MyPokerCorner.com » General Concepts

What Is A Satellite Poker Tournament?

MPC admin — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:34:09 +0000

This article will explain what a poker satellite tournament is and show you where you can play in the best poker satellite tournaments online.

Differences Between Satellite Poker Tournaments And Regular Tournaments

There is one main difference between satellite poker tournaments and regular tournaments. Players in satellite tournaments are usually all competing for the same prize where as the prize pool in regular multi table tournaments is staggered based on how close you are to winning. If you play a $10 satellite to the Sunday Million on Pokerstars then a certain number of players will win a ticket to the Sunday Million and the other players will win nothing. (...)
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Good Poker Players vs Great Poker Players

MPC admin — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 11:00:05 +0000

So what is it that makes great poker players great and good poker players… well, not so great? Or to put it another way, what’s stopping good poker players from moving up to higher levels or increasing their winrate at their current level? Perhaps with the help of Daniel Negreanu poker training videos? Sure, that can be helpfull but consider the following…

I don’t believe that there are any simple answers like “double barrel more” or “3bet light often”. However, there are a few things that I think really separate the truly successful poker players from those that find themselves restricted by their current ability.

Great poker players know the “why”, not just the “what”

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Moving to Higher Stakes Poker Games

MPC admin — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:43:05 +0000

Knowing when to move up to next level can be quite difficult and once you are there learning how to adapt your approach to win at that level can be equally difficult. If you know how to approach playing in higher stakes games then you have more chance of staying in them. However, if you don’t know when it is the right time to move up then you are going to struggle, no matter what changes to your game you make.

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Playing Your Position

MPC admin — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 22:38:14 +0000

Article Sponsored by the Team at Online Poker Rakeback

As any experienced poker player will tell you, poker is not just a game of cards. Poker is a game of psychological warfare, with a felt battlefield and mental ammunition. It’s not always the player with the best cards who wins – it’s the player who can make everyone else at the table believe he has the best cards who takes the pot.

Now you’re probably asking yourself, “Does this guy want me to bluff every bad hand?” Absolutely not. But when the situation calls for it, by all mean, yes!

Now you’re probably wondering what this has to do with playing your position in poker. That’s simple enough. When you’re in the best position – late position – you have the greatest opportunity to claim a sizeable pot with a terrible hand. This won’t happen every time, but it can certainly come in handy when your opponents haven’t a leg to stand on.

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How to play poker

MPC admin — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 13:07:11 +0000

Poker is cool. There’s no question about it. You see poker players wins millions of dollars on TV every single week and it makes you want to be there and live the experience. For a few of us, this might actually happen but before you can win at poker, you need to learn how to play poker.

Learning how to player poker is like learning a musical instrument. Some people have a natural knack for it while others need to work a lot harder at it. There is also the few that are simply tone deaf and will just never be good at it no matter how hard they try.

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Win More Money At Online Poker with Odds Calculators

MPC admin — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 19:04:10 +0000

Poker odds calculators are a CRUCIAL part of winning money at online poker. A poker odds calculator can QUICKLY and EASILY improve your game in various ways and this is what this article covers.

Understand Your Starting Hand strenght

Most poker players end up playing too many hands. Beginers in particular tend to rely on luck too much and they get invllved in pots hoping to hit the flop. From time to time, you do get lucky and hit a nice flop, but in the long run you are loosing money. The reason is because of the your ODDS. Even though you might make a “great hand” once in every twenty flops, those other nineteen hands will cost you more money then what you gained on the 20th winning hand. Add it all up and you’re running in the hole so stop behaving this way!

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Think Like A Winning Poker Player

MPC admin — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 19:02:43 +0000

In order to win money from poker, you need to think like a winning poker player. I know, I know, it’s easier said than done, but that’s the same for pretty much anything in life.

Nonetheless, here are a few tips to help you develop the mind of a winning poker player.

Think about the future of your hand

An unfortunate mistake that many amateur (and even intermediate) players make is that they do not consider where a hand is going, and they simply make decisions on the spur of the moment. A lot of the time, if a hand looks as though it’s becoming too tricky to play and you feel as though it will lose you money, it probably will.

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3 Ways To Boost Your Poker Bankroll

MPC admin — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 18:58:38 +0000

There will occasionally be times in poker where you hit the Doldrums as far as building your bankroll is concerned. Things might be going great for a while, but all of a sudden you find yourself stuck in a rut, and you are having trouble adding those extra dollars to your bankroll.

This could be due to a mix of bad cards and less than perfect play, but at the end of the day you want to get back on to the money-making track as quickly as possible. To help you get your game back into shape, here are 3 tips for breathing some life into your poker bankroll.

1 – Try playing at a new room

You know how rearranging your desk or changing your desktop background can freshen things up a little and make you more productive? How about doing the same thing with online poker?

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Dealing with Bad Beats

MPC admin — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 18:51:14 +0000

As much as we hate to admit it, poker Bad Beats are part and parcel of today’s game of poker. If you haven’t experienced a bad beat at the poker table, then I’m guessing you haven’t been involved in many pots or you’ve been playing FAR too conservatively.

Suffering a bad beat can at best leave you feeling angry and frustrated. At worst, it can send you on tilt and affect the way you play your future hands. How can the guy who decided to throw all his chips into the middle of the table with just with just a 9 3 offsuit still end up walking off with your chips? How did he end up drawing the only two cards in the deck that would save him?

It’s this sense of injustice, that needs to be dealt with to ensure that your game does not suffer in the long term. But what’s the best way of dealing with Lady Luck leaving you? Well ideally you’d want to talk about it to get it off your chest, but that’s not an option in poker circles. Your fellow players don’t want to hear your poker bad-beat stories. They’ve got their own stories – they don’t need to hear about yours.

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Basic Sit-N-Go Strategy

MPC admin — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 18:36:16 +0000

Sit and Go tournaments (SNGs) are an exciting form of poker that provide an experience similar to large tournaments without taking up nearly as much time. Some professional SNG players can play well over 50 SNGs a day because of this.

Sit n Go strategy isn’t discussed as often as multi-table tournament and cash game poker strategy so there’s great potential for dedicated players to make a killing at SNGs. All it requires is discipline and a willingness to learn.

There are three major parts to a SNG, each one requiring its own gambling strategy:

Early Poker Strategy – 8 to 10 Players Remaining

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Early stage Turbo SNG strategy

MPC admin — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 18:28:54 +0000

There’s been much debate about when it’s appropriate to steal blinds during a single table Turbo Sit and Go. Some say it’s a free-for-all once the game begins, others say wait until the blinds reach the middle stages of the tournament. The folks that are members of the “wait till later” school of thought reason that it doesn’t make much sense to steal blinds when they are so low relative to your stick. The folks that advocate stealing early and often say that even if your opponent play back, you may get lucky on a flop and bust an opponent.

What Table Image do You Want to Project?

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Six Handed Sit and Go Strategy

MPC admin — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 18:27:13 +0000

Sit and Go (SNG) single table tournaments are very popular and for good reason. The action is fast paced and typically last under an hour. Compared to a standard 9 or 10-seated SNG, the 6-handed version can be very lucrative for players who learn to adapt their play by considering the following elements:

Short handed play means you don’t have to wait on premium hands to play
Button steals are far more common in this game
Many flops aren’t contested beyond the flop
It’s easier to isolate opponents with fewer players being dealt in
You can make under the gun raises with more confidence (only 5 more players behind you)

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Low Limit Poker Bankroll Management

MPC admin — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 18:20:00 +0000

Learning to manage your poker bankroll is a critical step to assuring profitability and minimizing your risk of going broke. Poker is a game of short term luck and long term skill. What this means is that you will need to have enough poker money to withstand some short term setbacks. No matter how good you are at the game, there will be days that you lose, simply because luck will not be on your side. Over time however, your skill will prevail and luck will only be a short term inconvenience. This article will give you the information you need to properly maintain your poker bankroll and how to stay in the game even when things get bad.

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Taking Advantage of Poker Math

MPC admin — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:42:18 +0000

Some poker players will tell you that the best way to play poker is to consider poker math. That is true, as long as you don’t consider ONLY poker math, which is actually a huge disadvantage.

What is poker math? Well, to sum it up it’s all about making your decisions based on probability, and by taking into account ratios of what you can win versus how much you have to put in, in relation to your actual chances of winning. Poker math can even get more complicated when you’re trying to predict what how everyone else following you will play on their turn, and then incorporating this “guess” into your mathematical formulas to eventually reach a decision about what to do.

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When Poker Strategy Becomes Useless

MPC admin — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:32:54 +0000

It’s funny that I dedicate this website to Poker strategy, yet write about how strategy can sometimes be ineffective. However, the reality about poker strategies is that they can only be effective when applied in the proper context. Let me explain what I mean by that.

First, consider how we all learn about poker strategy. Some of us read books, some learn from experience, some read websites like this one, others watch interviews of their favorite poker stars, etc. The problem that most people have is not in understanding the logic behind a particular poker move, but rather the difficulty seems to be around “when” to apply that particular strategy. Often, it is done out of context, and that’s why most players fail. For example, when your favorite poker player talks about how he or she played the first hour of the WSOP and gives advice regarding the strategy used, you can’t just take this advice and apply it to an online turbo tournament. It just won’t work for you because the context is completely different.

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Moving up in Sit and Gos

MPC admin — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:38:04 +0000

If you’ve been playing sit-and-gos successfully for a while, you may be ready to move on up to the next level. Some players choose sit-and-gos somewhat indiscriminately, playing an $11 sit-and-go now, a $33 sit-and-go since they happen to notice there’s a seat left, etc. You will probably have better results if you approach sit-and-gos systematically, playing a single level of buy in until you have been successful enough that you are prepared to move up. Here are some signs it may be time to move up in sit-and-go buy in.

You are Cashing Consistently

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How to Calculate Poker Side Pots

MPC admin — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:59:48 +0000

Side pots occur when a person involved in a poker hand bets all of their remaining chips but don’t have enough chips left to match the current bet. So if you have $75 left, and the bet is $100, you can bet all your chips, but not be eligible for the full pot which is based on $100 bets. As a result, two pots are created: A main pot and a side pot. You see this happen all the time during online poker games, but if you’re new to poker maybe you didn’t catch it, or noticed it but didn’t understand what just happened. This article will explain how side pots work.

The best way to understand how side pots work is by using an example. Let’s keep things simple here and pretend that we have 4 players at our poker table. Three of them have $1000 in chips, and the fourth has only $200 left. The blinds are at $25 and $50. Let’s get our poker game started shall we?

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Sit and Go Strategy: Equity

MPC admin — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:43:25 +0000

In a sit-and-go tournament, it is important to understand the idea of equity. Equity is a concept that not all sit-and-go players think about, but it is a concept that can change the way you think about sit-and-gos. If you understand equity, you have a great chance of improving your ROI (return on investment) in sit-and-gos.

What is Equity?

Equity is simply how much a sit-and-go tournament is worth to you. In a ten-handed sit-and-go where all players are equally skilled, you would have ten percent equity. Therefore, in a $10 plus $1 sit-and-go (where the $1 goes to the house take), since the total prize pool is $100, you have $10 equity. This means that over time, each sit-and-go is worth $10 to you. If you play ten sit-and-gos, you can expect to finish on average third once, second once and first once, winning $20, $30 and $50 respectively. This represents a win of $100 over ten trials, or $10 per trial.

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Basic Online Poker Tournament Strategies

MPC admin — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 03:48:08 +0000

Online Poker Tournaments are becoming more and more popular every day. The live coverage of big events like the WSOP, EPT and WPT really puts people in a tournament mindset. After watching the pro’s at the final table on TV, tens of thousands of people from all around the world immediately seek a seat behind their own computer, login to their favourite poker room and start playing some sit and go’s and multi table tournaments themselves. What is it that is so attractive about these tournaments online? What sort of tournaments are out there? And what’s the basic strategy to apply in all these different forms of tournaments? In other words: how do I make it to the final table every time to get some big money?

The Attraction of Online Poker Tournaments

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Online Poker Tells

MPC admin — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 03:31:06 +0000

One of the secrets at winning online poker games is to pick the right targets to go up against. The first thing you want to do when you sit at a table is figure out who’s a fish and who’s a shark. This is an important component of your gambling strategy. A poker fish is a bad player, who often loses a lot of money due to poor plays. Generally, an experienced player will have more chances of beating inexperienced players. The secret to online poker success is therefore largely related to going against the right person at the right time. So how do you spot a fish? Well, grab your fishing pole because I’m about to teach you about simple signs of fish activity.

Watch the discussion

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The G-Spot: Game Selection

MPC admin — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 03:26:49 +0000

Suppose you’re the best shorthanded no-limit hold’em player in the world for online poker. You sit at a $500-$1,000 blind shorthanded no-limit hold’em game with five other world-class shorthanded no-limit hold’em players. Meanwhile, at the same time, there’s a $100-$200 blind shorthanded no-limit hold’em game featuring three world-class players and two relatively weak players. If your goal is to make the most money per hour, which table would you prefer to site at?

Though the $100-$200 blind game is smaller, it may very well be the case that your expected win rate at that game will be higher than your expected win rate in the $500-$1,000 blind game. It only takes one or two relatively weak players to affect your expected bottom line substantially – especially in a shorthanded game, where fewer opponents can run interference. And remember that your hourly win-rate is a function of both stakes and competition.

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Question from a Reader

MPC admin — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 03:09:13 +0000

I occasionally receive e-mails from poker players who want to pick my brain on certain aspects of the game, or even on specific hands they played. I do enjoy providing my two cents, but never do I claim it as the absolute truth for there is no such thing in poker. I provide an opinion only, and hope that my opinion will benefit my readers.

Brandon, from Austin Texas, sent me an e-mail the other day and asked for suggestions in dealing with a problem he’s having at the tables:

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Poker Skills

MPC admin — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 03:00:54 +0000

Being a winning poker player obviously requires a combination of many different skills you need to master. We’ll take a closer look at a few of the most important ones in this article.

Before we even begin: discipline. It is the single most important “skill” in poker. Without discipline, there’s no use to master all the other skills, because there’s no way you’ll ever be able to properly apply them.

Winning poker can be boiled down to a single sentence: Win on as many hands you commit too, commit on as few losing hands as you can. None of that is achievable without proper discipline. You see, the problem with the game of poker is, that it is designed to push you to your emotional limits. Whether you go beyond that or not, is entirely dependant on you.

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Play the Right Limits

MPC admin — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 02:55:04 +0000

Generally, the higher the limits are, the more experienced your opponents are. It’s only natural to play higher limits as you improve over time, but if you make that transition too fast, it may cost you. If you play poker to win money, you’ll have more success playing against people that are less skilled and experienced than you. If you are not winning at the current limit games you are playing, try moving down in limit. The competition will probably be weaker. If you find yourself winning most of the time, try to move up in limit.

Things You Won't Learn With Poker Theories

MPC admin — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 02:48:11 +0000

No matter how good a poker player you think you are, there are people out there you could never-ever hope to beat. People who play better than you do even when you’re on your best game. People who seem to have something inexplicable around them which makes them successful. We generally like to refer to this “thing” as talent, but can talent be further dissected? What exactly makes these players talented?

Poker Talent

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Overcoming a Loosing Streak

MPC admin — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:10:46 +0000

If you play poker on a regular basis, eventually you’ll hit a losing streak. It happens frequently, even to great poker players. A lot of people will tell you to just take a break. They assume that you’ve been playing too much and that you are simply tired. While that may be a possibility, it’s often more than simply being physically and emotionally tired.

I certainly don’t deny that fatigue can have an impact on your game. But while being fatigued, something else can happen: we make stupid basic mistakes without even realizing it. A good indicator of this is the luck factor, or in the case, the bad luck factor. If you are loosing frequently, and it seems like you’re just unlucky, it’s probably because you’re putting your money in situations where luck is too much of a factor, and the risks are too great. People who are chasing flushes constantly, even when pot odds don’t warrant such actions, are a prime example. You’re not loosing because you’re unlucky (i.e. not catching that spade you needed), you’re loosing because you play hands you shouldn’t play. Hey, if you can chase a flush for free, of for little money, go nuts. If it’s going to cost half your stack to win double that amount, well… give it up already!

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Playing Poker Online

MPC admin — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 17:08:34 +0000

Playing Poker online is the most effective way to learn poker. You play against different opponents who have various degrees of experiences and a wide range of play styles. I recommend you start playing online with play money until you get comfortable with the game, and with the site you play on. Then, once you feel ready to gamble with real money, try out a real cash game or a cash tournament, and reap the rewards!

MyPokerCorner.com recommends specific online poker rooms to play poker on because of various reasons like the quality and likeability of the software used, the reliability and reputation of the company, and quality of support they provide. (...)
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Table Position is Important

MPC admin — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 16:59:22 +0000

Depending on where you sit at the table vs where the dealer button is located, you may have advantages or disadvantages. Learn what they are and use them! When sitting in the button position, you’ll get to see how everyone else acts before you make your play (after the flop). This is a huge advantage, and it’s a great position to steal pots and blinds. When you are in early position, conservative play works best. When you are in blinds position, you have money already invested so pre-flop aggressiveness is often warranted. It’s also not bad spots to steal pots, but other players may give you less credit for you hand based on your position alone.

Raise! Raise! Raise!

MPC admin — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 16:58:01 +0000

It is critical to raise in poker. You should be raising or folding much more often than simply calling. By raising an opponent, you can win the pot two ways: By making them fold, or by having the best hand. If you simply call, then you must have the best hand in order to win. Additionally, a raise is helpful in obtaining information about your opponent’s hands. More specifically, how they react to your raise will give you an indication of the strength of their hand.

Know When to Fold

MPC admin — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 16:56:18 +0000

Listen to Kenny! He knows what he's talking about when he's singing about folding your hand. In poker, we all know that bluffing is a significant component of the game. It doesn't mean you can bluff anyone at any time on every hand. Sometimes, you get yourself in difficult situations and when it's getting too expensive to find out more, the right play is to give up the hand. You'll loose some chips in the process, but you'll protect your remaining stack by not putting even more chips at risks in a situation where you don't even know where you stand, and when you don't have much hope of winning should you get called.

Don't Fall in Love With Your Hand

MPC admin — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 16:53:50 +0000

A great starting hand is only great if the flop favors it. In Texas Holdem for instance, a lot of players will start out with A-K which is a very strong hand, and they will raise pre-flop. That is a good play. When the flop comes and reveals low cards, perhaps suited, perhaps connected, then A-K isn’t that great in this particular hand. Unfortunately, some players keep being aggressive, even when facing reraises and calls from tight players. Sometimes, they’ll even put all of their chips at risk, and loose. If this is happening to you, my advice is simple: consider pot odds.

How to Build a Bankroll

MPC admin — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 14:21:24 +0000

A poker philosopher once said, "It is not difficult to get hold of a sizable bankroll – keeping it that way is the hard part." And he couldn’t be more right. Many players manage to win quite a lot of money only to waste it by playing with high stakes.

Play the Right Poker Limits

To maximize the chance of steady bankroll growth and minimize the risk of going bust, you have to play on certain limits. The standard formula for fixed limit holdem is that your bankroll should be 300 times a big bet. Therefore, to participate in a $1/$2 limit holdem game, you must have $600 in your bankroll. The rule for no-limit holdem is 3,000 times the big blind. This may sound like a lot, but no-limit holdem is a game with huge swings, so this formula ensures that you can recover from a bad streak.

Of course, this is only relevant as soon as you have money to play with. But how do you get yourself a bankroll to begin with?

Poker Bonus

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Responsible Poker and Planning

MPC admin — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 14:21:41 +0000

Everyone knows that gambling can be addictive and saying the contrary would by a lie. On the other hand, why condemn gambling as a whole because a minority can’t be responsible with it? Poker can be extremely fun, lucrative, and it’s a great hobby or social activity to get into. Ultimately it is a game, and with all games there needs to be certain rules in place. I will tell you something about myself: I have an addictive personality. That’s a fact. I can also tell you that over the years, trough experience, I have learned to manage my addictive tendencies and I want to teach you how. It requires discipline and commitment, but it works so well for me I just had to write about it! And best of all, it’s extremely simple.

Set general Gambling Goals

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Pot Odds Are Nice But…

MPC admin — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 02:32:24 +0000

If you play Texas Holdem, you should be able to calculate pot odds in your head as this is a mathematical representation of the hand at play. It serves as a guide to what you should do on your turn. However, keep in mind that poker is more than simple mathematics and statistics: It’s a people game. Don’t rely solely on pot odds to make your decisions.

Sometimes the right play isn’t necessarily a logical one!

Raise Against Check-Callers

MPC admin — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 02:19:44 +0000

When a person checks, then and you bet, and they just call your bet, it’s often an indication that they don’t have a strong hand. On the next betting round, try to make them fold by making a nice raise. If they didn’t get a card that helped them, they’ll usually fold. You’ll win more pots by being aggressive against those who are trying to see free cards.

Online Poker Room Terminology

MPC admin — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 02:17:18 +0000

New poker players may have some familiarity with Texas Hold’em, but may find some of the terminology used by poker rooms to be confusing. For instance, I remember when I first started playing online, I wasn’t sure what a “re-buy” tournament was. This article will provide you with a comprehensive explanation of the most common terms used by poker rooms.

The Poker Blinds

There are two types of blinds: small blind and big blind. These are essentially forced bets that ensure there is a starting pot. The value of the small blind is half of the big blind. Blind values go up periodically in tournaments, at a predetermined level and time delay.

Tournament Blind Structure

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Don't play too many hands

MPC admin — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 02:11:17 +0000

A common mistake in Texas Holdem is to call a bet on the first betting round when really, you should be folding. People do this because they want to see a cheap flop in hopes to get lucky, and they’ll do it with pretty much any hand. The probabilities of hitting the flop are already low to being with, but what happens when a subsequent better raises? Do you feel obligated to call? And what if you do and hit nothing when the flop comes? You’ll have to fold anyway. Playing to many hands is like throwing your money away, so unless you are in a position where you can really afford to do so, don’t do it.

Winning by Folding

MPC admin — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 02:30:19 +0000

While the title of this article may sound illogical, I assure you it isn’t. Folding means giving up the hand so how can you win by doing so? To put it simply, it is a fact that you cannot win every single hand at poker and you will therefore loose some hands, and some chips. The question is how many chips will you loose when that happens? That’s where folding your hand comes into play. Folding is a way to get you out of a sticky situation. Sure, you may loose some chips, sometimes a lot of chips perhaps, but don’t loose your shirt over a single bad hand. This is Texas Hold’em, not strip poker!

Good Poker Players Know When They Are Beat

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Adapt to the play styles of others

MPC admin — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 02:21:47 +0000

When you join a poker table, play tight. This will give you time to study how people play, and gage the general aggressiveness of the table. Once you figure that out, then you can adapt your play style in consequence. Generally when the table is tight you should push people around, bluff, steal pots and blinds. If the table is loose or players are calling stations, then you should play tight because it will be much harder to get away with a bluff.

Commit to Your Game

MPC admin — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 02:02:40 +0000

When you play poker online, it is really important to be committed to your game. If you want to win at poker, you have to study every moves made by your opponents, even when you’re not in the hand. Don’t think that folding means you’re on a break! You still have to watch how players act and react to each other because that can give you clues on how to play future hands.

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How To Read Your Poker Opponents

MPC admin — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 01:49:06 +0000

If you want to be sure that your poker knowledge is growing, and you want to become a real poker master, it is not always that important to play hundreds of hands, or to calculate the Holdem Odds. Learning to read your opponents’ tells is critical.

A poker tell is a subliminal act of body language, and most of the people don’t even know that they are giving up these tells. In the poker game, a tell can be used to tell you if the gambler in front of you has a strong hand or not, is he going to bluff or not, what does he want to do with his current hand in the given moment, etc. Once you do this, you’ll be able to figure out how to proceed with your hand afterwards.

The fact that most of the people have no idea that they are perpetrate these tells. By trying to keep their outward emotions in check, players can sometimes release the feelings about their hands in different nonverbal actions.

Common Poker Tells:

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Poker Tournament Structures

MPC admin — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 01:27:00 +0000

One aspect of a online poker tournaments that players do not always consider is the structure of the tournament. Large $10,000 buy in events usually have excellent structures, with deep stacks of chips, as much as 100 times the opening big blind or more, and rounds of 90 to 120 minutes. Smaller buy in tournaments unfortunately usually have less favorable structures.

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When to Go "All in"

MPC admin — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 01:15:07 +0000

Going “all in” means betting all of your chips. It’s a way to increase your chip count significantly when you get called and win. It’s also a quick ticket home when you get called and loose. A common mistake amateur players make is that they go all to often, at the wrong times, and when it’s not even necessary. When is the all in strategy best used? Let’s explore that question.

Poker Situations Where You Should Go “All in”

Excluding heads up play which I will cover later, there are only three good reasons to go all in. The first being that you are convinced you have the best hand and you have your opponents beat. The second reason being that you are convince you can fool your opponent in thinking you have the best hand, regardless of what you actually hold. Things don’t always work out the way you plan so beware of the “all in” move. If you’re into tournament play, then there’s a third reason to go all in and that’s when you are one of the small stacks and you need to double up. Generally, you need to consider the all in play when your total chip counts is ten times the big blind or less. If you wait too long, the blinds will eat up your stack and you’ll be out of the tournament before you know it.

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Don't Bluff Pot Committed Opponents

MPC admin — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:11:26 +0000

If you want to bluff someone who already has most of their chips invested in a pot, you will likely not be able to scare them away with a big raise. For example, in a pot where my opponent has invested 500 chips and he only has 100 chips left, putting them all in will not likely make them fold unless they have absolutely nothing and they just tried to pull a bluff on you. I would say that 90% of players call if they are pot committed, even when they don’t have the greatest hand. Don’t bother bluffing under those circumstances.

Luck vs Skill in Poker Games

MPC admin — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:02:40 +0000

A lot of new poker players tell me that poker is a game of luck, and to them I say poker is a game of skills. Luck is just one random factor which you have no control over, and it's not that important when considering all the other variables that you can influence as a player.

Poker Variables – Do You Have Control?

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Play Money vs Real Money

MPC admin — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 19:49:53 +0000

When you start playing online poker games like Texas Hold'em, you'll note that the game play is actually slightly different with real money compared to play money. The reason is simple: A lot of play money players tend to go all in and hope to get lucky. There's nothing more frustrating than going all in with two aces, and being called by someone who has 7-2, and loosing! Obviously, there's the "actual personal interest" factor that comes into play. When I play poker for fun with play money, I treat is as if it was real money and I don't make the stupid calls. Unfortunately, not everyone thinks like me and this can impact your game. This article will give you a few points to consider.

Poker and Luck

It's not a mystery that some players treat play money as play money, while others like me treat play money as real money. But then, that's the difference between a serious poker player and someone who just wants to get lucky. If you want to become a great poker player, then don't rely on luck to win. Just acknowledge that luck can influence your game, but always rely on your skills. Luck will show up once in a while. Sometimes it will be good luck, other times it will be bad luck. You know, sometimes you'll make all the right moves, all the right plays, and you'll loose anyway. It happens. It's part of the game. The luck factor can be significant in a hand or a game, but it's is not that important when you look at your entire poker experience over a long time period. If you want to go all in on the first hand with no good cards because you hope to get lucky, then you don't grasp the concept of what poker really is. Perhaps you should consider playing something more random like Bingo!

Play Money Means More Luck and Less Poker Strategy

There's always people out there who join a table, go all in in hopes to get lucky and double up. That's life! I just want to point out that this "win the lottery" play is frequent with play money, and less frequent with real money. It means that if you are a serious player, then you need to play with serious players. Real money is the place where you'll see a lot less of these crazy irrational bets. I was once playing in a tournament with play money and my first hand was two aces. Naturally, I decided to take advantage of the "win the lottery" players and I typed a message that encouraged players to go all in on the first hand. 4 out of 9 went all in, and I won the pot. I hope they learned a lesson from this! The issue that I have with this practice is that during tournament play, one person will benefit from this “all in” play. One person will end up with a lot of chips to start off and that gives them a significant advantage. It's a situation that is frequent with play money but practically non existent with real money.

Non Existent Poker Stakes

Because loosing play money doesn't really impact you financially, a lot of play money players will be more aggressive then they would with real money. They'll make calls that they wouldn't do with their own money. Remember this when you play online. For the ultimate poker experience, you need to give real money a try. You'll notice a huge difference. Still, play money is a great way to prepare yourself for real money games so don't dismiss it, but once you figure out how things work in general, you can move up to low limits using real money. Maybe you’ll struggle a little at first, but consider that a small investment for a greater experience. I view the initial looses as a poker lesson, and I learn from them. Things can be turned around pretty quickly, and if you spend time reading all of our poker strategy articles, you’ll have a huge advantage and your winnings should come sooner than later!

If you haven't done so already, please check out our Online Poker section for a list of poker sites we recommend.

A Poker Exercise

MPC admin — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 19:44:50 +0000

You’ll often read about how making the right bet is your most powerful poker tool. To illustrate this, I want to propose a little exercise that you can try out. It will really give you a better understanding of when to bet, how much to bet, and why.

Play Poker Without Calling

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Poker Terms

MPC admin — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 19:28:56 +0000

If you’re playing poker games such as Texas Hold’em, you need to learn a couple of terms. At least, you’ll know what the heck people are talking about when you watch a game on TV, or when you play with experienced players! In this segment, I’ll teach you the common terms used in poker and in Texas Hold’em.

Let’s start with the basics:

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How to Avoid Bad Beats

MPC admin — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 00:54:59 +0000

Have you been cursing at your computer because you’ve been really bad lucky? Does it seem like your bad luck just doesn’t go away? Well, let me ask you an important question: Have you ever wondered if you were responsible for those losses? Because guess what, you probably have a hand to play in it. No pun intended!

Sometimes we are faced with the dreaded bad beats. It’s only normal that these situations will come up on occasions, but are they occurring too frequently in your game? Are you loosing your money because of it? Well guess what: It’s not all about bad luck. You are likely doing something wrong and I’d like to suggest a poker strategy to bring your game back on track.

Number of Poker Opponents

The secret in winning at Texas Hold’em is in making sure you are facing as few opponents as possible. Most people think that the more players you have in the hand, the more money you can win. While this is true, you also need to understand that when you have a lot of players in the hand, it’s harder for you to win the hand. You’re better off winning a little less more often, than winning a little more less frequently. Why? Because the sooner you acquire chips, the quicker you can put them to work.

Choose the Right Poker Game

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