Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Online Poker Tips - Analyze the Thinking Time

When you are an online poker player, then you surely know that it is not so easy to get a read on the other players. There is no longer the classic signs, such as blinking, where you could see a bad hand of the enemy. In this article you can learn how to analyze the time every player takes for consideration before making a move. 
What is the thinking time in online poker? When making a move, each player has some time before he must make a decision. Waiting too long causes his hand to be automatically folded. Don't worry - the time given by the computer in all poker rooms is so high that you can make the right decisions. However, there is always tricky situations where people need it a little bit longer. In particularly difficult situations, a player may even request some extra time. But how can you draw conclusions on the playing styles of other players by the time they take to consider their next move? As soon as you sit at a table, you should focus on studying the different strategies of the players and always have a look at how fast they are with their decisions. This is not always easy and not even possible for some players, but there is certainly a chance to find a weakness in their game and use it to your advantage. It is especially important that you always take a look at the speed of operations. You can clearly notice that some players play much more slowly when they have a bad hand. If you have found such a read once, it could become very profitable to play against that kind of player. But be careful! It is not always the case, and each player has a different technique and approach. It could also be that a player deliberately plays slow, to make you get the wrong impression about how strong his hand is. Therefore, it is always important to observe the time of the opponent for a longer period and find out if they deliberately use the time to lure other players into the trap. You can also use the thinking time to your own advantage. Even when you are bluffing, if you play a very fast game it would be interpreted as a signal that you have a strong hand and you are confident of winning the pot. Of course you should use that kind of strategy with extreme caution. Not every player can easy get bluffed, therefore you should choose the situations carefully. 
As you see with some practice, analyzing the thinking time could be very helpful when making a decision whether to call or fold a certain hand. Of course this is only one factor. It must be considered in combination with other factors and never be observed as a single.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Tips on How to Play the Preflop in Texas Hold'em Poker

Here is a summary of some Texas Hold'em Poker tips that will allow you establish your own preflop strategy. This will prevent you from playing too many hands and getting drawn in to Texas Holdem pots you just should avoid be playing into. You often ask yourself - should I be playing that pair of 7's preflop? That all is based on the current situation on the table.

Let's look at some factors that will have an effect on whether you play those 7's in your Texas Hold'em game.

Before everything else, you have to take into consideration the number of players involved in your game. The more players in the game, the harder the opposition is going to be. There will be a better chance of another player having a superior preflop Texas Holdem hand than yours. Furthermore, with more players involved in the game, there are further chances that another player will hit a hand on the flop.

Are the players in your game aggressive? Aggressive Hold'em players can lose. But they can as well knock you out of the game pretty fast. You'll want to play more conservative with aggressive players sitting on your table. The very last thing you want to do with aggressive players is try to bluff and go over the top of them without a hand. Your Texas Hold'em Poker night will come to an end rapidly.

How much chips you have, the size of the blinds, and whether or not you are playing limit or no limit Texas Hold'em, will all have a role in your decision how you play the preflop. This involves the hands you'll bet into, and how much you'll bet. You'll play the preflop in a different manner with a bankroll of $2,000 sitting at a $1/$2 table than if you are shortstacked at a $10/$20 table. In the first scenario, you can play aggressively.

Another factor is your position at the poker table. Whether you're in early position or late, especially preflop, will significantly have an impact on how much control you can have on the pot, as well as what hands you should play.

Your temperament when it comes to playing Texas Hold'em Poker will also influence how you play preflop? Do you play aggressively, betting frequently to see quite a bit of the flops? Or do you play tight and only play solid hands, which keeps you out of a lot of hands? You have to build your playing style.

As a final point, you'll want to have a basic information of your preflop odds in Texas Holdem Poker. Here's a quick guide to help you out: 
- a high pocket pair against a smaller pocket pair (like QQ vs. 77) will give you about an 80%/20% advantage preflop
- if you have a pocket pair and bet into two overcards (99 vs. AK) is basically the toss of a coin, around a 55/45 advantage to the pocket pair
- if you hold a pocket pair and bet into the same card with an overcard (99 vs. A9) you hold roughly a 65/35 edge 
- two over against two undercards, such as KQ vs. J10, will give you about a 60/35 advantage.

As you can see, Texas Holdem is most certainly a game of skill and strategy. There is a lot that goes into whether or not you even get into a hand preflop!


Saturday, December 4, 2010

The Growing Madness about Online Texas Hold'em Poker

If you haven't started having fun with Texas Hold em poker over the internet, then you're one of the handful of individuals in the world not truly taken over by poker ecstasy. The expansive growth of online poker rooms has been nothing short of outstanding. Each day it seems like more and more players are coming to a decision to give Internet poker a try, and Texas Hold em is the most common poker variation on the web.

People are enthusiastic to play online Texas Hold'em for numerous reasons. Some truly enjoy the game, while others are just searching for a way to relieve boredom. Some players speculate because they have extra cash, while others gamble because they need extra cash (which is very unsafe and not really helpful). There are online players who select to play Texas Hold-em in a land-based casino, but find online poker to be an respectable and convenient alternative. Then there are players who find real life casinos frightening, and prefer to play almost exclusively online.

Whatever drives Hold'em lovers to the world wide web, once they get there, there's a lot of poker sites to select from. If you want to join the online poker revolution, there are some things you need to consider before you start depositing money into an online poker account. Be sure to choose a poker site that you know is secure. Secure sites use encryption software to give protection to financial and personal details. Signup with site that'll promise not to share your personal details with marketers or other third-parties. Look for sites that offer fast payouts and convenient deposit and withdrawal methods. Check out promotions like signup bonuses, and be sure to practice before you start wagering real funds.

The latest surge in popularity of online Texas Hold'em can primarily be attributed to the television coverage of poker tournaments like the World Series of Poker on ESPN, the World Poker Tour on the Travel Channel, and the Celebrity Poker Showdown on Bravo. Channel surfers who never would've thought of playing casino cards games are now surfing the web. The multi-million dollar prize money that the top players take home in the serious poker tourneys has also added largely to the growth of online poker in general and Texas Hold em especially. In 2003 and 2004, two online satellite qualifiers, Chris Moneymaker and Greg "Fossilman" Raymer, each took home millions of dollars after winning the WSOP No-Limit Texas Hold em main event.

The triumph these online amateur players enjoyed, at the expense of the top poker pros in the world, created an instantaneous and massive interest in online Texas Hold em. People from every country in the world decided it was time to learn how to play. The surge of rookies continues, as it will continue, so if you haven't started playing Hold em yet, there's still time to get in on the excitement.

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