Understand Yourself to be a Successful Poker Player

Irrespective of which career you may be looking to choose, you are going to have to ask yourself some very serious questions if you are to avoid moving into a career that is unsuitable for you. For instance people who are squeamish at the sight of blood should really avoid the medical profession. People who lose control very quickly should avoid occupations like the police force or the armed forces. People who have no patience should avoid careers where they are in the presence of small children and the list could go on and on.




Many people drop out of college or university simply because they have lost interest in the subject that they are studying. Quite often this is the result of students not fully understanding themselves and failing to pick the course that is appropriate to their true interests. Many people are quick to analyze and judge others, but tend to be rather reticent about turning the magnifying glass on themselves.



This article could just as easily apply to bricks and mortar play as it does to online poker or any other field of endeavor for that matter. But its importance cannot be understated because if you do not totally understand yourself then you will not succeed in poker or any other profession for that matter. There is a very famous saying that goes,



“True wisdom is to know the extent of one’s own ignorance”



As we go through life we tend to constantly make assessments not only about other people but also about ourselves. Human nature being what it is, we tend to over estimate our own abilities and under estimate those of other people and especially in areas where we perceive ourselves to be good. This is especially the case where no cast iron tests of a person’s ability in a given field exist. Experienced drivers do not take tests to ascertain their driving skill for instance. There are no tests that will indicate just how good a father you are to your children or how good you are in bed for that matter.



Yet these are all areas where most people never ever get to find out the real truth about themselves. Outsiders tend to have a much better picture of us than we do but most keep their views and opinions of us to themselves and especially if they feel that their views may be offensive or could hurt our feelings in some way.



As you go through life, irrespective of just what activity you happen to be doing, one thing is almost a cast iron certainty…..you are not as good at it as you think you are! This principle applies perfectly to poker because no firm guidelines exist that notify us when the time has arrived that we are now good enough to earn money at it.



We instinctively know that we need to be a good or even a very good player to succeed at poker but at what point do we become good and who out there is going to let us know that we have reached that stage. You can see the complexity of the problem. In poker knowing your strengths will enable you to earn money but knowing your weaknesses is just as important as it is this that enables you to save money.



If I can use myself as an example for one minute. I tend to suffer from lapses in concentration after about three to four hours of playing. It is for this reason that I do not play poker tournaments. This form of poker does not allow you the flexibility to start and stop playing whenever you want. I will always stop playing after four hours at the very most and especially if I am playing online because the sensory input is nowhere near as great in that poker arena.



I am fairly certain that I would have wasted my time playing poker tournaments where my edge would be minimal at best. The fact that I have recognised this weakness in my character has enabled me to be very successful in cash games because this is where I concentrate my efforts.

Full Tilt: Rush Poker

Full Tilt has a history of tinkering with the status quo of poker, and that reputation was bolstered today with the introduction of what could be a game-changer for online poker: Rush Poker.






Rush Poker is such a simple concept that it’s a little surprising we’re just seeing the innovation at this stage of the online game. Here’s how it works, in a nutshell: when you sit down at a Rush Poker table, you’re essentially joining a large group of players and not just a single table. Let’s call that group the ‘cloud’.



For a hand of Rush Poker table to be dealt, FTP essentially picks nine players from the cloud, sits them at a table, and deals a hand of poker. Once any player exits from the hand, they immediately return to the ‘cloud’ and are eligible to be picked to play another hand.



That would be a drag if the player pool was small or the software was laggy, but FTP seems to have both covered. In testing of Rush Poker table, hands moved very fluidly from one to the next, and the average hands per hour you’d expect at a normal table are increased by several hundred percent at a rush poker table. It’s aptly named – in many ways you see more action than you do even during certain points of multitabling, because once you fold (or even chose a special quick-fold button) you are immediately moved on to a new hand.



You can multi-table Rush Poker, essentially holding multiple spots in the cloud. Obviously, the software never seats you with yourself. Currently, Rush Poker tables are available at a limited number of limits, ranging from .05/.10 NLHE to .25/.50 NLHE.



How do you play Rush Poker? You take a seat at the table in a fashion similar to taking a seat at a standard cash game table at Full Tilt Poker. First, find the games in the lobby:

East Coast may Become Haven for Live Poker Players?

Once upon a time, poker players in the middle Atlantic states of the U.S. looking for live action had to rely on home games, backrooms or Atlantic City to get their fix. But the options are growing quickly, as Pennsylvania and Delaware should both add poker to their slots-only casinos soon.




Recently, Pennsylvania passed legislation that would allow table games, including poker. Casinos that already exist in the state hope to have their table-game offerings up and running in the first or second quarter of the year.



And a recent move by neighboring Delaware means it may have poker games in its casinos, too. This week, Delaware’s House passed a bill that would legalize table games in slot-machine casinos in the state, including poker. The bill is headed to the Senate, and, barring a hiccup, it will become law. There are already poker rooms in the state, but bringing poker to actual casinos would certainly bring with it more play.



West Virginia added table games, including poker, several years ago. New York tribal casinos like Turning Stone, in upstate, are in their second decade of existence.



And as states look to increase revenue at a time when many states are experiencing budget shortfalls, one of the quickest and easiest ways to make money is by legalizing gambling. With the horse-racing industry facing problems in New York, Maryland and Virginia, it wouldn’t be surprising to see moves to expand (New York) or legalize (Md. and Va.) gambling in those places. Pretty soon, a poker player may not even have to leave his or her state to find a live game at a casino.



All of this is bad news for Atlantic City, which has been hit hard by the recession and once relied on its monopoly as an East Coast gambling haven for those who didn’t want to travel all the way to Las Vegas to get their fix. The landscape for poker and gambling in the United States is obviously changing quickly, and it will be interesting to see where it leads in coming months and years.

Pot Control In Middle Stakes Hold’Em

Playing deep stacked no limit hold’em is less a precision game and more of an abstract art, with the flexibility of hundreds of blinds worth of play in your stack. You can be the hyper aggressive bully, the squeaky tight rock, or the sneaky small-ball player, and can shift from one style to the next before anyone can catch on. One thing that can be harnessed, at least to some extent, is the size of pots you play in comparison to the stack sizes you are facing at your table. With your stack, you have the luxury of making bets that can put the short stacks to difficult decisions. But when matched up against a similar deep stack, decisions in the hand based on pot sizing can drastically affect the outcome of the hand.




An example can be found from a local $2/$5 game that I was a part of. In this hand, a squeaky tight player who is considered to be a sound, fundamental player, and Clarence, a fairly tight player who likes to protect pots. The effective stacks were $600 at the start of the hand. Seven-handed, everyone folded to me, on the button, who opened the action for $15., in the BB, looked down at two black aces. Given the stack sizes, what’s your play here?



I hate the flat. With stacks this deep, you want to protect your aces, and you have a tight player opening, meaning he may have one of the more premium hands that you want to play a big pot with preflop, like KK or QQ. I usually will make a standard raise here, something in the neighborhood of $45-$60. You’re decreasing variance by forcing your deep, tight opponent to play more straightfoward poker with you preflop, and by tightening his range against you, your post-flop decisions are easier. Remember; he has position on you from this point on. Make him pay for it. In this hand, however,haven chose to min-bet to $30. He was trying to be cute and build a small pot with his aces, but i can’t fold any hand he opened with for a min-bet, and he quickly flicked the $15 in the pot.



With $57 (less rake) in the pot, the flop was 2d 5d 10d. A player with black aces here has a real dilemma against a very tight player; he’s not likely to make any more money off of any hand that doesn’t contain at least one large (Q+) diamond in it! His situation has deteriorated quite a bit, so what’s the proper play here? Given him action and the player he’s up against, I think a fair continuation bet of around $40 will defend us against hands like 8×8d or 9×9d without putting too much money in the pot if he does happen to have AdXd or KQd, two hands that are completely in our opponents range. Facing a $40 bet, our opponent is probably only calling with QQd+ or a flush, or top set (and he’s likely raising us with top set) and folding JJd or less, and maybe even hands like QQ no diamond. It keeps the pot under control and lets us reevaluate if he calls and we have to play the turn.



In this particular hand, however,he chose to make a massive overbet of the pot, and fired $100 very quickly into the piot.I paused for about ten seconds before sliding a tower of red into the pot.He has now put himself into a terribly awkward position by inflating a pot with a hand that has very little chance for improvement. Our incredibly tight opponent called our oversized bet into this pot with only a small amount of consideration. What’s his range here?



* Flopped flush: Fits the hand perfectly; AJd+ and KJd+ fit the hand. He may raise with the king high flush, to protect against the naked ace (the hand could read for AxAd or AdKx) and he would certainly raise to protect with the QJd, so his flat looks very strongly of a flopped flush.



* Set of 10’s: Not as likely, but possible. He may be waiting to see if a diamond peels before protecting, but it’s not a good idea. Even a tight player could recognize the danger of this board, and would be inclined to make a good sized raise to protect their hand. However, the large initial bet  made may actually hinder his ability to make a protective raise.



* JJ-KK with a diamond: Possible. I think our tight opponent may have the discipline to lay the JJ down, but I’m not so sure about QQ, and I don’t think you can lay KK with a diamond down on this type of flop for a bet, even as big as this is, given that  range is bigger than simply AA. It’s clearly a calling hand, not a raising hand.



Those are about all of the hands that make sense to flat $100 with, and we’re crushed by two of the three, and only a favorite against the smaller pocket pairs, who still have a clean 11 outs to beat us. Our hand is pretty face up, but our opponents is now too, and the turn play in this now inflated pot is going to be hard to manuever. The turn was the 4 of clubs, giving us a board of 2d 5d 10d 4c. With $257 in the pot, and $550 left in each player’s stack, what are we going to do now? By inflating the pot to a point that we aren’t comfortable with, we’ve turned our hand into a bluff catcher and little else, and we’re up against a player that isn’t likely to be bluffing. I’m content to check and let our opponent tell us whether or not he has a big hand; a bet here is going to likely commit us to the hand.



In the actual hand, however, he continued firing with a bet of $200, committing half of his stack to the hand with the bet.He was intending to protect his “monster” hand with the big bet, but what can i call with on the turn now that he’s bet so much? He’s only getting called (or raised) by the set or the flush, and the range of hands that he beats will fold. The problem, however, is the range that beats him actually exceeds the range he beats! The inflated pot made him feel he had to protect his hand, and he made a bet in accordance with the size of the pot. , after a thirty second tank, announced all-in for another $250, and  quickly called, announcing himself as “pot-committed” as  happily turned over AQd for the nuts, having drawing completely dead.



Why did he lose $600? Was this simply a bad beat, as he later lamented? Absolutely not! If he makes it $50 preflop, i actually could’ve folded AQd (he’s tight enough to let hands of that caliber go to a 3-bet from another tight player) and we take the pot there. If not? Let’s look at the hand played with careful calculation after the $50 3-bet, if called.



On the flop, we’re continuation betting, but a number more like $60-$70, a number that defends against the bare diamond while keeping us non-committed to the hand.I would very likely just call, as he did in our example. The turn, with about $240 in the pot, allows us to check and evaluate, as even though a very similar amount of money is in the pot, the larger preflop raise isolated his range, and we can see that we’re clearly either ahead and vulnerable or drawing completely dead, so there’s little need to defend.I would fire a bet here, in the neighborhood of $100-$150. I think this is where we give some respect and simply let it go here, but even if we call, we can fold if a diamond peels on the river, or if he shows us strength again (which he would) and instead of losing the full $600, we lose a number in the range of $120-150 most of the time. (or even win $17 a small amount of the time)



By controlling and manipulating pot sizes, you allow yourself the ability to price people in and out of pots, but you also give yourself that “escape hatch” to get out of a particularly nasty situation without being handcuffed to it yourself. Be cautious of your bet sizing throughout the hand, and you just might thank yourself when that “should’ve been a thousand dollar pot” that your opponent wins is actually only two hundred.

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How to Play Craps

If the craps dice are hot, the table won't be hard to locate. Look for the noisy table with the loud folks shouting and cheering. There is no comparison between excited craps players and silent concentrated blackjack players.




Just about every tenderfoot learning how to play craps experienced anxiousness the first time they approached the table. Every novice has to start somewhere, though, and armed with some basic knowledge and hands-on surveillance, you'll be shooting craps and yelling along like everyone else in no time.



To learn how to play craps and implement basic craps strategy, you simply need to do a little homework and observe the game up close first.



When the dice are hot, craps is a fast-moving game that doesn't allow time for asking questions for newcomers just learning how to play craps. You should start out with small, straightforward bets initially, keeping to basic craps strategy. Close game observation is a terrific hands-on technique for learning how to play craps.



There are numerous betting strategies in the craps game. It will take a bit of experience and time to learn the more advanced techniques. Start out with simple craps strategy, advancing to higher level strategies as you gain more knowledge of the game.



It is best to start out learning how everything works before launching right into craps strategy. You'll want to familiarize yourself with the layout of the table and the personnel who operate it.



Double layout craps tables are common in modern casinos today. The operation personnel consist of the boxman, the stickman, the dealers, and the floorman.



The boxman is seated on the craps table's long side, guarding chips and taking cash collected by the dealers. Think of him as the game supervisor and banker. Typically dressed in a suit and tie, his word is final in the resolution of any disputes that arise.



Directly across from the boxman is the stickman, who calls the game. He/she maneuvers the dice around the table. When payouts are completed after a dice roll, he/she returns the dice back to the shooter.



The stickman's territory is the table's center layout. He calls out each dice roll's results and prompts players to get their bets in place. He also manages all proposition bets, commonly referred to as "one roll bets."



Dealers are not supposed to have any physical contact with the craps players. They manage payoffs, losing bets, and bet placement. They occupy the craps table on both ends.



The floorman is responsible for keeping an overall eye on a smooth operation, usually on multiple tables. He is also the "credit manager" for the players, handling any requests for casino credit.



The one handling the dice is the shooter, who is selected from among the craps players. Shooters are only allowed to use one hand whenever handling the dice. Don't toy with proper casino etiquette; the personnel are not amused. Big bets are being placed and most gamblers are serious on this issue.



A shooter is not to tamper or toy with the dice. He/she must not exchange the dice back and forth between their hands. There are very specific rules regarding dice handling.



It is perfectly acceptable to let the shooting opportunity pass to another player if you don't want to shoot or feel you cannot abide by the rules.



Some other rules come into play regarding the shooter. The dice cannot be slid, they must be thrown, and they must bounce off the table's opposite side wall. The thrown dice cannot be higher than the dealers' eyes, and they cannot land on the dealers' money or the boxman's casino chips.



Another important thing to remember: place money exchanges onto the table layout. Do not hand them directly to the dealers because they are not allowed to touch the craps players.



After placing your money on the table layout, give the dealer instructions as to where the money is to be placed, such as "change only," or the amount of the bet you are placing.



Now you have the basics down concerning the table layout and the table personnel's responsibility. You are ready now to move on into more advanced craps strategy such as types of bets. You can learn how to play craps if you take it slow and focus on more advanced techniques a little at a time, getting the basics down first.

What to Look For in Sports Betting Strategies to Increase Your Odds of Beating the Game Constantly

Too many people think of sports betting as just something they do in their past time. However, many people can see the potential that exists if you manage to have the right sports betting strategy and correct approach to betting in general. Are you sick of losing? Interested in finding out how to turn your luck around? Do you want to know which sports betting strategies stand to help you make the most from your betting?




Any good strategy should allow you to place bets based on a systematic method. Of course there is always a random element or so called luck involved, but betting is all about stacking the odds in your favor. There should be no guess work involved or bets placed based on gut feelings. Betting is a business and it should be treated like one. Any money you use for betting needs to be separate from money you use for your daily life or anything else. How can you possibly expect to follow a strategy with money that was originally set aside to pay next week's rent with? You can't. This will help you to focus on the task of betting and remove any emotional strings attached to the money.



So what makes a good strategy or what should you look for in a strategy before you decide to implement it? Any good strategy needs to have a positive expectancy. This means that in the long run you will win. The hit rate of the strategy needs to be above 50% for you to be able to profit in the long run. An ideal win rate should be between 60 to 70%, because you will need to cover the fees and other expensive associated with betting. Is it feasible to expect you'll be able to find a system that has a 100% win rate? No, it isn't. The best you can do is find a system that has a positive expectancy and stick with it. In the long run you will make more money than you can possibly lose.



Keep whatever information and news you have about the teams as up to date as possible. Any changes in the teams makeup or factors that affect how the players play will great affect the potential outcome of a match. Make sure that you are constantly up to date on every aspect that affects the potential outcome of a match. Information is the key to winning at sports betting.