Great Poker

Online poker is a potentially reasonable income source, if you are a good poker player, however -as any lucrative undertaking - it requires an investment.

I know how difficult it is to give up money for something that presents no guarantees, and online poker doesn’t give you any. On the contrary, as you read around poker articles on the internet, it’ll become pretty clear, that beating online Texas Holdem (the most popular poker genre on the internet) is not easy at all.

Even if you’re a reasonable player already, when you join an online poker room for the first time, I suggest you begin with the play money tables. Some people will insist that play money tables are a useless waste of time, but in fact, they are one of the best learning tools you’ll ever encounter. Even if you’re a good player already, you need to get a taste of what it’s like to play online. You will get familiar with the interface and you’ll avoid making stupid mistakes, like hitting call when you want to fold, and so on.

Now for the truly important part: moving on to the real money tables. You can do that two ways: the right way and the other right way. The right way would be to deposit enough money so that you can play your preferred limit/stakes properly bankrolled. (that means, you’ll have to have the equivalent of 200BBs in your online poker account)

An adequate bankroll will not only allow you to dominate players who are foolish enough to venture into games under-bankrolled, but it will also swallow a lot of the luck-induced variation that Texas Holdem will throw at you.

In the short-run, rookies will have a fair chance against veterans in online poker because of this luck factor (that is probably one of the reasons why Holdem is much more popular than Omaha)

So that settles it… You need a hefty bankroll to start with. Also, you can sign up to a rakeback deal before you get down to action, and that way, the effects of the rake on your play will also be limited some.

The “other” right way to start off in online poker, is to go for one of them “free bankrolls”. Some sites offer such free bankrolls you can use to kick-start your bankroll, however the sums offered are usually rather smallish. On the other hand, if you do not have enough money for a proper bankroll to start with, and you are going to struggle along under-bankrolled, you might as well do it on someone else’s money.

Game selection is the next thing you have to tackle: obviously, you’ll be playing Texas Holdem, since Omaha doesn’t really give rookies a fighting chance. So Holdem it is. Do you play in regular cash games? No.

There are several factors that say you should stay well clear of regular cash games while a rookie, and especially while you are playing on a skinny bankroll. Rake is collected on every single hand when you’re in a cash game, and the bigger the pot, the more rake you pay. Poker rooms love cash games because that is where most of the rake comes from. You should avoid them for the time being. With your extremely flimsy bankroll, cash games are where you’re the most exposed. In winning poker, you should be able to generate value by simply surviving, cash games however, do not value survival at all.

Obviously, to defeat all these factors working against you, tournaments are where you should play. You pay a one-time fee at buy-in, and no hand-by-hand rake. Your slim bankroll will not influence you in any way, since you’ll be using tournament chips to play, and so will all other players. Survival takes on a whole new meaning here. You don’t even have to win a tourney to land ITM, just survive for long enough and you’ll be a winner.

The downside of tournament play is, that massive MTTs are very-very difficult to beat, because of the sheer number of competitors. The answer to that is: play in STTs. If you can best 4-7 players at a STT table, you’re already a winner.

There are many subtleties that make a poker player a winner, from table selection and rakeback, to some of the more hands-on skills like the ability to correctly assess the bet size.I know from my own experience that even when I had pretty much every aspect of my play fine-tuned, I still had problems with controlling the pots using bet size, and thus won a lot less than I could have.

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Omaha poker also known as Omaha holdem is a community card game and one of many variations of the poker game. The idea of the game is to make the best five card hand you can from the cards available to you, this is the cards you are given plus the community cards.It is very similar to the popular game Texas holdem apart from a few small changes in the game play. The game can be played with any standard deck of 52 cards and anywhere between 2 to 10 players.

The main difference between Omaha and Texas holdem is that when playing Omaha poker you are dealt out four cards personal at the start of the game instead of just two. However you are only permitted to use two of the four cards plus any three of the five community cards.

The game play:
The game starts with the player to the left of the dealer posting a small blind bet, the player next to that then posts a big blind bet. The cards are then dealt out before the betting starts - four face down cards to each player. Once all the cards have been dealt out the action starts with the player to the left of the big blind, players may bet, raise or fold their cards at this stage.

After betting has stopped the three community cards are then dealt out for everyone to see, in poker terminology this is called the flop. The players can now adjust to the situation and a second round of betting starts. If no one places a bet then players have the option to check, fold or bet. If a bet has already been placed players can choose to call, raise or fold.

Once the betting is over a fourth communal card is dealt out before betting starts again, In poker this card is known as “the turn” card. Once again when betting players have the options to check, raise, call or fold.

Finally the last community card is dealt out, known as the “river card”. Then there is a final round of betting. Once the betting is over the player with the best five-card poker hand wins. The position of the dealer then moves one place to its left and the whole process is started all over again.

Playing an aggressive style of texas holdem poker is what gets a lot of players into big trouble, causing them to lose their entire bankroll before they even know what happened.

But that’s because they don’t have a plan. Being aggressive in texas holdem is a key to being a winning poker player. But you have to know how to be aggressive if you[’re going to make it work and win.

Some players are what we call loose-aggressive in their style of play. They may win big occasionally but long term they are not going to be successful texas holdem poker players. Not against top players, anyway.

The loose-aggressive hold em player is aggressive too often to where he’s being more reckless than he is aggressive. And this is what gets him in trouble.

The lose-aggressive poker player will raise and rerais with hands like 2-9 offsuit. While there may be an appropriate time to bluff with a (non) hand like this, the loose-aggressive poker player does this all the time. He may bluff down some pots, but more often than not, he’ll lose big.

So how do you win playing aggressive texas holdem? By playing a tight-aggressive style of texas holdem. Tight-aggressive players don’t play that many hands and they usually have a decent starting hand.

This allows them to play aggressively when they do play, usually forcing other players out of a pot because they know the tight-aggressive player has a hand a lot more often than not. Which also allows for the occasional and effective bluff.

Aggression also means raising when you do play a pot. If you call, you have one way to win a hand and that’s by having a better hand. And yet pocket aces, the top starting hand in texas holdem, still loses 20% of the time.

However, if you raise, which costs you only one more bet, you double the ways you can win the hand. Now the pressure is on your opponent, who must decide whether to call you or fold.

Position also can determine when to be aggressive. Let me use an example of a hand I recently played. I didn’t do anything special but it’s a good example of how aggression can win a hand.

I was on the button (the dealer position). Everyone folded to me, leaving myself and the two blinds after me. I had A-5 offsuit. This is a hand I’d muck 95% of the time.

However, everyone had already folded to me so I decided to play it. Even though it was a non-starting hand, I didn’t just call the big blind. I raised it. Why? If I called, the small blind only had to call half a bet and the big blind would see the flop for free (since the big blind already had one bet in).

Raising would cost me only one more bet and would put the decision to the blinds. I raised and both the small and big blind folded. If I had just called, I would’ve had at least the big blind in the hand and there was a good chance I did not have the better cards.

Understanding the role aggression can play in your texas holdem game will really improve your overall poker results.

Poker is a card game for 2 to 10 players and is played with a standard 52-card deck.

The first stage of a poker game is referred to as the ‘deal’ where each player is dealt 2 cards face down. These are referred to as the ‘hole’ cards. Each player may only view their own hole cards. They may not view those of any other player.

An additional 5 cards are then dealt, also face down. These cards are referred to as the ‘community’ cards since they can be used by all the players to make a poker hand. This stage of the game is referred to as the ‘preflop’.

Each player, in turn, then either bets, calls or folds. Each player’s action is dependent upon the perceived strength of their ‘hole’ cards and/or their ability to bluff other players, with stronger hands, into thinking that they actually hold weaker hands. If a player folds, their participation in the game is ended and their bets made, to this point, forfeited.

When this round of the betting is complete, the first 3 ‘community’ cards are revealed. This stage is referred to as the ‘flop’. Each player is now able to see 5 cards – their 2 hole cards and 3 of the 5 ‘community’ cards. Again, a round of betting takes place in which each player either bets, raises or folds.

When this round of the betting is complete, the fourth ‘community’ card is revealed. This is referred to as the ‘turn’ card. Each player is now able to see 6 cards – their 2 hole cards and 4 of the 5 ‘community’ cards. At this stage, each player mentally constructs the best 5-card hand that can be made from the 6 cards that they are privy to and the remaining card is mentally discarded. Each player then determines the strength of their hand relative to the probable strengths of their opponents’ hands. Again, a round of betting takes place in which each player either bets, raises or folds.

When this round of the betting is complete, the last ‘community’ card, referred to as the ‘river’ card, is revealed. Each player is now able to see 7 cards – their 2 hole cards and all 5 of the ‘community’ cards. At this stage, each of the players mentally constructs the best 5-card hand that can be made from the 7 cards that they are privy to and the remaining two cards are mentally discarded. Each player then determines the strength of their hand relative to the probable strengths of their opponents’ hands. Again, a round of betting takes place in which each player either bets, raises or folds.

When this round of the betting is complete, the game is ended. Of the players who have not folded, the one with the highest hand is declared the winner. That player also wins all the money bet by all the other players during the betting phases of the game.

Poker hands, in order of priority, are:

1. Royal Flush - 10, jack, queen, king and ace of the same suite.

2. Straight flush - 5 consecutive cards of the same suite e.g. 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 of hearts.

3. Four of a kind - four cards of the same denomination e.g. 3, 6, 6, 6 and 6.

4. Full house - 3 cards of one denomination and 2 cards of a second denomination e.g. k, k, k, 3 and 3.

5. Flush - any 5 cards of the same suite.

6. Straight - 5 consecutive cards of any suite e.g. 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.

7. 3 of a kind - 3 cards of one denomination e.g. 3, 3, 3, 9, and 10.

8. 2 pairs – 2 cards of one denomination and 2 cards of a second denomination e.g. k, k, 3, 3 and 8.

9. One pair - 2 cards of one denomination e.g. k, k, 3, 5 and 8.

10. High – The highest denominated card in the hand e.g. A, 3, 2, 8 and 9.