your more marginal hands in favour of a lower variance style of play.

This would enable you to play a more solid defensive style that maybe lowered your ptbb/100 figure but stopped you from having huge swings. This is a good thing to do for risk adverse players or players who are prone to tilt. This can be a very serious problem for some people and especially those who have certain personality types. So do be advised that getting rakeback alters the playing dynamic immensely.

Related posts:

1. Texas Hold ‘em: Stealing the Blinds When playing no limit Texas Hold ’em, one of the...
2. Finding value in poker These days, the online poker scene is getting very difficult...
3. A Hand in Action at No Limit Holdem part one This is a concept that could easily be applied to...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I admire any player that can sit down at the online poker tables and emerge sane ten or more hours later. It is a skill that I do not possess. I cannot blame the wonderful bwin poker tables, which use great software or even the risk of losing money because you can play poker for free at bwin, it is simply the way I am made. I move from one thing to the next and am constantly searching for ways to feel fulfilled. When poker fails to do that I move onto something else. Because of this funny quirk in my character I must find ways to stay on the game in Poker.

One way was to start a poker website and I say you take any advantage you can get in this tough poker climate. That advantage could even be grinding freeroll tournaments but whatever works for you I say do it. For me, writing is my saviour but writing is no fun at all unless someone reads it. So thank you, by the way, for reading this and thus making me feel a lot better!

When you play poker you must stay focused and you must really focus on thoroughly going through each decision properly in every hand. When you start clicking before thinking that really is the time to switch off. For volume players it can easily become a game of instinct so you need a keen eye on how you are feeling at all points of the game. There is a difference between feeling tired after a long session and feeling bored with poker and you must be able to spot the difference and act accordingly. A small comfort break, a complete break or a can of Red Bull. Which one works? That depends on the situation and you remembering some wise words; know thyself.

My website also helps me to learn strategy thanks to various submissions by dedicated writers and websites that I post articles for. Research is very important and if anything I have the balance tipped more in favour of study than playing. Many players suffer the opposite but having a poker blog is excellent if you tend to play and not leave enough time for assessing your game thanks to hand history review sessions and other reviews coming a distant second to getting your targets met in terms of volume for the month.

Playing winning poker in 2010 is about volume and efficiency. I advocate a look at your game and a careful look at what makes you tick as a person. I have found a little trick in running my site that helps me get the hands in that I want to each month. You might have another trick like having friends review your hands which makes you try hard so you make less errors. Like I say, whatever works and makes you a stronger force at the poker tables; do it.

By Malcolm Clarke

Related posts:

1. How to Grow Your Poker Site Part 2 In the first article we looked at some of the...
2. Using bankroll management to play poker Let us say that you want to play no-limit Texas...
3. Why Playing Low Limit Poker Is Fine Texas Hold’em poker at the end of 2009 is currently...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Allan has been one of the top-most consistent players on the international Poker circuit and brings to the Poker table a highly disciplined and analytical style that is considered unique by his opponents.

He learned to play Free Online Poker at a young age in Riverside, California where he was born in 1977. Cunningham worked as a pizza delivery boy and played low-limit games in casinos during his free time. But he did not consider taking up Poker professionally until the second year of college when he started winning in cash games. He had to wait till he turned 21 to get into the professional tournament circuit. In the first year he didn’t do well but since that was when the Poker circuit was still in its nascent stage, Cunningham could find mentors and guides to help him improve.

He played and spent time with the likes of Poker professionals John Juanda, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu and others. The group discussed and studied the game for long hours and played to practice together. Cunningham eventually made a top-10 finish in the 1999 Legends of Poker at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles. He also won the ‘Best All-Around Player’ title. Four months later he won the seven-card stud Poker U.S. Championships and later came in second at the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em tournament.

In the 2000 World Series of Poker, Allan got into the top-20 of five separate events including a second slot at the $5,000 Omaha Hi-Lo event earning $113,850. He followed up his wins with a consistent tournament circuit tour before winning the 2001 World Series of Poker Championship. He defeated 104 players at the $5,000 Seven-Card Stud touranment to win the $200,000 cash prize.

In 2002, Allan won the $5,000 Deuce-to-Seven No-Limit tournament of the World Series of Poker and topped it off with almost another bracelet win in 2003 at the $5,000 No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Draw tournament.

Allan, known for his simple nature and mild manners, won his third bracelet in 2005 at the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em tourney beating 2,305 other players including some of the best professional Poker players around. He got his fourth bracelet at the 2006, $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em tournament beating 752 players. He finished sixth in the $5,000 No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Draw Lowball tournament. He was knocked out in the WSOP final table which was eventually won by Jamie Gold in 2006. His fifth bracelet came at the 2007 WSOP with half a million dollars. Cunningham has a straightforward approach at the table but completely unemotional. He lets nothing get through him to the other players in terms of clues.

Still active on the Poker circuit, his fans still expect a lot from Allan Cunningham.

Related posts:

1. David Benyamine: France’s Best Poker Player Nicknamed ‘Magicpitch’, David Benyamine is France’s best Poker player ever....
2. Poker Players to Watch in 2010 Poker is no different than any other sport in that...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

But I have always concentrated on full-ring play where with nine and ten players; there is nearly always value on your table somewhere. This is not always guaranteed in six handed play where at best there are only five other opponents and often there will be less when players drop out or sit out.

I like the “automated” way for many reasons but the main reason for me is that it takes emotion out of your game. It is for this reason that I like to multi-task when I play at the lower levels because even though my concentration levels are low, my earn rate is being generated by my strong technique and weak players being present somewhere on a full-ring game.

In that scenario then my only enemy is myself and what I tend to find happens is that I go looking for action through boredom and boredom is a very negative emotion in poker. But this is a serious issue because if you can make for example 4bb/100 hands playing this way then your style is one that can be expanded by playing more tables without it hurting your bb/100.

Compare this to a very strong player who single tables and reaches a very high 20bb/100 because he is homing in on his opponent’s weaknesses and players who are multi-tabling. On a technical level this could be the best player at the site but only playing one table means that he is only getting 60-70 hands per hour. If this player were to play a second table then he may make more money but his bb/100 would almost certainly fall.

However it is the bb/hour that we are concerned with here as a solid multi-tabling player who was basically playing ABC style who was making say 5bb/100 will find that it is far easier to replicate that 5bb/100 when they add tables. So even though he is not reading the game anywhere near as well as the stronger player, he is now in this example playing eight tables. So instead of playing 60-70 hands an hour, he is playing around 500 hands an hour which equates to 25bb/hour which is now more money than the very strong single tabling player.

So it is clear then that automating your poker play is a serious alternative in poker and definitely one that merits further examination.

Related posts:

1. Playing tight will always be your main weapon in poker Despite how good you become at poker, playing tightly will...
2. Online play vs live play part one So where do you play Texas Hold’em poker? Are you...
3. Button Play in No Limit Holdem part one I wanted to speak about this low stakes no limit...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Firstly you must be very adept at playing post flop because an aggressive style by sheer definition will see more flops because your bets and raises will be called. This means that your post flop play has to be really good because the pots are now being escalated (by you) and so any mistakes that you make post flop will be magnified and this is one of the first things that should know as you learn poker.

So your post flop play has to be very good and the only exception to that is if your opponents are very bad. This means that they either fold too much pre-flop or they fold to continuation bets and post flop pressure too frequently. If the latter is the case then a bad loose aggressive player could make money in these exceptional circumstances although these games are more popular at the lower levels.

The default play of course as always is to play tightly. This aspect of poker has led to what has become known as the “tight aggressive style” which has been championed as the optimal style to make money playing poker. Of course the optimal style is the one that makes the most money and creates the highest EV given the individual circumstances but there is a whole new world of dynamism out there that needs to be factored in.

For instance in the current online poker climate then most players who play the game for profit multi-table. The very highest online cash games are accepted but even here, many of the high-stakes players play more than one table. But the tight way is usually the way and you will be folding many more hands than you are playing unless you are playing heads up or really short handed. The exception which has already been mentioned is if you totally dominate the table.

This can happen if a very good player is playing on a weak table or as often happens online at the lower levels, a table can be full of weak tight multi-tabling rocks. The complex factor here of course is that “tightness” changes from game to game and in one game, playing tight may involve only playing 10% of your starting hands and you would be correct to do so. But in a six handed game then it may be correct to play double that number of hands and you would still be playing tightly. So it is clear then that for the majority of poker players then playing tight poker is the correct way to go for most people in most games.

Related posts:

1. Playing small pocket pairs from late position There are strong tendencies with many players to want to...
2. Part 1 – How to Defeat your Opponents by Observing Them Poker players win pots by forcing their opponents to fold...
3. Try to look at the long term when playing poker One of the primary faults with novice and even many...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Total revenues had boosted 32% in the second quarter last year but poker had declined 13% and Playtech played the World Cup card blaming that the World Cup was the reason why poker was down.

Compared to the first quarter of this year, bingo is up with 61% revenue while casino is up with 3% revenue.  Comparing to the same quarter last year in 2009, casino is up 34%.  Bingo liked boosted due to the previous attainment of Virtue Fusion, a large bingo supplier.

The deal that Playtech has with William Hill Casino has also been enhanced by 4% since this year’s first quarter and is up 43% compared to the same quarter last year.

Two operators – Eurobet and Snai – who are already part of Playtech’s network Italian iPoker will now join Playtech’s network for Italian bingo, which will be the very first Italian bingo network online.  They will begin collaborating on the details soon and hope to launch the online bingo network later this year.

Overall, Playtech is satisfied with where they are and feel that the first two quarters of this year are paving the way for the last two quarters of the year.  They expect only more growth throughout Q3 and Q4 of 2010.

Related posts:

1. How to Play Poker in a Casino Playing poker in a land-based casino is one of the...
2. New Security Risk at Cereus Network Reported There has been another report of a vulnerability in the...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

What Exactly is Stealing the Blinds?

When playing Texas Hold ‘em, there are bets that are mandatory in the opening of the game.  These are the small blind and the big blind.  The two players that sit to the left of the dealer, or button, are the ones to provide the small and big blind respectively.  This is what gets the pot started.

As for stealing the blinds, it just simply means that you are trying to acquire the two blinds that have been put into the pot.  You’ll get additional chips without a challenge if you are able to steal the blinds and you will ultimately help in reducing the chip stacks of your opponents.

How Do I Steal the Blinds?

In order to successfully steal the blinds, you have to make your opponents fold their hands pre-flop.  In order to do this, the best way is to raise your opponents and re-raise them during the betting round prior to the flop.  If you are in early position, be sure to bet more than minimum bet; if you are in middle or even late position, be sure to be at least double the minimum bet.  Don’t stick with small raises as they won’t get you anywhere if you are trying to steal the blinds.  Go in full force and bet aggressively.

Strategy for Stealing the Blinds

The best position to be in for stealing the blinds is going to be late position.  Many times, your opponents before you will have dropped out of the game by folding their cards if they suck.  Therefore, this allows you to take control and dominate the poker game thus steal the blinds.

If you don’t have a lot of chips, in other words you are short stacked, then the best bet for you is to go all-in if you are attempting to steal the blinds.  Eventually, your chip stack is going to run out and you’ll regret not trying this strategy.  It works in most cases.  You are showing that you are in control of the game.  If it doesn’t work in your favor, you can leave the game knowing that you were more likely to steal the blinds by going all-in than continuing the game and losing your chip stack anywhere.

Don’t Try to Steal the Blinds Every Time

This is very important.  You don’t want to attempt to steal the blinds every single hand.  When trying to steal the blinds, you have to make huge raises and if you try to do this on every hand, you are going to lose your chip stack pretty quickly.  Plus, your opponents will catch on to what you are doing and be ready to take you down – in other words, they aren’t going to keep folding when they’ve figured you out.

Related posts:

1. Large Stack Poker Playing While having a big stack at the poker table is...
2. Small Stack Poker Playing Have you heard of small stack playing or small stack...
3. Texas Hold’em Short Stack Strategy Becoming the short stack in inevitable in any poker player’s...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.