Can I win more by playing a tight game or loose?

You will undeniably hear two theories from your poker buddies or possibly the so-called poker experts. Let’s take a look first at the tight poker players. All players including yourself will have a hard time winning, if the entire table is playing a tight game. What may occur if you have a poker table full of tight poker players is the players will end up swapping the smaller pots back and forth to each other. All the while the poker lounge is raking in heaps of your hard-earned money, and that of your competition. So now you could say, is it better to play loose? Well, in this situation the better Texas holdem’ players are going to lose fewer hands, but at the end of it all nobody is going to succeed.

How can I enhance my Texas holdem’ playing in the long run?

The answer to this question is as easy as a piece of paper and a pen. A great approach to find out a lot about your playing method and strategy, is to keep some sort of record of your poker playing. You could write down this information during the poker game, and then transfer it to a database on your home computer. This can also help you learn about your opponents playing style, and what is the best strategy to conquer them.

Is it a good idea to use the same strategy for every poker tournament?

If you think that being predictable is a winning tactic for playing poker, then you should consider varying your Texas holdem’ tactic. The poker pros have the same opinion that adjusting your poker playing method is the best way to confuse and bewilder your poker opponents. You should analyze a handful of methods, discover the best ones for each situation and vary them for every poker tournament.

No Comments »

According to the 2006 World Series of Poker champ, Jamie Gold, he would be pleased to be branded as the finest bluffer in the world. But if his last poker tournament is any sign, his wish may not be granted ever.

The site is the 2007 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic held at the Sin City Bellagio in 2007. Featuring $50 - $100 blinds and a $15,000 buy-in, Darrell Dicken is hanging on in the tournament for dear life. The seat 4 player has just raised his wager to $300, a pretty small raise with only one player biting the line. “I put him as being weak,” Jamie said, “I was thinking about raising, but instead I just called with a 10-3 of hearts to see what would happen.”

Jamie thought that Brad Booth would make some kind of move, which he did. He re-raised to $1600 from the big blind. Gold was thinking that Booth had a good hand, but he was in an excellent position to make a move considering the quantity of dead money in the pot. Dicken ended up folding, and the unknown in Seat 4 called Booth’s raise.

Now there was more than $4000 in the pot, so Jamie raised the wager by $4000. He was thinking, only if someone else had aces or kings there would be no possibility they would make that call. Jamie’s strategy was to make a considerable move on the flop, as long as no ace was dealt. The second part of his plan was to get Booth to fold, which he did. Booth folded with pocket queens.

On the flop there was an ace of ace-6-5, two clubs. The player in seat 4 checked and Jamie bet $2000. Jamie’s initial thought was to make him think that he had clubs. Seat 4 tossed out a $10,000 poker chip, but didn’t say anything thus turning his raise into a call. Jamie’s thought was that seat 4 most likely had an ace, but you have to shield it in case he hits his set on the following card.

A 2 of hearts showed up on the turn, and Jamie folded to what he was thinking was a top pair kicker. Seat 4 displayed a king-jack off suit. Seat 4 beat Gold by bluffing with a superb hand, he made a magnificent poker play and kept the bluff going to the end of the poker tournament.

No Comments »

Texas Holdem’ used to be accessible only in Las Vegas Casino Hotels or from video poker, but now it is more in style than ever in Las Vegas thanks to the the internet.

The popular Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino, is now betting on this popularity with its new audience-participation show called “The Real Deal!” in its showroom in the Venetian Hotel and Casino, beginning in October.

The new game show will unite comedy and game show elements to entertain its live audience. The audience will also be able to take part in the famous Texas-Holdem’ alongside the some famous poker stars. Many prizes are available for the audience including a chance to win 1$ million.

In “The Real Deal!” the audience will play with players like Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu. Around 10 of the World’s most famous poker players have already signed up for the poker game show. The audience will be able to play along with the 90 minute game thanks to handheld, wireless, touch screen devices located on each seat.

“People who visit Sin City casinos want to play poker games,” Negreanu says, “but obviously they can’t play in a big game with the players like Doyle or Phil Hellmuth. But, in this show, they actually can.” At the start of the show, six audience members will be chosen to sit at the poker table on stage with two professional players. Each audience member is then involved in the action by being dealt a unique set of poker cards on their devices. Everyone in the showroom is then involved in the action with big-screen monitors located on stage.

Creators of the show say that you don’t have to be a professional poker player to join in the game. There are other ways to add to your point total, that doesn’t involve poker necessarily. Betting on the suit of the next poker card or trying to guess which state a particular audience member is from, are just some of the ways to come out a winner in this game.

Creators of the show are also betting on the charisma of the pro poker stars to create some interesting moments. Poker players like Scotty Nguyen, the flamboyant five-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, definitely knows how to work the crowd and should provide some memorable moments in this upcoming show .

No Comments »

Shortly after the start of last week’s charity celebrity poker event to aid the Paralyzed Veterans of America, Ben Affleck goes all-in with a flop of Ace-Nine-King and two diamonds. He squirms when two of his challengers call the bet. He yells “Re-buy”, but the turn is a seven of hearts. Affleck is disappointed when a jack of diamonds is dealt on the river. He took the hand seriously even though there was no real cash at stake. This is just the kind of thing that Affleck and several other poker enthusiasts are lobbying for.

Over $100,000 was raised for the paralyzed victims, but this was not the only purpose of the poker event held in Coors Field. Members of the Poker Players Alliance are working very hard to legalize online poker in the United States. As part of their agenda, they are pushing to repeal the 2006 legislation Congress passed which bans U.S. Banks and credit card companies from processing transactions related to internet gaming websites.

John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, is optimistic about the direction that the new congress will lead this decision. Pappas says that the alliance is pushing for a licensed industry, just for internet poker, and not for all online gaming. Pappas is interested in having a safe, regulated industry that all Americans can enjoy. The group is fighting for the rights of people and the privacy they deserve in their own home.

“There are misconceptions about poker and about online poker,” poker pro Andy Bloch said in between hands during the charity poker tournament. “Some people think that online gambling is gambling like a slot machine, and it’s not.”

No Comments »