Aces were working last night at Partypoker

The aces were flying last night at Partypoker and I got my fair share. Getting aces cracked happens but I was on a roll. I normally play ring games at
pokerchamps because it's easy to get a short handed table. I like pounding on the opposition and playing against 3 or 4 players is my favorite thing. I like tournys and learning shorthanded play is your best bet to win. Here's some interesting info on aces:

With 6 players you have a 50-50 chance of no one having an ace when you do.
With 3 players it's 77 %
And heads up it's 88%
What's more if your short handed no one has an ace:
with 5 players it's almost 50-50heads up it's 85% that no one has an ace.

This gives you an idea of how to play aces. Bet the Hell out of them. Raise. Take the money. You will be beat occasionally, but in the long run you make more when you bet more.
If you are interested in trying, go here to Partypoker and sign up for free tourney action.

Ring game tip # 6

Understand player position

...and how it is critical. Not only is it important to play strong hands, it is even more important in what position you play them. For example, the ideal position is the Button (the Dealer), as you are last to act, and have the advantage of watching all of the betting action before you need to make a decision. eg. If the action before you consists of a bet, a raise, and a re-raise, and you hold a pair of Tens, you might think that folding is the right decision.

join bosscauser at pokerchamps

Bonus Whores Party Poker Review

Theres many ways to make money besides winning. Chasing online casino bonuses is a good one. Check out the following:

Bonus Whores Party Poker Review: "Party Poker is by far and away, the largest poker site on the internet. Many times they have more real money players online than the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th largest sites combined. Their games are very soft and easy to beat. The software is average, but their customer support is some of the worst in the industry."

Ring game tip # 5

Betting to gain knowledge

Betting is not always because you have the best hand. Top players use various betting techniques to try to gain information. For example, a defensive bet is one that you can use early on to avoid calling a bigger future bet. A re-raise may be used to probe the credibility of your opponent's hand.
Also, betting or raising can win many pots with out confrontation. This makes you money ahead.

join bosscauser at pokerchamps

Ring game tip # 4

Watch your opponents habits

Especially when you aren"t in a hand. The best time to study is when you aren't emotionally invested in the hand, and you can make more prudent observations. Watch how opponents bet, and how much they bet, in what position are they betting. Learning how your opponents play is key.


join bosscauser at pokerchamps

Ring game tip # 3

Choose less skillful opponents

...if you want to win money. Sounds fairly obvious, but you should play at betting limits where you can beat the majority of players. Move down in limits if you are having difficulties winning money. In poker, always leave your ego at the door.
join bosscauser at pokerchamps

Tough week at Party Poker

2 wins 2 losses 1 third at the tables. Lostcauser brags about 4 wins at pp. However we didn't hear how many he lost. I'll be at Guss' this week end about 9 or 10 eastern if you need to get in the action.

join bosscauser at pokerchamps

Ring game tip # 2

Know when to hold'em, and know when to fold 'em
Learn how to fold a hand, and don't be a calling machine. Many beginners keep betting regardless of the board or what their opponent's actions are suggesting. Top players frequently say it's the hands you can lay down that are often the key to profitable play. The following is a good start for you:
play big pairs, A-K and big suited connectors (such as 10-jack 9-10,or K-Q) and any two cards that add to 20 or more. (10-10, 10-jack, king-Q, A-K etc...) to see the flop. Bet when you have the best hand, elfoldo the rest. Simple to say, tough to do.

join bosscauser at pokerchamps

Tough night at Partypoker

Bad beat city at Partypoker last night. Won 1 tournament, came in second once, third twice. Lost 7 more. So, my money count was 120$-107$=13$ for 2 hrs. Would anyone like fries with order.

Of course many people would be satisfied to win one. But not me, read my headline on this site, Ha Ha. If you can do better, try and let me know. By the way, I have a new affiliate you may want to try, Pokerroom, seems like soft competion so far. I'll let you know.


join bosscauser at pokerchamps

Ring game tip # 1

Beware of playing too many hands

Most beginners play way too many starting hands, in fact top players typically play between 20-30% of their starting hands. Concentrate on higher value starting hands and help remove the luck element of the game.This site has plenty of info gathered here to learn the game or improve what your doing now.

join bosscauser at pokerchamps

Heads up is where the money is.

Playing poker means studying the best. After all it's a money making opportunity. Most people pay for golf lessons. All you have to do is read and play..

Written by Mike Bernstein at pokertips.org

Heads Up Play

One of the most exciting parts of playing poker is when you get to play someone heads-up. For any players who are new and don´t know what that means, it is when two players play one on one. When you play heads up with someone the strategy of your game completely changes. Many beginners struggle with this because they don´t know how to adjust their style of play accordingly. So to give you a little help with that, I wrote this. Like most of my other articles on strategy and techniques, the information and tactics I describe in this section are what I and many others feel are the best. Yet these tactics might not always be the wining ones and it is that part of poker that makes it so interesting to play. I will however, try to make it as clear as possible on how to play heads up and on what techniques to use.


What to do and Why

In a normal, multi-player game, the best strategy to use is to put the most money in when you have a hand and the least when you don´t have one. When you are in a heads up battle you must widen your spectrum of typically playable hands. The main reason why you play more hands in a one on one game is because there is only one other hand you are playing against and so your initial odds of winning, before the cards are dealt, is 50%. This is a very high percent compared to something like a 25% in a four person game, or worse, 10% in a 10 person game. Since your percent of winning is so much higher, you want to play more hands and change your betting strategies.

Some Guidelines

Like I mentioned above, in a normal game you want to get the most money in when you have a hand and the least when you don´t. This general guideline helps you to know that you should probably only raise when you have some very good hands, unless you prefer to play more bluffs.

However, this strategy does not work as well when you are playing an opponent heads up, especially when there are blinds. This is true because in every hand you have some money in the pot from blinds, and if you just wait for a great hand you will continually lose to your opponent who will most likely raise before the flop with a less powerful hand. When playing heads up you should aim to raise much more with mediocre hands then you would in a multi-player game. When I play heads up this is the table of cards that I usually play or raise with.

Hands I raise with:
* Suited connectors
* Two face cards, suited or not
* Anything with an Ace
* A King and anything higher then 9
* Suited cards higher then 7
* Any Pocket Pair

Hands I call With if it hasn't been raised:

* Suited low cards not connected

* Low connectors

* Q and any card (except face cards)

* J and any card (except face cards)

* 10 and any card (except face cards)

In Conclusion
Playing heads up is one of the most essential tournament poker skills, and probably also the most ignored. It can be fun, intimidating, and challenging all at once, and is one of the finer points of playing poker. With some practice and the advice provided here you should be on your way to scoring that first place pot, and not always settling with second best.

join bosscauser at pokerchamps

I lose the freeroll at Pokerroom

I finished 16th (out of 2200 players) in the freeroll Friday at Pokerroom. I got folded out, "all in" with the nut flush by the server on the next to last hand I played. My opponent had 2 pair. Because I'm wireless I can't tell if it interference on my end or not.

It's obvious that you have to take the good with the bad, but this smarts. O well......

join bosscauser at pokerchamps

Final thoughts on tournament play

In terms of strategy, No-Limit tournaments are very different from No-Limit ring games. You simply can't bluff as much because people's stacks tend to be smaller in relation to the size of the pot. Also, since the amount of chips you win from a bluff is worth less than the amount you stand to lose, bluffing loses a lot of 'value.'

Now, many of you may be confused. Suppose you bluff 1000 chips at a 1000 pot and figure you have a 50-60% chance of taking it down. Many of you would think it's worth it to take that risk. However, those 1000 chips you win are worth less than those 1000 chips you stand to lose. If you have a 2000 stack, getting knocked down to 1000 has much more negative value than the positive value of getting up to 3000. The 1000 chips do not represent money. The only monetary value in the tournament is either losing all of your chips or winning them all (and losing them all is more important because you do get a prize if you lose them all in the late stages of the tournament). Losing those 1000 chips knocks you half the way out, but winning those 1000 doesn't do squat for winning.

This is not to imply that you can simply fold your way into the money. The blinds will eat you alive. You must win pots so you don't get knocked out most of the time. Towards the end of the tournament, you can think of winning pots to win the whole tournament. However, most of the time you must win pots simply so you don't lose!

Thus, in the early stages of the tournament, you should avoid gambling much. Generally, the amount you win isn't worth the gamble. If you can see the flop for cheap with a suited connector or someone goes all-in preflop and you have AA, by all means go for it. However, I wouldn't suggest bluffing all-in. In the early stages, you want to win a huge pot here and there because you hold the nuts. Target a bad player and make him pay you off.

Towards the middle of the tournament, you need to switch gears. Since the blinds get bigger, stealing the blinds will help you stay alive. Here, the 'gap' concept becomes more important. It takes a much weaker hand than usual to raise to steal the blind, but a stronger hand than usual to call a raise. The middle rounds introduce the 'survival mode' concept.

Again, most of the time you will be looking just to survive and increase your stack bit by bit in the middle rounds. You want to avoid confrontation without the nuts and just take down some small pots without controversy.

However, if you are a large chip stack (or even just a medium one), you may want to take advantage of this survival mode. Take control of the game by raising and frequently putting other people at a decision for all of their chips. After all, if they go all-in, they're risking it all but you aren't because you can lose the pot and still keep on fighting. However, don't do this too much. Steal some pots, but don't be so obvious that people will call you all-in with top or even second pair. Also, don't do this against very bad players. They will call everything.

Towards the end of the tournament is when the coin-flip decisions become very important. Frequently, the blinds are so high it makes sense for a player with a low or moderate stack to go all-in preflop. Generally, when you go all-in you want to have A(good kicker) or a pocket pair. If you have A(good kicker) you are an advantage to all non pocket pairs and may even have someone dominated. If you have a pocket pair, you are a small advantage against all non pocket pairs and at a huge advantage/disadvantage against other pocket pairs (depending on their size).

Generally, if you have one of these marginal hands, it's best to just shove all of your chips in preflop. When you are a low stack, you cannot afford to be blinded away anymore. Once the flop comes, chances are it's not going to be perfect. By shoving in all of your chips preflop, you have the added chance of stealing the blinds and can avoid being bluffed out.

join bosscauser at pokerchamps

Join bosscauser at Pokerroom.com for free money

This site offers 100$ first prize in their freeroll. Can't resist playing.
Wish me luck.

Tournament Strategy-the turn

On the turn, we have to evaluate whether to "chase" or not:

For example, if the pot were 5 big bets on the turn, and it would cost you one big bet to call, you are getting 5 to 1 odds to call. Suppose you had a hand that would win 1 time for every 5 times it lost. In that case, if you were getting 5 to 1 odds from the pot, then your call would have an average result of zero, right on the border between calling and folding. If the pot were any bigger (like if you could expect a call on the river) then it would be clear case to call, and if the pot were any smaller, then it would be a clear case to fold.

Before explaining how to figure out precisely whether or not you should chase, here are some guidelines:

Rules of thumb for calling on the turn: Usually, call one bet with open-ended staight draws and flush draws, and with a medium pot size you can call two cold. With a set you should usually be calling all bets (or raising, of course.) Two overcards are usually no good to draw with on the turn, except sometimes heads-up. When the pot is big, you can call with a gutshot straight draw to the nuts.

Keep track of bets:

With a little practice, you can be a lot more precise. You can learn to keep track of the big bets going into the pot almost subconsciously, and hence you can know the current pot size at all times. With a little experience, you can estimate the amount of additional action there will be. And your chance of winning is simply represented by your number of outs.

Your effective pot size is how much you can expect to win at the end if you indeed win. It's the current pot size plus expected action. Generally that will be at least one big bet bigger than the current pot size, possibly many more big bets if you expect a lot of action.

Your effective pot odds are the effective pot size divided by the amount you have to call.

You should at least call when your effective outs times one more than the effective pot odds is greater than the number of unseen cards. The number of unseen cards is usually 46 on the turn or 47 on the flop. Recast the effective pot size in units of the number of bets you will need to call.


BUYING A FREE CARD

You can raise in late position on the flop with the intention of checking it through on the turn. Seeing the river card is not free in this case, but half price. Actually, it's a bit less than half price, since your flop drawing odds are better than your turn drawing odds. Savvy opponents are well aware of this play from flush draws, however, and may thwart it by betting into you on the turn. Use this play sparingly, mostly when you have big overcards versus a few weak opponents, and you can always adopt-a-flush-draw if the flush draw comes in (that is, bet to represent a made flush.)

SEMI-BLUFFING

Your opponents cannot fold if you never bet or raise. Betting or raising usually is worth at least 4 outs, sometimes 20 or more outs, in terms of increasing your chance of winning the pot. Sometimes when you would have to check and fold rather than check and call, you can bet profitably instead. The combination of a chance of winning with your draw and a chance of your opponents all folding can make betting (or raising) more profitable than checking (or folding.) David Sklansky coined the term "semi-bluffing" to describe this concept.

If you've been betting hard the whole the way, your opponents may not put you on a draw, and may fold to your bet on the come, or to your bluff bet on the river, allowing you to steal a large pot. For this reason, and since you presumably cannot win in a showdown without making your hand, think twice about taking a free card on the turn, if you think a bet there or on the river might buy you the pot.

A MADE HAND WITH A DRAW

Sometimes you will have a pair and a flush draw, or other combination of a hand that may be best and a draw. When your made hand is vulnerable or likely already beaten by fairly weak hands, you usually should play such a hand very hard, trying to force out better hands and hands that could draw out on your made hand, with your draw as a backup in case you get called down by a better hand. Even with a very strong hand like a made straight with a flush draw, you might wish to play it hard, hoping to get almost unlimited reraises from an equivalent straight that you are "freerolling" to beat with your flush.


join bosscauser at pokerchamps

tournament strategy-post flop

Theory of Sucking Out According to Abdul

Copyright 1999, Abdul Jalib

After the flop, we calculate our chances :

If you have the best of it on additional money going into the pot, you should try to maximize the additional money going into the pot. If given the money in the pot by the end you have odds to chase, you should at least call. Keep in mind that betting or raising will often give you additional ways to win the pot. If you don't have odds to chase or bluff, you should fold.

BETTING OR RAISING FOR IMMEDIATE PROFIT

Try to get money into the pot if you will win the pot more than your fair share. You will win more than your fair share of the time when you have more than the number of outs shown below for the number of opponents:
Betting or Raising
Breakeven Win Chance & Outs for # of Opponents
# Opponents Who
Will Be Calling Chance to Win You Need
to be Breakeven on Bet Corresponding
Number of Outs
1 1 in 2 23
2 1 in 3 15 1/3
3 1 in 4 11 1/2
4 1 in 5 9 1/5
5 1 in 6 7 2/3
6 1 in 7 6 1/2
7 1 in 8 5 3/4
8 1 in 9 5 1/9

When you have a strong draw, you usually want to keep people in, so think carefully about how to keep them in while increasing the pot size. Consider all your options. When no one has bet you can check-call, bet, or check-raise, and when facing a bet you can call, raise, or call-reraise.

Your outs are the number of cards that will complete your hand. For example, if you have JT and the board is KQ23, then any ace or nine will give you the nut straight, and there are four of each of those, so you have 8 outs. Here are some of the common draws:
Outs When Drawing One Card
Draw on the Turn Outs
4-straight & 4-flush => straight or flush 15
set => full house or quads 10
4-flush => flush 9
overpair vs 2-pair => better 2-pair or set 8
4-straight => straight 8
4-straight vs 4-flush => straight vs no flush 6
overcards => top pair 6
pair using board card => trips or two pair 5
gutshot straight draw => straight 4
two pair => full house 4
pocket pair => set 2

Your effective outs are your potential outs fudged downwards to better reflect your actual chances of winning the pot. For example, if there is a two flush on board and you think the flush draw is out there, then instead of 8 outs for a straight draw you effectively have only 6, as the other 2 cards bring in your opponent's flush draw.

On the flop, if you are planning on taking your draw to the river, then you effectively have a bit less than double the number of outs for one card:
Equivalent Outs When Drawing Two Cards
Draw on the Flop and Turn Outs
4-straight & 4-flush => straight or flush 25 1/2
set => full house or quads 15 1/2
4-nut-flush => nut flush 16 1/2
4-baby-flush vs. one => 5-flush 15
4-straight => straight 14 1/2
overpair vs 2-pair => 2-pair, set, etc 12 1/2
4-baby-flush vs. many => only 5-flush 12
nonpair => pair 11 1/2
gut shot straight draw => straight 7 1/2
two pair => strong full house or quads 7
3-straight & 3-flush => straight or flush 3
3-flush => flush 1 1/2
3-straight => 4-straight => straight 1 1/2

For the runner-runner draws, you need to use both your cards, except for an ace that makes a 3-flush. You should usually treat them as just 1 out, not 1 1/2 or 2, since a lot of things can go wrong with them.

join bosscauser at pokerchamps

Single Table Tournament play (early) at Partypoker

Preflop

Generally speaking in the first rounds we find our best friend, Elfoldo, and run for the tall grass. Only after 3 or 4 opponents are eliminated do we loosen up and pound the opposition. I only play big pairs, A-K and big suited connectors (such as 10-jack 9-10,or K-Q) and any two cards that add to 20 or more. (10-10, 10-jack, king-Q, A-K etc...) to see the flop. Most players will have familiarize themselves with following odds discussion to understand that in no-limit tourney's we only get one bad decision to ruin our payday.
For example:

if you are dealt a pair before the flop, you have a 12 percent chance of making a set on the flop. The odds against flopping that set are 7.5-to-1.

Before the Flop Percent Odds Against

* You hold A-K, your chances of flopping at least an ace or a king are: 32% 2-to-1
* You hold a pair, your chances of flopping a set are: 12% 7.5-to-1 With two cards to come
* You hold a straight flush draw, your chances of making a straight, a flush, or a straight flush by the river are: 54% 0.9-to-1
* You hold a flush draw, your chances of making a flush by the river are: 35% 1.9-to-1
* You hold an open-ended straight draw, your chances of making a straight by the river are: 32% 2.2-to-1

In low limit tourney's your not going to need to know much math, but you should understand that certain cards are more important than others when it comes decision time: Bet, check, call, or fold. Poker is a set of decisions that have to be made every hand and every card. The more you play, the better you get but giving money a way because of impatience is called--LOOSING your money..

PartyPoker

PartyPoker is the place for playing tournaments. If you want to have the most fun and win the most 24/7 this is it. These guys are famous now on t.v. for promoting hold-em. If you seen them, Mike Sexton, Vince Van Patten and of course, Shan Hiatt on the World Series of Poker you know what I mean.

I like to play ring games on Pokerchamps because it is not as busy with tough players but for tourney's I prefer PartyPoker the premeir site to play, and learn to play, Tournaments. The action is loose and rather easy. Once you set up a money account you can play dozens of touney's for a 0 $, 1dollar, 3$, 5$, 10$,20$ or more. I'll be doing a lot of tourney's in the future and will keep you posted. If you want to learn more click on one of these links and get a free shot at a million dollars.

Much of the next entrys on the site will deal with entering and playing for big money in tourney's. Come back and have a look..

Tourney Prelim

Thanks to Pokertips

In terms of strategy, No-Limit tournaments are very different from No-Limit ring games. You simply can't bluff as much because people's stacks tend to be smaller in relation to the size of the pot. Also, since the amount of chips you win from a bluff is worth less than the amount you stand to lose, bluffing loses a lot of 'value.'

Now, many of you may be confused. Suppose you bluff 1000 chips at a 1000 pot and figure you have a 50-60% chance of taking it down. Many of you would think it's worth it to take that risk. However, those 1000 chips you win are worth less than those 1000 chips you stand to lose. If you have a 2000 stack, getting knocked down to 1000 has much more negative value than the positive value of getting up to 3000. The 1000 chips do not represent money. The only monetary value in the tournament is either losing all of your chips or winning them all (and losing them all is more important because you do get a prize if you lose them all in the late stages of the tournament). Losing those 1000 chips knocks you half the way out, but winning those 1000 doesn't do squat for winning.

This is not to imply that you can simply fold your way into the money. The blinds will eat you alive. You must win pots so you don't get knocked out most of the time. Towards the end of the tournament, you can think of winning pots to win the whole tournament. However, most of the time you must win pots simply so you don't lose!

Thus, in the early stages of the tournament, you should avoid gambling much. Generally, the amount you win isn't worth the gamble. If you can see the flop for cheap with a suited connector or someone goes all-in preflop and you have AA, by all means go for it. However, I wouldn't suggest bluffing all-in. In the early stages, you want to win a huge pot here and there because you hold the nuts. Target a bad player and make him pay you off.

Towards the middle of the tournament, you need to switch gears. Since the blinds get bigger, stealing the blinds will help you stay alive. Here, the 'gap' concept becomes more important. It takes a much weaker hand than usual to raise to steal the blind, but a stronger hand than usual to call a raise. The middle rounds introduce the 'survival mode' concept.

Again, most of the time you will be looking just to survive and increase your stack bit by bit in the middle rounds. You want to avoid confrontation without the nuts and just take down some small pots without controversy.

However, if you are a large chip stack (or even just a medium one), you may want to take advantage of this survival mode. Take control of the game by raising and frequently putting other people at a decision for all of their chips. After all, if they go all-in, they're risking it all but you aren't because you can lose the pot and still keep on fighting. However, don't do this too much. Steal some pots, but don't be so obvious that people will call you all-in with top or even second pair. Also, don't do this against very bad players. They will call everything.

Towards the end of the tournament is when the coin-flip decisions become very important. Frequently, the blinds are so high it makes sense for a player with a low or moderate stack to go all-in preflop. Generally, when you go all-in you want to have A(good kicker) or a pocket pair. If you have A(good kicker) you are an advantage to all non pocket pairs and may even have someone dominated. If you have a pocket pair, you are a small advantage against all non pocket pairs and at a huge advantage/disadvantage against other pocket pairs (depending on their size).

Generally, if you have one of these marginal hands, it's best to just shove all of your chips in preflop. When you are a low stack, you cannot afford to be blinded away anymore. Once the flop comes, chances are it's not going to be perfect. By shoving in all of your chips preflop, you have the added chance of stealing the blinds and can avoid being bluffed out.

If you want to learn: join bosscauser at pokerchamps

playing for free?

If you get around the internet poker sites, you'll here a lot of whinning about "playing for free is a waste of time." What a crock. If you want to learn the game you have to play as many hands as possible,under different limits and situations. Playing for free gives us an extra challenge. Many players(keep a list) you will encounter in internet play will play just as good or badly whether it's for money or not. If you can't beat them for free when can you beat them?. I play chess or pool for free, you really don't think I'll not give it my "A-game" ?. The problem with fre is you need extra patience to win. These player love to bet the river or raise to get a little excitement in their shallow live. Chipjockey readers are in training to kick ass and will give you all the "freeplay you can handle."
That being said, It's much more exciting to win a few bucks, but learn the game first, then sit in a few ring games and tournaments and watch the same people give their money away. Next we talk about "tourneys" join bosscauser at pokerchamps