Playing Good Poker Against Inexperienced Players
To many players there is nothing they enjoy more than to play against inexperienced players, or ‘fish’ as they are often called online. I have often heard people talk about winning lots against such players because these ‘fish’ don’t know all the tactical plays, and don’t often make the right moves when playing poker.
Firstly I have to say that it isn’t very fair to call these players fish, and mock their inability to play poker well, because we all have to start somewhere and the more we practice, the better we get at something. Also I have to say from my experience people are wrong to think these players such easy prey, if you are playing good poker with in depth strategy then you will notice much of this is based on reading your opponents hands by betting patterns amongst other things, and you will also be bluffing players when you strongly feel they have a fairly weak hand and should fold. In these instances however, consider the following problems an inexperienced player poses, how can you read how strong a players hand is when the player isn’t entirely sure themselves whether their hand is strong or not.
Even if you do correctly manage to work their hand out as being weak, you might think ‘if I make this sized raise then the correct decision for them is to fold, providing I am right and their hand is relatively weak’. Immediately they call, simply because they are unsure of the odds of their hand being in front, and suddenly your bluff has gone wrong, even though your read and play were flawless. I understand of course that there are obvious faults that can be exploited in their play which is certainly a big plus point, but the point I am making is that inexperienced players can be very dangerous to someone who plays strategic carefully planned poker, because they are completely unpredictable. With this in mind I have always said, that I would much rather play a talented poker player than someone who is quite inexperienced, because you simply can?t outplay someone who doesn?t really know how to play in the first place.
Player Profile on Barry Greenstein
Barry Greenstein alias ‘the bear’ was born on December the 30th 1954 in Chicago. Now living in California, he is one of ‘Pokerstars’ team of top professionals and has always had a very calm and calculating character at the poker tables. Barry Greenstein has also always been known as a very approachable and likeable guy, he never seems to get flustered by bad beats and almost always makes the right choices. The fact that he is a very astute mathematician no doubt helps his poker play, and he also has a degree in computer science too.
Barry quit doing what you might call normal jobs in 1991 to pursue earning his living as a poker player. He also has a book published too called ‘Ace on the River’ which he is known to give away signed copies of, to players who knock him out of tournaments. This act of generosity though, is just a small token of what Barry has used his poker skill to do for the greater good over the years, giving away huge amounts of his career winnings to charities which shows you what a remarkable and kind man Barry is.
He has two WPT titles to go with his two WSOP bracelets and has amassed career earnings of over $5.5 million, and still competes at the highest level each year both in live tournaments and in online play too. As you can see from his record in poker he is a very talented as well as generous individual, and there will be many people including myself wishing him all the best at this years World Series, and beyond.
Basics of Three Card Poker
There is more than one way to play poker with 3 card hands, however there is always a consistency with the hand rankings which work down from 3 of a kind to straight flush, straight, then flush, pair, high card.
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Myself and my friends used to play the game as being dealt 3 cards each and then the betting action going round the table, the twist in the game is here though, if you choose to look at your cards, you have to pay double to call a person who is raising ‘blind’ ( they haven’t looked at their cards) as such the raising can go on for while if someone refuses to ‘open up’ and look at their cards, and often these people will find they have nothing when they look at their cards so I wouldn’t advise raising blind. If by some chance they do have the winning hand however they will have payed half the amount into the pot as everyone else so will make a nice profit. The blind player must always choose to either make a further raise or open up, and once they have looked at their cards there is one more round of betting before a showdown.
I certainly wouldn’t expect this type of poker variation to have it’s own World Series event in years to come, but it is still fun to play with a few friends when you all get bored of Holdem for a little while, and just goes to show how diverse the game is and how different variations of poker branch off amongst different circles of people.
Pocker H.O.R.S.E. Tournaments
As the online pocker industry grows, so do the types of tournaments and pocker games on offer.
Players tastes are constantly changing and the need for fulltiltpocker rooms to offer exciting games is more apparent now that ever. H.O.R.S.E. tournaments are amongst the latest hot offers to sweep the pocker world by storm, with the number available in online pocker listings more than doubling over the past six months.
The overwhelming love of H.O.R.S.E. tournaments the world over, is due to the adaptability, demand for attention and skills which they call for! H.O.R.S.E. isn’t just a catchy name, but an acronym representing the scaffold of the tournaments themselves. Players in these tournaments are kept alert and enthralled as each hand during the tournament takes on a different variation of pocker.
H, which stands for Hold’em (Texas Hold’em to be exact), is usually the first hand played in the game. O, representing Omaha quickly follows – messing up new players as they quickly switch their pocker brains over to this very different pocker variation. The other games included in these tournaments are Razz pocker (R), Seven Card Stud (S) and Seven Card Stud Eight or better (E). A variation from the ‘change per hand’ structure is in games where the fulltilt pocker style changes every time the blinds increase.
Many online pocker rooms only offer one or the other (although some do offer both) so be sure to read up on the time intervals before sitting down the play. If you’re starting out make sure you do two things; read up on all the rules and always (always) play your strong hand.
Make sure you understand the rules to each fulltiltpocker game thoroughly, even if it means sticking a note to your screen, and play the most fiercely at games your most practiced at.
If you want to get ahead quick in this tournament arena, learn up on Razz or Seven Card Stud, that way you’re sure to have the upper hand against those www.fulltiltpocker.com players out there relying on their skills at Texas Hold’em and Omaha tables.
Player Profile on Marcel Luske
Marcel Luske was born on the 30th Novemeber 1952 in Amsterdam and didn’t always harbour only ambitions of being a poker player, he spent much of his life wishing to be a singer, and has a talent for martial arts too having earned his black belt in karate. He is married with 2 children and still lives in Holland although he travels all over the world for major poker tournaments. He is a very recognizable figure at the tables, as he often wears his sunglasses upside down and has a habit of bursting into song whilst playing poker. He was ranked as the best European player in 2001 and 2003 and has had many finishes in the money in large tournaments over the years, remaining a familiar face at the WSOP each year.
Marcel Luske has never won a World Series bracelet but he has come close several times, even in 2007 too, he came 4th in an Omaha hi/lo event and his career thus far seems to deserve at least one major title, regardless of this he is an extremely well known and prominent player at the world series and elsewhere, and has tournament earnings of over $1,000,000. Not bad for a guy who spent his life wanting to be a singer rather than a poker player, im sure you’ll agree.
Player Profile on Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu was born on July 26th 1974 in Toronto, Canada and his parents were originally from Romania but decided to settle in canada during the 60’s. Daniel began playing poker at the age of 15 and was soon spending time at small local poker games, developing his play, as the years passed however he began to look for bigger underground games nearby and was soon becoming a very talented player at an alarming rate. At 21 years of age he made the step up to the biggest stage and left for Las Vegas, unfortunately he wasn?t very successful at his first try, but was patient and persistant, returning once he had replenished his bankroll a little to try again, this time he didn’t make the same mistakes and started doing very well in some big tournaments. By the late 90’s he was beginning to make a name for himself at the WSOP and won his first bracelet in 1998 at a pot limit Holdem event, which at that time, made him the youngest person ever to win one of the coveted World Series bracelets.
These days he has 3 bracelets as well as 2 WPT titles and was ranked the player of the year in 2004 and 2005, he continues to be one of the best known professionals amongst poker fans and players, and is also an integral part of team Pokerstars, playing under his nickname and pseudonym, ‘KidPoker’.
Is Poker a Game for Kids?
The game of poker itself can be played and enjoyed by people of all ages, in the case of kids though the problem is that poker is primarily a game of betting, although games such as 5 card draw can be played for fun easily enough. Of course there are legal boundaries in many countries when it comes to youngsters gambling, and I certainly agree that gambling should have some legislation in place of this kind, that said, if I had children I would have no problem with them playing poker for coins of a very small denomination, or poker chips for instance.
Apart from the problems with the game itself being interwoven with gambling connotations, I cannot see why the game of poker should not be a game for all ages, after all, if you prevent a kid from playing poker on the grounds that lots of people gamble whilst playing it, you will only bring out the inevitable rebellious side of a younger person and cause them to want to play it even more, so you may as well allow kids to experiment with the game under supervision if they wish to play. The fact remains however that despite the game of poker not being a bad or dangerous thing in the slightest, I don’t feel many parents would be comfortable about their kids playing poker, mainly this is because of the aforementioned idea that is rooted in peoples minds about poker and gambling problems, especially if they are not particularly knowledgable about the game.
One thing I should mention here is that despite the non pocker playing persons current perceptions of poker, these preconceived ideas about poker are changing and the game is gradually being viewed in a more positive light as the years go by. So it is not impossible that the game will be considered safe enough for people to allow their children to play, given enough time, but it certainly isn’t the case in most families just yet, despite there being no concrete reasoning behind the general parental sentiment that poker is a bad thing.
Songs About Poker
By far the most famous of songs about poker is ‘The Gambler’ by Kenny Rogers, the classic lines of ‘know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away, know when to run’ are well known and are pretty good advice to those playing the game, there have been other songs too though which, although not being entirely about poker certainly have a gambling theme to them. A very well known one which springs to mind is ‘House of the Rising sun’ by The Animals, and has a rather sombre theme to it, talking about the allure and dangers of gambling, but it is a great song nonetheless. Also the high tempo ‘Ace of Spades’ by Motorhead is another classic from later years, the carefree sentiment of the song summed up in the lines ‘win some lose some it’s all the same to me?.
Aside from these well known songs there have been a few blues songs which aren’t quite so familiar to most, but include gambling lyrics ‘Blues for Gamblers’ by Lightning Hopkins, to name one. Whichever the genre of music, gambling has always been used to symbolise the twists and turns of love or life and the general unpredictability of the world which surrounds us, and I have to say that I can relate to the feeling that you never quite know what life might throw at you next, just as a deck of cards acts, always making or breaking a poker hand, seemingly on a whim.
Advertising Bluffs
Advertising bluffs is not something which is done on a wide scale and some people even feel it rude to show someone you have bluffed them after they fold, but it isn’t really, you are effectively just giving them information which they are not necessarily entitled to, how they use it is their own choice. The main reason that anyone advertises a bluff is so that the opposing player knows you are trying to bluff people, and the aim then is to show them a strong hand when, as a consequence of this bluff advertising, they decide to call one of your big raises later on, thinking you are bluffing again. Often a player knows this is your aim however, and chooses not to call the next time either, I usually bluff them a second time and show it again, believe me it will begin to get under their skin after the second or third time and a tight player might begin to open up their play and make mistakes, just be careful that you tighten up your play at the right time and have a made hand to bust them with when they call.
I have used this successfully in the past in a local 30 player tournament, to unsettle the person widely considered to be the best player there, as well as setting him up for a fall later when he decided he was going to call what he thought was a bluff, I also was having the effect of causing him to mistrust his judgement, as I kept showing him his reads on me were wrong when he folded and I was bluffing. Although it does seem sometimes that players who advertise bluffs are just gloating, this is not the case, showing players that you are willing to bluff them repeatedly and effectively laying down the challenge to call you next time, is a perfectly legitimate way of getting a reaction from the ways in which your opponents are playing, causing them perhaps to open up their style of play a little, then punishing them with a big hand, or making them annoyed with themselves for not calling the bluff.
Either way, I feel it is an effective weapon to be able to psychologically unsettle an opponent in this way as I discovered in my local tournament, I came 1st beating the aforementioned very skilled player, heads up at the end on one occasion, I also came 2nd twice knocking the same player out earlier in the tournament both times, I always set out to tie him in knots when he was trying to read me, and advertising my bluffs was a big part of me becoming his nemesis at this weekly tournament. You don’t have to use such tactics of course, every player has their own style of play and some can achieve the same results by never showing their cards and leaving their opponents wondering all the time, the beauty of poker is of course that it?s entirely the individuals prerogative to express themselves and play their own style as they see fit.
Basic Poker Rules
The basic rules of poker might seem complicated to someone who has never seen the game played before, and although some parts of the game can take longer to pick up than others, pocker is not all that complex really. There exists a list of hand rankings which apply to most variations of poker and this part is the most important part to remember because this is how the winning hand is determined each time.
At the bottom of the hand rankings is a high card, this means no pairs, or any cards matching to make a higher hand, next up is one pair, which is pretty self explanatory, two numerically matching cards with the other cards in your hand not matching each other. Next is two pairs, then 3 of a kind where 3 cards are matching, for instance, a 5 card poker hand of (2,4,J,J,J). Then the straight which is all cards in a numerical running order such as (5,6,7,8,9) suits here don’t matter. Following the straight is the flush which is all cards of the same suit regardless of value. beating all those mentioned so far is the full house which is 3 of a kind and a pair all in one hand.
Next up is four of a kind, for instance (7,3,3,3,3) in your hand. Then the straight flush is next highest which is all cards of the same suit and also in running numerical value, a royal flush tops the list and is effectively the highest possible straight flush of (10,J,Q,K,A) all the same suit. Once you understand these rankings all you need to know in terms of basics, is how to bet, saying ‘check’ means you do not wish to bet (although if someone else does raise, you must match this bet, or ‘call’ as it is known, to continue).
You must always wait for your turn to act in a poker game and the action always moves round the table clockwise, when it is your turn, you can choose to check or raise or match a bet if there has already been one made, often there are rounds of betting at different points during each hand but these vary each type of poker game.
Once you have understood these basic aspects of poker you can sit down and play pretty much anywhere, although your chances of winning will not be good until you take the time to master the more difficult aspects of the game, such as, bluffing (betting with nothing to force other players to fold) and reading (using intuition and any information available to judge the strength of an opponent’s hand) with all these skills up to standard you should begin to do well at poker, and with dedication, time, and practice you could one day find yourself an extremely formidable poker player indeed.