Importance of Position in Poker
To players who aren’t overly experienced at poker the position they occupy on a table may not seem important in the slightest, you get the same opportunities to bet, fold or raise, and the cards are dealt randomly so why should position be important? The reason why is that in certain positions on a poker table, in relation to the blinds, you will be able to gather extra information to help you make important decisions, and similarly if you are in a different position you may have very little information about your opponents hands to go on.
Take this example for instance, if you are the first person to act in a particular hand, you will not know whether someone next to act might have (A,A) in the hole, or if every hand to act after you has weak cards, in fact, you have nothing to base your decisions to raise or fold on, other than the strength of your own cards. If however you are in late position, you can immediately see other players either calling, folding, or putting in a preflop raise which gives you an insight into which hands at the table are likely to be strong or weak, and how many people might be going to the flop if you choose to call.
So the pre flop advantages of late position are pretty obvious when you look closely, the same is also the case after the flop, if the other players check on the flop, or don’t show much strength, you can try and bluff them out of the pot more safely as the last player to act (although beware of people slow playing a big hand and trying to trap you into making this move). It is always important to take stock of your position during a hand and factor certain possibilities into your decision making as a result, if you are astute at this aspect of the game, you can learn to pick up the blinds in late position which helps maintain a healthy chip stack, this is especially effective late in tournaments as people approach the money paying places and is entirely dependent on players having already folded their hands around to you, which in turn, is dependent on you having late position, so always be aware of the extra opportunities that position may bring.
partypocker – Playing Suited Connectors
www.partypocker.com – Suited connectors are starting cards which are numerically connected and of the same suit, for instance (7h,8h) with both cards being hearts, you have the best possible chance at a flush, and with the cards being connected you have a good chance at a straight too. On the basis of these strengths I could almost say, if I had to be involved in a 4 way pot, I would rather be holding suited connectors than (A,K), because when you have suited connectors, you are always looking to make big hands that will win a 4 way pot anyway, and if you don?t hit your hand fully or find your self drawing to one of these bigger hands, it?s a very easy fold to make when faced with a raise.
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The dangers with this hand arise most often in the following ways: Firstly if you half hit your hand on the flop, making one middle or top pair then it’s possible you can be dragged into calling raises an end up losing the pot when your hand fails to improve. Secondly in the circumstance of you seeing two hearts on the flop to leave you needing one more to make a flush or the same for a straight, you will always end up losing some money if your card doesn’t arrive on the turn or river (unless you play an aggressive semi-bluff here, which I think is good, strong play).
The thing I like most about suited connectors is the fact that lots of situations give you the opportunity to bet out and win the pot, pairing the board, making 4 cards to a straight or flush for example, furthermore if you are getting involved in a pot with this hand you would have to be playing loosely I would say, but if you hit two pair or make your straight, the board cards are not going to look particularly dangerous to your opponent, and so you might find that you get called more often, be aware of this when considering the semi-bluff on your drawing hand, although if you get called and then make your hand on the next card then the hand works out perfectly anyway.
Although I do like to play these kind of hands sometimes for the reasons stated above, I dont advocate playing them all the time, as they can get you into trouble, and arent strong compared to other hands you may be dealt but I can say that sometimes when you have not seen any premium cards for a while and you feel you need to be getting involved in a pot or two, then its perfectly fine I feel to try and see a cheap flop, as suited connectors are the sort of cards that could suddenly turn into a very strong hand and win you a big pot, and if they dont, just make the easy fold and wait for the next hand.
Playing Poker on Game Consoles
It could easily be considered that playing poker games on gaming consoles constitutes good poker practice but in reality, I don’t feel that’s entirely the case. As a beginner I feel that there is certainly value in playing poker games as it helps you understand all the hand rankings and basic rules of betting and the blinds. As a more experienced player though, I do find it enjoyable to play poker games on consoles but I wouldn’t consider it good practice for real life pocker, firstly there is no element of your actions being read, studied, and interpreted by virtual players in games, they do not assimilate information and alter their actions accordingly. With writing this article in mind I took the time to play on my own WSOP game to remind myself of a few points, and one experiment I undertook will prove completely what I have just mentioned about virtual players on games never changing their decisions based on individual circumstance, I managed to win a tournament on my game simply by moving all in every single hand. Most of the time all the players folded and I picked up the blinds, I may eventually be called by someone with a strong hand, but I had twice the amount of chips than them by that time and so at worst I would end up back to where I started, and at best I would get lucky and double up. If I were up against real players of course, they would be looking for progressively weaker hands to take me on with after I had gone all in for the first 3 or 4 hands running, because they would understand that I couldn’t have a good hand every time and that I was stealing the blinds.
This aspect of things aside, poker on games consoles is good fun and can help with basic understandings, but just because you can win 10 bracelets at the WSOP on a games console, it certainly doesn’t make you qualified to do so in real life. Despite this I would not feel that these games simply aren’t providing the realistic playing experience that they should be doing, I think they do the best they can with the technology they have, in terms of creating artificial intelligence in their virtual players, and I am sure this will improve over the coming years anyway. One very important and final point to be made about poker games on consoles is that they provide a service to the game in terms of allowing a wider cross section of the population become familiar with, and enjoy playing poker, this is a good thing for poker, and I am sure there are many people who will enjoy getting to know the game in this way, and with no monetary cost to themselves if they lose.
