If you usually play poker online, moving to the live arena can be a little daunting. Online you ... more]]>

If you usually play poker online, moving to the live arena can be a little daunting. Online you may use a plethora of software that will quickly highlight which players at your table are good, bad or average but unfortunately no such software exists for the “real” world.

However, the best tool you can use at the live poker tables is your eyes and observational powers. Whilst the very best players in the world can disguise their actions so that you can gather no information about them or the strength of their hand, the majority of players in your standard casino or card room cannot or at least fail to do it all the time.

Many of the old school pros say to try and look into an opponent’s eyes as you can see if their pupils dilate when they see the flop or their hand, a reflex action that is impossible to control that indicates they are very happy with their hand. Some players combat this by wearing sunglasses or a baseball cap pulled down low but one part of their body they cannot stop everyone at the table seeing is their hands.

You should pay close attention to a player’s hands as they can often give away a lot of information into not only how strong or weak your opponents hand is, but also how experienced a player they actually are. Someone who is quite well versed in live poker will often sit and riffle their chips during a hand. This is one of the basic poker chip tricks but one that shows the player has sat at a real poker table on quite a few occasions. Most rank amateurs and predominately online poker players will often have trouble looking at their hand and handling the physical chips after years of clicking a mouse to confirm their actions.

Always be aware of someone who has shaking hands when they put their chips into the pot, especially if they are raising. Many people believe, incorrectly, that a player with shaking hands is almost always bluffing and their hands are unsteady because they are nervous. This for the most part is untrue as the shaking of the hands is usually an involuntary reaction to the person having a lot of adrenalin flowing through them, more often than not caused by the excitement of having a very strong hand and they are anticipating winning a large pot.

The main purpose of Five Card Draw is like most other forms of poker in that ... more]]>

The main purpose of Five Card Draw is like most other forms of poker in that you have to attempt to make the best five card poker hands you can, ranking for the worst which is high-card and progressing through pair, two pair, three-of-a-kind, straight, flush, full house, four-of-a-kind, straight flush and the ultimate hand, a royal flush.

To help you in your quest for the holy grail that is a royal flush, a straight flush Ace to ten, you can discard up up to all five of your cards, though the most anyone usually discards is four and that is very rare too.

Like in all forms of poker, position is vital in Five-card draw, with some hands being completely unplayable in early position that actually become playable in later positions at the table. For example, a hand such as 3368K should be folded from up front but it could be OK to limp in on the button. This is mainly because there is generally a lot of raising pre-draw in five-card draw and is a pair of threes worth paying two big blinds with? Almost certainly not.

The great thing about five-card draw is you get to see how many cards your opponents discard, which should give you some information into how strong or weak their holding is. Most of the time a player will draw to three cards which indicates they have a pair in their hand, someone who raises then discards three will usually have a high pair such as queens, kings or aces in their hand.

If a player draws to two cards their most likely holdings are a pair with another high card such as 5579A or they could hold three of a kind and are looking to draw another pair to take them to a full house, a hand such as 666TK is a likely holding.

On rare occasions a player will draw to just a single card which implies the player has two pairs, has three of a kind and is trying to deceive you by drawing to just one card or is holding a straight or flush draw and needs to hit it to have any sort of hand.

One move some players try is to “stand pat” which means they draw no cards as they are happy with their hand. They either have a very powerful hand or they are attempting to portray they have one by not drawing. Fellow players will assume you have at least a straight or flush and will usually fold unless they catch one after the draw. It is a high-risk move but one worth doing from time to time to keep your opponents on their toes.

It is a well known fact that the skill of the average poker player has increased in recent ... more]]>

It is a well known fact that the skill of the average poker player has increased in recent years and it has become more difficult to make money from the game. That is not to say poker is no longer profitable, in fact quite the opposite is true but now in order to become a regular winner you need to continually improve you game.

One of the most popular ways to do this is to sign up to a poker school and take advantage of the knowledge of winning players through various forms such as videos, tutorials, forums and one-to-one coaching. Most training sites now have something for everyone but some still specialise in one particular format so be aware of this before you sign up and financially commit yourself.

You should be aware that joining a poker school you do not have a given right to suddenly become a winning player or someone who goes from a moderate winner to someone who crushes the games. In order to get the best out of a training site you need to put in a lot of effort and hard work, not simply watch the videos or read the forums available to you.

Whilst watching the videos make sure you take some detailed notes on particular plays you or the author thought were interesting or difficult and discuss them with fellow members or poker playing friends. If there is something you do not understand then ask the author personally or post the question on the forum. There is nothing worse than trying to apply some theory at the table when you do not understand why you are doing so.

Also, be aware that many of the training sites are geared towards mid-stakes poker where players are wanting to either progress to the high-stakes or earn more money at their current level. There is little in the way of micro-stakes footage and much of the content out there will be completely lost on opponents at the lowest levels of poker as they simply will not understand what you are doing when you make a certain move on them.

If you play at the other end of the spectrum and are a high-stakes regular then training sites are probably not for you either. Players of $5/$10 and above usually have a very good understanding of the game and as a result you will probably already be aware of some of the concepts the coach is trying to get across in their material.

Training sites are a great tool for a player who wants to develop their skills or learn a new game but you only get out of them what you put in.

Something I see regularly in my local casino game is players determined to show their hole cards at ... more]]>

Something I see regularly in my local casino game is players determined to show their hole cards at the end of a hand. They will always show if they have bluffed or they will show that they are folding what they perceive to be a strong hand but my argument is you should very rarely show your hole cards ever.

Poker is a game played with incomplete information and it is how we piece together the little scraps of information that determines whether our reads on a particular player are correct or not. By showing your hole cards at any point during the hand, you are giving away free information to your opponents.

The first piece of information you supply to your observant opponents is what type of hands you play in a particular position at the table. This info is extremely valuable and if you do it often enough a good opponent will be able to deduce if you are positionally aware or not and act accordingly.

Showing you have laid down a strong hand has some merits as it shows you are capable of making big lay-downs and are therefore a solid player but it also shows a decent opponent that you can be bluffed off a strong hand if the situation is correct. A good, adaptable player will then start to attempt to bluff you at every opportunity.

Revealing your cards after a bluff also has some merits in that it can be the catalyst to putting someone on tilt but again a good opponent will reply how you played the hand in their head and start to be aware of how you act when you are running a bluff. Showing a bluff can also help create an image of a crazy player which again has pros an cons. The good thing about this is you will almost certainly get action on your big, made hands but you will get played back at so often that a lot of playable hands will be finding their way to the muck on a regular basis.

Something else I have seen recently is revealing just one of the hole cards whilst the hand is in progress. Whilst it is not allowed in tournament play, it is within the poker cash games rules although the rule differs from casino to casino currently. It adds a new psychological aspect to the game but the above statements also apply to showing just a single hole card.

In order to be successful, or continue to be successful at poker, you need to constantly improve all ... more]]>

In order to be successful, or continue to be successful at poker, you need to constantly improve all aspects of your game to keep ahead of the chasing pack.

One of the best ways to improve your knowledge of strategy or theory is to watch poker videos that have been made by a well-known and well-respected professional player and try to learn from them. There are dozens of training sites out there at the moment so you need to ensure you choose one that meets your needs.

Firstly, choose a site that has a solid reputation and one that can provide references from happy customers. Before you invest your time and money in some training it is obviously best to find out if the site you are going to pay has actually done some good for others in the past. By choosing a training site with good credentials you are more likely to get proper help should a problem arise.

Before signing up to a site have a look around it for the types of videos they will offer you. Some of the training sites are quite specific in their offerings, with some specialising in cash games and some in tournaments. There is no point in signing up to a site hoping to find training videos on seven-card stud tournaments when they only offer no-limit hold’em cash games.

Thirdly, work out if the cost incurred through joining fees and monthly subscriptions is worth it for your current stakes. Paying a training site $30 a month to watch their videos while you are sat playing off a $90 bankroll is ridiculous because, although the training will help your game, you’ll be playing such low stakes that the moves you will see will be too advanced for your opponents and you would be better off investing the $30 fee into your bankroll.

Training sites are a great tool for a poker player wanting to improve their game but they are not a miracle cure. You still need to digest the information, understand it and then apply it at the tables. Hard work is required for the videos to be of any help, simply watching them will not turn you into a good player.