Hold Em Authority - Texas Hold Em Strategy and advice for all levels of players

This article is courtesy of our friends over at Spinpalace. While you might think this article is a bit off topic, realize that this is a simple form of poker that can really be beneficial to a new player who is trying to learn the game. Enjoy!

Directly from the casinos of Las Vegas – Video Poker hits the web pre-installed with a huge following and a big reputation for nice, instant gaming for all levels of gamers – and without surprise, becoming an online casino phenomenon.

Video Poker is the perfect blend of the old and the new – easy slot gaming functionality with the slick allure of table poker. Video Poker gives you instant gratification amid a fast-paced, graphically rich gaming interface – with a simplicity ideal for beginners progressing to serious hardcore machines for highly skilled professional gamblers.

VP machines fire out poker hands into the slick gaming interfaces of slot machines and then it’s up to you to make your move – hold you hand or use luck and skill to re-draw before the machine pays out or takes your stake!

With brash pay tables – the Video Poker payout combos are simple to see – making it easy for any level of gamers to double-check their hand. The appeal of Video Poker is universal among all genres of online casino players – drawn by the opportunity to game with pure luck or a combination of luck and genuine high-spec skill and strategies – just like real table poker.

Few casino games match Video Poker’s intrinsic thrill, and its volatile gaming gives you an awesome casino experience – for serious gamers that of course means a potentially rewarding game - but pro gamers usually keep cool during bad sessions and bank the winnings when the skill pays off in style. Whatever your gaming level – Video Poker is guaranteed to leave you wanting more.

Most people who start their poker career at an online casino, probably start out with Texas Hold´em Poker and not one of the many other poker games such as Omaha, Seven Card Stud, Five Card Stud or Draw Poker.

Why is it that Texas Hold´em Poker seems to take the lead?

Well, first of all people quickly realize that Texas Hold´em is fairly simple to play, and therefore also one of the easiest poker games to learn. Two cards are all you have to worry about keeping track of in your hand.

Because of the fact that Texas Hold´em Poker isn’t too complicated to learn and because this poker game is shown massively on TV, it is no wonder that people new to online poker will start playing Texas Holdem before any other game. The great number of new Texas Hold´em Poker players actually benefit the more experienced poker players. Thus, the competent Texas Hold´em Poker players always have a continuous supply of players that may lose a bit money to them due to their inexperience at the tables.

Texas Hold´em is a very enjoyable game to play, and as you become more skillful, the fun really starts since you’ll start to win some cash. Some players make big money playing Texas Hold´em, but there are only few professional poker players who can make a living off it. You may not be a pro yet, but you have great chances of adding cash to your income by playing poker if you put the time and research into the game.

Texas Hold´em Poker has become the game of choice for the majority of new poker players. However, if you have the time and if you feel like adding a little depth to your game, you might start trying the other poker games. Who knows – in the future we may see a different poker game take the lead as the most popular, so why not start practicing now?

There have been multiple times in poker where I have a perfect read on what someone is holding and I end up losing. No, I’m not talking about a bad beat here - I’m talking about not knowing your opponent as well as you need to. Let me give you an example:

You think you have an opponent pegged as being a reckless poker player. He’s in every hand preflop and ultimately just loves seeing flops. You decide that on one hand you’re going to blow him off his hand, because what are the chances he’s going to have anything worth calling a good chunk of his stack with? The cards are dealt and you have a measley J3. Of course your opponent calls preflop, and the flop comes A62. Chances are this guy isn’t going to have an ace, so this flop is gorgeous for you - you bet, and your opponent calls. The turn is a 3. You bet bigger this time, and your opponent calls. The river is a 9. He wouldn’t call you three times would he? You bet the remainder of your stack and get called fairly quickly. He flips over Q6 and sends you to the rail.

Your intuition was right - he didn’t have a strong hand. What you may have forgotten to take into consideration though was what this guy is willing to call with. He risked almost his whole stack with middle pair which is ridiculous (most of the time), but because you didn’t know he was willing to do that, he took you for all your chips. You can blame your misfortune on him being an idiot if it makes you feel better, but whose fault is it really?

Getting a read on your opponents is important, but taking your read a step further can keep you in a tournament that much longer.

Did anyone watch the World Series (of baseball, not poker)? If you were on a short vacation, you might’ve missed a Boston Massacre. The Colorado Rockies had a 9 day layoff as a result of their sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and as much as they told the media this layoff wouldn’t affect them, it did. Hitting is a game of timing, pitching is a game of disrupting that timing. When one has played baseball for six and a half months straight with no more than a 3 day layoff (the all star break), a nine day layoff can come as quite a burden to a hitter’s timing.

Timing is a big part of the game of poker. If a player has poor timing, he/she could lose a lot of money. Timing seems to develop with a feel for the game. The more feel you have, the better idea you have of when the right time is to make a play at the pot.

I’ve recently started playing poker again after a long layoff. My timing sucks right now, and there’s no two ways about it. I’ve lost that feel for when players are making reckless moves at my pot, and I’ve lost that discipline required to get myself deep into tournaments without the best of cards. I’ve lost more money than I should because I haven’t made a conscious decision that I want to get better - I just expect myself to be as good as I was before I had the layoff. It’s taken me until now to realize what’s really going on, and I hope that I can save the rest of you from making my careless decision.
What’s the cure to losing that timing and feel for the game after a long layoff? For one, don’t stop playing. If that’s not an option, it’s best to ease yourself back into the game. Put yourself in the best position you can to win or at least break even. Typically that will involve stepping down a level or two from where you’re used to playing. If you don’t let your ego get in the way, playing patiently at these lower limits will help you re-develop that feel you know you once had back in the day.

If only the Rockies could’ve eased their way back into the World Series by playing a couple more games against the Diamondbacks while they were waiting for the AL winner, maybe everyone would’ve had time to enjoy the fall classic a little more.

Here’s an alarming but undeniable truth about the world in which we live: there are a lot of poker cheats out there. That’s right, for all of us who enjoy a nice, honorable game of poker, there are more than a few slimy, unscrupulous individuals who will employ any means necessary - no matter how devious or derelict - to take what we rightfully have a chance to win.

(For any of you poker cheats reading this who may be offended by descriptive words like “slimy,” perhaps it is your own guilty conscience producing these feelings of negativity. Clean up your act, fellas. It’s never too late to live a respectable life.)

Well, nobody likes to listen to a droning, self-important sermon, so rather than continue to castigate all those poker cheats out there for being the lowdown, worthless dregs of society that they are, let’s shift our focus to look at some of the ways in which poker cheats go about their foul business.

Poker cheats have many tools to work with. They can count cards, either with a partner or on a solo basis. They can use phony gambling chips or load the deck when it’s their time to deal. The way a player will cheat depends to a huge extent up on the venue in which he or she is playing. In other words, it only makes sense that in order to rip off an Atlantic City casino, you would need to employ slightly more sophisticated techniques of malfeasance than would be required to pull a fast poker cheat at your next-door neighbor Lenny’s weekly $10 Texas hold’em game.

What do we typically see at the online poker table? Obviously the main problem is collusion, in which multiple players working together will tell each other what they are holding so no one makes a poor decision against one another. An easy way to determine whether someone is colluding with another is the dumping of chips to a buddy deep in a tournament. I’ve seen players go all the way to the end of the hand, putting all their chips in the middle save a few, and then fold when the partner in crime bets out. They do it this way because it is impossible to get drawn out if the other player folds. If you know anything about pot odds, you’ll be able to tell when this may be going on, because the odds will be screaming for a call and the player will fold.

Another problem is players asking for a loan. Obviously, you let someone borrow money at your own peril, but many of these players do not honor their word when they promise to pay you back.

But whatever technique is used, nothing can change the fact that all poker cheats are secretly looking to lose. Before long, their cheating ways will catch up with them, and then it’s time to pay the piper. The price can be quite high, indeed.

I’ve played in a lot of home poker tournaments in my day, but only a few of them were run with any sort of organization and sensibility. What does it take to run a flawless tournament? Well, I’ve got a few ideas, and I’m here to help, so let’s get right to it.

Obviously there are some non-money spending issues that one has to decide upon. The most common one is “Do we want to play multiple tournaments in a night, or do we want to spend a whole day playing one big poker tournament?” This question can be answered simply by asking your participants and then adjusting your blind level increases appropriately. One big tournament in a day? Structure the tournament like a WSOP event - give the players 10,000 chips and have the blinds rise once every half hour or hour. Want to play more than one tournament in an evening? Jack up the blinds every 10 minutes.

Now to the money-spending additions to your poker tournament:

First off - it’s hard to play poker without chips, and I absoultely hate playing poker with bicycle poker chips. Spend a little extra money and get yourself a nice set of chips, chips that a player could shuffle or do other tricks with if he/she was so inclined. It makes your whole operation a little more classy, and why wouldn’t you want to be classy?

Next, it’s good to have a few nice sets of cards. Might I suggest Kem Cards? The description pulled from the amazon link I just included states, “100 % Plastic Kem Cards are widely regarded as the world’s finest playing card. Kem cards are made entirely of cellulose acetate material, the most durable plastic used today in playing card production. These cards are scuff and break resistant and completely washable.” All those one dollar packs of cards you buy at Wal-Mart wear quickly, with corners that bend, tare, or simply get dirty, thus giving players that are paying attention an easy cheat when that card is dealt to someone. The extra money is worth it, trust me. You’ll never have to make that Wal-Mart run again to get a cheap fix.

What to do for a table? Well, there’s many varieties you can buy, and ther price ranges span from around $25 for a tabletop to $1200 for a real casino style poker table. Another option available is making a poker table. A little resourcefulness and handyman skills can make a table for fairly cheap. This is the route I went, and I was able to find some resources for quite cheap.  The resources I used were foam and carpet padding for the rail along with some vinyl from your local thrift store, old pool table felt from a pool shop for the table itself, a piece of plywood, and a staple gun with plenty of staples.
I’ve found that having everyone bring their own chair to sit on works best - this way you don’t have an unnecessary amount of chairs sitting around at all times you are not running a poker tournament. Obviously it doesn’t hurt to have a few extras lying around in case someone unexpected shows up, but generally most players, if notified, will bring their own chairs.

I feel that this is the kicker to hosting a smooth poker tournament, and I’ve saved it for last so it sticks in your mind. Hopefully you have a laptop computer at this point in your life - if you don’t, set up your tournament fairly close to your computer, because this poker tournament software will help answer so many questions that people might have. It will tell the player what amount chip colors represent, how much time is left in the blind level, what the payouts are, etc. It makes the tournament run much more smoothly, and you can play host with the things that matter most, like making sure there’s enough booze and food on hand.

These ideas are all the things I have, or have done in the past with hosting a poker tournament.  I’ve received no complaints and many compliments with this strategy, so I’m telling you, it works for me.  If you want different ideas on how to run a home poker tournament, check out Home Poker Tourney.

I’m gonna give you a rundown of a hand I played at a cash table.

I was dealt 10s in late position, and I believe there were 4 callers before it got to me. Mistake number one I made in the hand was not raising. I just called, 2 more callers, so it’s about a 7 way pot. The flop comes 456 rainbow. Someone bets a quarter in early position, and I raise about 1.50. I think I should’ve raised more to drive out any draws, but anyway, chalk up mistake #2. Three callers. The turn comes, 8. This is where I’m unsure of what to do. When my opponent called, I figured he was on a draw, I was right, but not exactly right. He checked, and then I checked. The river came, blank, he checked, I checked. He had A3, so I took down the pot.

One of my friends was screaming at me to bet on the turn. I don’t like that play though. I’ll figure out what he’s got, but I’ll lose money in the process if he raises me. Here’s what I mean:

1. If I bet small, I’m representing weakness, and I might get raised because he senses that, so I lose money.

2. If I bet big and get raised, well, I’ve lost a lot of money.

3. If I bet and he calls, well, then I’ve still got a chance of winning, but who knows what he might be slowplaying, or what he already had, such as two pair, or a set.

It’s an interesting thought to bet on the turn, but I can’t justify it because I feel that I could lose so much more than I could win. It’s a tough situation, and I don’t know if there is a true right answer for it. Again, knowing your opponent and the way he/she plays might be the only edge you can gain with your decision making in this sort of situation.

Good luck turning on the television these days and flipping through your whole list of channels and not finding poker on one of your channels.  The World Series of Poker 2007 is starting extremely soon, and after it is played, the taped broadcasts will start playing repeatedly eight times a day for the next eight months.  Televised poker is really everywhere, and a person can get hooked on it quite easily.  For some, it’s all about watching to see who wins the tournament, but for others, it can be used as a learning tool.

Or can it?

I’m at a point in my poker career where I’m not 100% sure I’m learning the right things when watching poker.  However, I do think I’ve figured out what I should be taking from these broadcasts, and it is more of a general idea of how to play the game rather than specific hands.  For example, you can see Phil Ivey put his tournament on the line with bottom pair and win the hand against someone holding top pair simply because the other person gives Ivey too much credit.  Obviously, Ivey knows his opponent as well which helps a great deal.  The amount of thinking that goes on in the highest level of poker is so much more than what goes on in most internet games - a lot of the plays these professionals make just don’t make sense at our lower levels.

That being said, my focus is on the general strategy that it takes to be successful in large poker tournaments.  Many players have many different styles, but the one commonality that they all have are that they are willing to put it all on the line when they have to, and they can make a big laydown when they need to.  Sounds simple, but if you don’t have the stones to go all in with what you think might be the best hand because the bet is too big, you will not succeed in high-level poker tournaments.

I plan on tuning in to the WSOP 2007 partly because I want to see how many players there will be this year, and partly to see whether my theory holds up in this large field.  Will the winner have to make some monster laydowns and some ballsy calls in order to win it?  Since the main event will be played over the course of at least seven days, my guess would be yes.

The 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Act had a profound impact on online poker and online gambling as a whole. A majority of the online poker rooms no longer accept US players, and credit card companies, along with several e-wallets including the popular NETeller have ceased to accept American transactions related to gambling and consequently online poker.

A very important note is that the UIGEA does not explicitly target individual poker players in any way. The primary motive is to attack the payment methods used to fund online gambling. This has been somewhat successful, considering the number of poker rooms that are now closed to Americans. Not all have been scared into rejecting their U.S customers, however.

There are also several alternative deposit options available to US players. Most of them are e-wallets that work like NETeller: ePassporte, eWalletXpress and MyWebATM still accept business from the U.S. There are also a few slightly more inventive methods, one of them being NUcharge, which is actually a long-distance phone card.

Obviously, the UIEGA has upset a great many people, and even besides poker players a vast majority of Americans disapprove of the new restrictions. In addition, the European Union has accused the US of protectionism, based on the fact that there are huge economic interests in the land based casinos in the United States, and the WTO has deemed the restrictions on online gambling illegal.

One of the groups working towards a healthier poker climate in the U.S is The Poker Players Alliance; an American nonprofit organization, which now has more than half a million members. The PPA is actually working towards regulating online poker in the United States and establishing poker as a game of skill. This will improve the status of the game and establish Texas Holdem Strategy as a factor to be considered.

This post has the potential to get ugly in a hurry, but I’m going to attempt to keep it as civil as possible.

I wanted to address something that one might not think about, but probably should, and that is: if you are a male, what runs through your head when you sit down and realize you have to play against a woman?

Speaking from experience, I can tell you two things:

1) I’m much more apt to fold a hand if a woman bets aggressively at me, because I sometimes feel that women in general are much less aggressive at the poker table than men are simply because they seem to be the same way in the real world.

2) I’m much more apt to get distracted and be thrown off my game if said woman is attractive.

Obviously, these are two stupid mentalities to take towards women, but sometimes they are extremely difficult to get away from. It is very easy to develop a rapport with women at the poker table, which is most likely part of the strategy they use to extract chips from you. If you really want to play the game correctly, you have to be willing to bust this woman even if you do hit it off. As for point 2 above, if you two are really meant to be together, she’ll wait for you somewhere in the casino after you bust her so you can talk more after the tournament or during the break, so stop staring at her and play your damn cards!

These two reasons illustrate exactly why you SHOULD respect women at the table, because they can use these two stereotypes to the fullest advantage, and the smart ones absolutely do.There is some interesting content on this poker blog namely a series of ten great examples that have become successful with the help of their looks and their game, and I’m guessing these women make more than I do in a year over the course of 24 hours.

If you respect women in life, there should be no reason to give them any less respect at the poker table. If you don’t respect women in life, women at the poker table are probably the least of your concerns at this point.

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Enjoy the weekend, but please don’t waste a day going to the Stardust in Vegas, beacuse it is no longer standing. Kind of a sad day in poker news if you ask me, but I guess there’s probably a couple other options for you in Vegas if you really look hard enough.