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Studying Your Hand Potential – The Flop

Posted on October 25, 2012 ·

Ah, the flop. We love flops, you know. No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em is such a fun game, because a lot of players give away what they’re holding right at the flop. You can always tell that the person raising like 10BB has a monster hand — and he’s also a newbie nearly half the time if not more often. You don’t want to flash exactly what you’ve got because then people are just going to fold. Unless you just want to spend the whole game taking tiny pots, you want to spice things up a little. And that means actually having a clue of what your hand potential really is.

So let’s look at a flop, shall we?

9h 9d 2h

Nine of hearts, nine of diamonds, followed by the two of hearts. If you’re holding 82s and both cards are hearts, you’ve got a nice run on a flush. However, the trouble with getting too excited about your flush is that you can still be beaten by 5 other cards here. So if you get to the showdown and someone flips over a 10, J, Q, K, or A of hearts, you’re done for.

So for the moment, you actually have a nice hand potential. Even if you don’t catch the flush, you’ve still got two pair. The only trouble is that it’s not the strongest two pair — it is at the moment, but that could honestly change.

Many players have pushed into a pot like this hard, only to find that the turn or the river betrays them. That’s why it’s often better to go with smaller raises until you know for certain who is serious, who isn’t serious, and who will back down from you.

By the way, you should always be looking at the other people closely in the hand. Do they have a pattern of folding to pressure? Do they bluff? Do they play weak hands? This should all be part of your analysis. Yes, in the beginning you might seem “slow” but in time, you will catch up and be able to be a much stronger player in the long run.

It can take time to study all these different components quickly, but if you really want to improve your poker game, you need to look at more than just your hand. If you’re playing weak hands in hopes that you’re going to catch a freak flop, that needs to stop as well. You really want to make sure that you’re always playing your best hands — especially if you’re in a tournament where you can’t buy back in. Getting busted out means that you miss a chance at the money. Staying in and folding is better than going big and busting out hard. Trust us on that score.

Overall, there is always hope in raising your poker game, so don’t give up. Ask people online, practice your hands, and don’t ever think for a second that you don’t have what it takes to be a good poker player. Good luck out there!

Filed Under: Poker · Tagged: ,
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Don’t Let Your Poker Game Slip!

Posted on August 22, 2011 ·

Poker is just one of those games where you either want to play, or you don’t. If you don’t want to play poker right now, you need to stop and think about what’s keeping you from having your best poker game ever. Is it fear? Are you worried about the number of people that you have to play against? Are you thinking about all of the ways that you can mess up?

Either way — stop that. You are in control of you, and that means that it’s up to you to make sure that you don’t let your poker game slip. Now, we are poker players too, and therefore we are trying to reach out to our fellow gamblers before they end up blowing through their bankrolls. Did we mention that this is all part of managing your bankroll? If your psychological game is off, your poker game is going to be off too.

You will need to think about the type of poker game that you want to have, and figure out how to achieve it. Is it that you need to brush up on the fundamentals of poker? Is it that you need to switch to a different variety to give your brain a chance to try on something new? We know we’re asking a lot of questions, but these are the same questions that we had to ask ourselves in order to really make sure that poker is something that we wanted to keep playing. We needed to stop and really ensure that poker is something we still wanted to do. A lot of the struggles that we overcome as newcomers to the poker world were the realization that this was definitely real — we were putting real time, real energy, and real money into the sport of poker. It really is a sport in many ways, and it’s one that takes practice.

If you were into weight lifting, would you stop lifting just because you felt bad one day? Would you stop if you just didn’t feel like going to the gym one day? Would you stop if people told you that they didn’t understand why you spend so much time with this discipline?

Of course not — not if you really wanted to be a weight lifter more than anything else in the world. If you really want to play good poker and win big money, you will need to start adopting this attitude. Yes, we write a lot about mastering your psychological game because this is the first place that people are going to attack. They’re going to make you feel like it’s impossible to play good poker because there are just too m any things that are outside of your control.

Yes, this is also true — you can’t control what hole cards you’re going to get, nor will you ever be able to control the way the flop hits. There are going to be times where luck will win you pots, and luck will also cause you to lose pots. However, instead of worrying about the things that you can’t control, why not start thinking about the type of things that you can control? Why not start thinking about the fact that you can look at the statistics of poker and make sure that you’re calculating your pot odds before you even step down to make a move?

Sometimes you will have to let go of pots that seemed like sure things, but if you play poker with logical methods, you’re going to win more often than if you just relied on gut feelings. Do we play with emotion sometimes? Sure — but we also acknowledge that we just increased our risk when we do that. As long as you can live with increased risk, you’re welcome to develop your poker game anyway you choose.

If you find yourself ready to get more serious about poker, you might need to make sure that you’re running with people that are just as passionate as you. Unfortunately, when people don’t share your love for a certain hobby, it can feel like you’re wasting your time playing poker. While we tell people to avoid complaining too much on poker social boards, the truth is that you can turn them into something constructive pretty easily. It’s just a matter of really wanting to turn it into something productive.

When you get started on a poker message board, you will need to make sure that you’re not just rushing in like you’re an expert. If you’re coming into the boards from a learning standpoint, you will want to make sure that you communicate that point very well. If you just rush in and try to answer everyone’s questions right off the bat, people are going to assume that you’re pushy and they’re not going to want to really deal with you.

At the end of the day, poker is really what you make of it. As long as you are aware of your play at all times, you’re not going to run too high of a risk of letting your poker game slip — why not play a few hands today? You could probably use the practice, and there’s always someone that would be more than happy to put your newfound poker gambling skills to the test!

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The different versions of Texas Holdem – Which one suits Me?

Posted on June 17, 2011 ·

The poker game Texas Hold ‘Em is thought to have been invented back in the early 1900s in Robstown, Texas and yet, it has become a massive hit just lately. What has made this game even more unique is the fact that there are various methods of playing, which means it’s pretty hard to get tired of this game. In fact, a little diversity only makes the game better.

The point of Hold ‘Em is quite simple – to make it through all the betting rounds and to make sensible decisions. While most versions of Hold ‘Em have the same or similar rules, it might differ slightly when it comes to the amount of betting. Nevertheless, the most common versions of this game include Limit, Spread Limit, Pot Limit and No Limit.

The Limit version is perfect for those who play poker purely for fun and do not take it too seriously. As the name suggests, the players have a set limit as regarding to the betting amount they can place. In this version, players are limited to raise the bet by a fixed amount of money. If for instance the first player places a bet of $5, the other player can call the bet, or raise it by exactly $5 and so on.

The Spread Limit poker game is quite similar to Limit, but it’s even more “restricted”. In this version, the players have to specify the minimum and maximum amount of raising, thus leading to a more controlled game where the players can know almost precisely how much they’re going to spend or earn.

On the other hand, the Pot Limit can have a more unexpected outcome since the players are allowed to raise the bet by the total amount in the pot. While this game might be a lot exciting for some who like to play “by the edge”, for others it might be a little risky because the game is very unpredictable.

The best poker version to keep the adrenaline flowing is No Limit which is the least predictable game of all. The version is somewhat similar to the others, except there is no maximum raise and some players might even decide to go all in (bet everything they have).

While poker attracts millions of players every day, it is very advisable to make reasonable decisions when deciding which Texas Hold ‘Em version to play. While the game is very tempting and fascinating, it is never a good idea to play the game with huge amounts of money. But luckily, there are always “controllable” Hold ‘Em versions to play which are just as interesting as the others!

Filed Under: Poker · Tagged: , , , ,