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.

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“Well lets say that I have aces in Texas Hold em poker and I communicate to you that I have them. You are first to speak and you have junk but you limp in to assist me later on in the hand. Because you have not raised, your limp will encourage other players to limp along with you. I raise with the aces and you re-raise to drive out all of the limpers who may have called a single raise.”

“Your re-raise has helped to protect my aces because the other players have implied weakness by merely calling and I do not want to play my hand in a multi-way pot”.

“Yeah but would it not be better if you only raised a little to entice them in to call and then do the raise and re-raise thing on the flop and trap them for more money?”

“That’s possible but you run the risk of somebody flopping something and wiping both players out” I replied.

Dave listened for a full hour on everything that I had to say about cheating in card rooms and he was like a sponge as he was taking in all of the various bits and pieces of information. Some years ago, I actually had a full blown argument with a gaming manager after no action was taken regarding stopping local players from speaking in their own language.

I was not a local and neither was I a regular poker player so my complaints fell on un-sympathetic ears. I have not played in that casino since and will likely never play there again. You really need to look after yourself whenever you play poker and this even applies in online poker games and especially as you start to move up in limits.

Sometimes it is possible that you can just feel when something is not quite right. This “feel” is very difficult to explain and I think that it is the subconscious mind reacting to all of the data that has been processed from past games and experiences and eventually coming to a decision. We sometimes call these thoughts and feelings “instinct” and “sixth sense” but how many of us actually listen to that little voice in our head.

I would just like to point out here that many poker games are entirely straight and played by honest respectable people and I am certainly not encouraging people to be paranoid about playing poker. Otherwise you just start seeing Indians behind every bush and you just end up not playing at all. But be advised that there are Indians out there and they are far from friendly.

So if you are contemplating playing in a poker game irrespective of where it is, it pays to do a little bit of research first and check the game out and the players as well if that is possible. Armed with a little knowledge, your journey into the world of live card room poker can be both an enjoyable and a rewarding one. For the record, Dave had a great time and actually won a bit of money.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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“But to answer your question, one of the things that you need to watch out for are the angle shooters. They will try all sorts to get your money”

“Like what”

“Steal your chips when you are careless stacking them up, ask to borrow money from you, pretend to pass to see what you do, hide their cards from view so you think that the action is on you, hide chips to prevent players from knowing how deep they are, pass chips to one another, soft play each other and I could go on all night Dave”.

“Slow down a bit Carl, your saying that players actually steal chips from you”

“Not all of them Dave but it only takes one. The world is full of thieves and cheats, do you seriously think that people suddenly become angels once they enter a card room. I know of one professional cheat who used to be a pick pocket who earns a thousand pound a week stealing chips and doing other moves”

“Jesus, I never thought playing poker was that dangerous” said Dave.
“Depends who you play with, I have been in games with gangsters where there have been rival gangs pointing guns at each other and I have witnessed lord knows how many fights where people have ended up in hospital”

“I must say Carl that you are doing an excellent job of putting me off going”

“I am not saying that you should never play live poker because you will probably have a great experience and it would be a shame to miss out on that because live play is a much bigger buzz than online poker play”

“So why don’t you play more live poker then”

“Because online play pays me more that’s why, I end up getting three times the action online. But live play still has a much bigger buzz to it”.

“You mentioned about players passing chips to one another, how do they manage that?”

“When I say pass to one another I don’t necessarily mean physically passing chips although it is certainly possible that they could do it this way. I mean two players betting and raising and then one of them dropping out and letting the other player take the pot”.

“Why would they do this?” asked Dave.

“Well firstly this is much more frequent in poker tournaments than cash games but it does sometimes happen in side games as well. It can be very advantageous to have an accomplice have more money on the table. You can use this other player to assist you with trapping another player in the middle”. Look out for the third and final part of this series coming soon.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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I basically told him what I could in the short time that we had together. He was doing rather well in the poker games that he was playing in but he had now got it into his head that he wanted to try “real” poker in a proper card room.

I didn’t have the time to go with him as I don’t play much live poker these days myself. Nearly all of my time now is spent either playing online or teaching and writing about poker. I did not like the thought of Dave going off on his own without me.

I sort of felt a responsibility towards him because he used to listen to my stories of how well I was doing and this must have spurred him on to actually playing the game because Dave had never been a gambling man.

“So are you saying that I should never play in a real card room Carl?”
“No Dave I am not, it’s just that it won’t be like playing poker like it is on TV which is all gentlemanly and straight up”.

“So your saying that people cheat in real card rooms”

I smiled and told him not to be so naive. “People cheat in life Dave and poker is no exception whether it is played online or in a real card room. It is just that online poker the site does actually go some way towards protecting you and the other players cannot get hold of the cards which is important”

“So what do I need to look out for then” he replied.

“Well for a start, make sure that you are playing in a cash game that has a house dealer if at all possible. Some of these players can be very slick when it comes to cheating and there are still card mechanics out there plying their trade”.

“What else do I need to look out for?”

“Watch out for players communicating with each other, some of them will blatantly talk in their own language and they are not always talking about the weather either. If you see this then inform them to speak English only and if they refuse then take the matter up with the card room supervisor and if you get no joy from them then a casino manager”.

“Have you ever cheated Carl?” said Dave with a rather cheeky look on his face. I avoided the question by saying that it was a terrible thing to say to a “gentleman” like me. Seriously though, I will take the fourth amendment on that one.

“So are there any specific moves that I need to look out for?”
Look out for part two of this series coming soon.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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Where do you think you will earn the most money over time. Let us say that you want to play 10-20 limit Texas Hold em poker and site A offers a $600 sign up bonus if you buy in for enough while site B offers nothing. But site A is populated by US players who on average are much stronger at Limit play than Europeans while site B is populated entirely by Europeans.

At site A, your earn rate is 1.25 big bets per hour ($25) while at Site B, your earn rate is 1.75 big bets per hour ($35). Playing even part time (20 hours per week), the difference in an average week will be $200 between site A and the much better site B. It would take you less than a month to claw back the difference of the $600 sign up bonus. For a full time working poker pro, the difference in sites is over $20,000 per year. Imagine the difference if the game was 50-100 and not 10-20 and we had the same differential in earn rates, that would make the difference $100,000 per year.

Who in heavens name can afford to throw away that kind of money, the point is that people don’t even realise that they are and all because they wanted the feeling of initially being ahead by $600 at the very beginning and some sites don’t even offer bonuses as high as that. But this is also the reason why many very good players fail in poker. They know that they are good and because they are losing money, they think that this should not be happening and that the poker site is crooked.

Game selection is a critical part of poker and is a major factor for why players fail. Let us take that difference of $100,000 in the last example. If a player who would have earned $64,000 playing at site B had played at site A, then this would have meant that he had now LOST $36,000 and would have left him scratching his head as to the reason because he knows how good he is.

But sometimes in poker it is not enough to be good or very good for that matter. Fine so we can say that many players think that they are good when they are not but I am talking about the ones who ARE good here and they could still lose because of poor game selection. So you not only have to be a very good player but you also have to measure your skill against the opposition. Let us finish with an obvious statement, if you are not better than your opposition then how can you possibly earn money? I think that the lessons are clear here don’t you?

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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But take that same A-Q on a flop like A-7-2 rainbow and you could end up losing your entire stack if you are pinned underneath someone else’s A-K. The penalty for being dominated in no limit Texas Holdem play can be very severe and many novice players get themselves into all kinds of trouble when they flop a decent but second best hand.

Brunson discusses the trouble hands pretty well in Supersystem and I would advise anyone who is contemplating playing no limit hold’em either online or in a live card room to study them.

But despite the fact that much of the information that is in Supersystem is either very well known or past its sell by date, it is still beyond any shadow of a doubt…..a great book! It literally set the standard for which many other poker books followed. The old saying about “standing on the shoulders of giants” applies perfectly here.

I remember reading an interview from the 2001 World Series of Poker winner Carlos Mortensen some while ago who stated that the first time that the read the book, he could not believe that Doyle Brunson was literally giving away the secret of just how to play no limit hold’em.

Fine praise indeed from one of the most respected players in the world of tournament poker, an ex world champion and World Poker Tour winner to boot. In fact Supersystem was such a popular book that it led to a new updated version being published in 2005 called Supersystem 2.

The no limit section was left largely untouched but there was valuable input on a whole host of games from some of the greatest names in the modern game.

People like Johnny Chan, Daniel Negreanu and Doyle’s son Todd who is a world class player himself and regular plays in the big game in Las Vegas. The new version included the very popular Pot Limit Omaha as well as an updated section on limit hold’em written by Jennifer Harman.

Supersystem for me is the greatest of all poker books because it broke barriers and introduced to millions of people strategies that had previously been top secret and which were only in the possession of a handful of people world wide. There will never be another book like it that will have the same effect again in my opinion. For me this book will become the “bible” of poker books if it hasn’t already.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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The raiser likely has a hand like AQ, JJ,10-10, etc; the chances of him having AK are lessened because you have two of them. But the chances of them having AA are increased because of the fact that they are less likely to be raising with AK because you have two kings, many people fail to comprehend this fact.

This is where pot limit Texas Holdem concepts come to the fore, if a player in a 10-20 game has raised to 60 then if you act as though the game is PL then you will be well orientated. In pot limit play, a re-raise of the pot would mean that you would be sticking in 210 because your 60 call would make the pot 150 and that is the amount that you could raise.

But lets say that there had been a couple of limpers before the raiser and the raiser bet 100 after two limpers, again make a pot limit raise. Your 100 call would make the pot 270 and that is the amount that you can raise so stick 370 into the pot. These PL plays help you to avoid under and over betting.

When these concepts must be broken is when you have short to medium stacks. Let us say that you are playing in a 2-4 No Limit Texas Hold’em game and there have been two limpers and someone raises to 25. You can now re-raise to 89 using pot limit principles. But in these situations then the size of your own stack becomes a very important consideration. If you only have 100 on the table then leaving yourself with $11 for flop betting is silly.

In this scenario you would obviously deviate from PL to NL and simply go all in. Only when you have the chips to make a pot sized bet on the flop or close to it should you refrain from going all in. Knowing when to over bet the pot is a very important skill in no limit play. It is like when you hold the nuts and you are sure that your opponent may be holding a good second best hand that they will likely call with because they are weak enough to do this.

This is the time to over bet the pot and move all in because you can take their entire stack before the board gets too scary. Let us say that you raised with 9-7 and flop a straight with 8-6-5 and the big blind has called you with 8s-6s before the flop. They bet the pot on the flop and if you only call or raise the pot and they call, you could lose them on the turn if a really scary card hits that prevents them from wanting to risk anymore money. The final part of this three part series will conclude in part three.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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He is known as “Durrrr” due to his online name and that has become almost a brand and identity in itself. Dwan said that he came up with the name as he knew even at the start of playing that having a name that indicated weakness to his opponents was a good idea. That should give you some idea how well suited this young man is to beating online poker games right across the Internet.

Starting with a very small buy-in Dwan built his bankroll from scratch. Players remembered Durrrr at the tables during his formative years learning the game remember an aggressive but weaker player. What separates Dwan from most Internet poker players is the immense belief that he is better than his opponents and his stomach for the large downswings that he has endured. He never gave up and did what he had to do to become the best. He has been quoted in interviews saying that he is a young man so risking $400,000 of an $800,000 bankroll was not such a problem for him. Many other players (this author included) likes the idea of this statement in theory but knows that in practise your attitude would be much different.

Tom “Durrrr” Dwan continued learning to beat each level of cash games until he was battling it out everyday with top cash game players like Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey and David Benyamine. Plenty of players have appeared at the high stakes online poker tables and started well and then busted spectacularly (think Isildur1 and Martonas in late 2009). Dwan managed to hold his own and post large profits over time. In 2008, under a variety of usernames, Cirque De Soleil owner Guy Laliberte was alleged to have lost around $28 million dollars. Much of this went to players like Dwan and Ivey who prowled the high stakes tables looking to relieve Guy of his money. Since losing all of that money Guy has not been seen at the high stakes tables, much to the dismay of Dwan and co. These large wins gave Durrrr the bankroll that he has today allowing him to push the boundaries even further in nosebleed high stakes games.

Dwan is quite aloof during interviews saying that he does not have a secret to winning high stakes poker or “all his friends would be pros”. He does not welcome the media intrusion into his life although recently has been more visible on TV. Everything from his sexuality to his opinions on fellow professionals are probed and he remains uneasy with the attention. He was signed up recently as a member of Team Full Tilt and looked very ill at ease during the press conference announcing their mutual business relationship.

The public love Dwan because he has done what we all dream we could do. He is rumoured to have around $10 million in liquid online poker winnings and along with that stash of cash he has an excellent monthly income from Full Tilt. He has made it from online poker grinder to probably the most well-known cash game professional of the poker boom era. For many years he will be the poster boy of cash game poker. He remains willing to challenge anyone at any game and is as fearless as he is skilful. Remember his name, because Durrrr is going to be around for some time yet at the pinnacle of cash game poker.

By Malcolm Clarke

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If you are looking for the best way to approach poker then there is not one style that wins. Every decision you make depends on what is happening in the particular game that you are playing. What has gone before in terms of action, luck and profit helps determine your approach around the broad fundamentals of optimal poker playing.

If you have been running over the table with a huge run of good luck then your opponents may be inclined to classify you as a lucky bad player and become looser against you. Pre-empting this change in your opponent’s style should lead you to tighten up and only play hands where you are probably ahead right from the pre-flop point in the hand. If you notice any change in how the table is playing against you then you need to adapt as this change opponents are making is designed to beat your current style.

Your poker strategy should be constantly evolving. Once you understand that strong hands should be raised and what constitutes a strong hand and when that hand might be vulnerable because of flop textures or betting action you can start using this solid base of poker knowledge to interpret things based on the action. For example, you hold pocket aces in a real money cash game and you are three bet raised by a player who you know is very aggressive. Rather than shoving believing you are up against Kings you may flat call knowing this player could be making this raise with a wide range of hands that would fold to a shove. Rather than broadcasting your hand by shoving you are using your information to play the hand in accordance with your opponent’s game. This is good poker playing.

Against a good player in the same spot you may shove all-in believing he would not re-raise without Kings or the other two Aces. Along with what you believe you know about your opponent also think what your opponent knows about you and try to work out how they will interpret your prospective next move. If you think your bet may look reckless and get called you will know your own hand strength and whether that is a good move to make or not.

You can gain a lot of good advice from poker podcasts discussing poker strategy where professionals discuss at length detailed spots and hands where they faced a big decision. Most professionals are honest enough to discuss hands where they lost as well as when they made a brilliant call. Studying how effectively you change your style of playing in relation to your opponents ensures you work to maximise your winning spots and minimise the losses suffered when you are beat or make bad moves. Plugging these gaps leads to increased poker profits in all disciplines of poker.

If you enjoy poker podcasts then visit the bwin poker blog because they have a new podcast show to listen to and also information on the winners of their biggest tournaments. The blog also includes information of who the lucky winners are who will be playing at the Aussie Millions courteously of bwinpoker.coms satellite tournament packages.

By Malcolm Clarke

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As with most things in life making money from playing real money cash games is not easy although it is certainly achievable. You must be willing to work at the necessary skills in order to succeed. Fortunately for us poker students there are millions of cash game poker players around the world many who are happy to share their ideas in the form of poker articles, poker forum discussions and tutorial videos which are generally free to use. You can also rail the online poker games of the known professionals and take tips from them to improve your poker game. Help is at hand!

Cash games are available at every limit so no matter whether you have $10 or $1,000,000 there will be a game that suits your bankroll. In 2004 the games were so weak that a slightly above average player could earn thousands of dollars each month from online poker. Nowadays, anything about the $2/$4 games are very tough on most sites. You will still encounter the odd fishy player here and there but nothing like a few years back. There is no excuse for being unprepared at these tables so make sure you are sharp before risking your money.

The easiest way to obtain this sharpness in your poker game is to start at the lower limit games and build up slowly through the levels. You will learn gradually how to beat each level and in turn improve dramatically. Online poker cash games rewards patience and you will learn this from day one using this approach. Poker sites like bwinpoker.com offer many VIP incentives and bonuses to their players so look to learn to play multiple days which compounds your poker playing speed enabling you to collect these bonuses more quickly. Multi tabling is another way of speeding up the learning process in poker and also the profitability of it.

Do not be discouraged if your rise through the cash ranks of online poker takes some time. It is entirely possible for you to make enough money to support yourself as a professional poker player playing $1/$2 No Limit Texas Hold ‘em. Many poker professionals play more than one table at a time and make $50,000 – $100,000 every year playing these limits. Whilst it is possible remember that these players are very skilled and experienced so only play at limits where you are comfortable, there is no law that says you must move up if you are winning. Playing at a level where you can achieve consistent profits and running up your bankroll over time is perfectly acceptable.

Live poker cash games or online poker cash games are the bread and butter of poker players. They offer the opportunity to play wherever you want, for as long as you want and at your own choice of stakes. It is the perfect game for any poker player and, of course, you can win lots of money playing them. But remember to respect the games and take the time to learn how to beat each player at your table.

By Malcolm Clarke

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