Poker Winner Blog

Poker conjures up images of saloons in the old West where hustlers and gun fighters did battle. It seems that no Hollywood Western is complete without a gunfight over a poker game, but this way of life was often the reality for professional gamblers in the Wild West. In 1876 one of the west’s most famous lawmen, James Butler ‘Wild Bill’ Hickok, lost his life in a poker game in Deadwood, South Dakota. To this day his last hand — a pair of aces over eights — is known as the ‘dead man’s hand‘. Read the rest of this entry »

Each player receives five cards face down. When all the cards have been dealt, the players look at their own cards. After an initial round of betting they have the opportunity to exchange any cards in their hand for new cards from the deck. Cards that are being discarded are returned to the dealer before the new cards are drawn.

As a general rule, if you get nothing from the initial deal you should fold (that is, if you are unable to make a ranking of at least a high pair). Only a hand with a pair of at least six or more is worth playing. Read the rest of this entry »

Each player receives two cards face down. Five cards are placed face up in the centre of the table. These cards are called community cards and are used by all the players. Each player uses a combination of the two cards in his or her hand and the five community cards to make the best possible five-card hand. Read the rest of this entry »

Video poker shares some of the characteristics of a slot machine. The gambling gear itself is housed in a similar cabinet, and most have a coin slot and a payout hopper. Many have a slot-club card reader and/or a bill acceptor. The important difference is that on a reel slot you just pull the handle and hope for the best, but video poker involves an element of skill.

To the novice player, the main attraction of video poker is the prospect of pitting wits against the machine in fast action with a chance at a big jackpot. To the skilled player, however, the appeal is that some games offer an opportunity for a long-term profit. Just as in a live poker game, you can expect a considerable amount of risk and luck involved in the short term, but a player’s skill can make the difference between a winner and a loser in the long run. Read the rest of this entry »

Interactive Poker Software Programs

Computer poker programs have come of age. The best programs offer interactive learning opportunities that were unavailable only a few years ago. Improved versions are hurtling down the pipeline at warp speed, each leaving its predecessor light-years behind. The realism of contemporary programs has largely negated statements made by poker gurus only a few years ago:

“I suspect poker is just too difficult a game to program reasonably well,” wrote one expert in 1996. At about the same time, another expert wrote that computer opponents were unable to learn from events in previous hands when making decisions, something a human player always does (or should). Read the rest of this entry »

What the games are like

Most Internet play-money games are loose action games. (That’s putting it mildly!) Players enter pots with guns blazing, firing bets and raises at will. Much of this activity is just smoke and mirrors, but when the smoke clears, someone will have made a hand. Don’t expect to win a pot without a struggle!

There are many family pots (pots in which all players participate in the action), and you won’t find many wallflowers sitting on the sidelines hand after hand. Betting is frequently capped (when players put in the maximum number of raises allowed). Hang on for the ride — if you have a hand. Read the rest of this entry »

Staring at You

When it’s your turn to act, an opponent conspicuously staring in your direction is likely acting. This usually is a dare, an attempt to prevent your bet through intimidation. The opponent may call but will almost never raise. This means that you can bet any medium-strong hand with impunity, not fearing a raise.

So, instead of being intimidated by an opponent staring you down, simply consider that you can make more borderline bets for profit when you hold marginally strong hands. Read the rest of this entry »

Changes in Breathing

A change in breathing patterns is not an act. This unconscious tell is one of the strongest in poker. If you’re seated near the opponent, you often will be able to hear this tell. But even if you’re seated across the table, you sometimes can see it by the movements of the person’s diaphragm.

The key here is that players who make strong hands tend to become excited and need to breathe faster. Players who are bluffing, on the other hand, tend to disguise their breathing and sometimes stop entirely. They fear that anything they do might trigger their opponent’s calling reflex, so they become extremely unanimated and scarcely breathe. Read the rest of this entry »

Poker is a brilliant blend of strategy and psychology — there is really nothing else like it. When compared with strategy, however, how important is psychology in poker? Well, you can beat poker without understanding psychology, but you can’t beat poker without understanding strategy. Therefore, it’s important to learn the fundamentals first. But wait! Now we’re going to say something that — at first — seems to be contradictory:Psychology can account for the majority of profit you will ever make in poker!

That statement is true because after you master the fundamentals of poker, you’re most of the way to becoming a good player as far as strategy goes. Read the rest of this entry »

Do you want to become a better poker player today? Right now? Here are ten specific things you can do today, and each one of them will improve your game.

Know Your Numbers

If you don’t learn, understand, and use poker’s mathematical parameters, it will prove difficult to be a consistent winner in the long run. For example, if you’re playing Hold’em and flop four cards to a flush but don’t know the odds against completing that hand, what will you do when it’s your turn to act?

How will you ever know whether calling, raising, or folding is a play with a positive expectation? Finding positive expectations is the essence of winning poker, and it’s no more complex than recognizing those situations that will show a profit if they could be replayed time and again. Read the rest of this entry »

Is there a player out there who hasn’t observed that poker is a metaphor for life? That metaphor is probably one reason why poker is so popular. Not only does it frequently mirror life, poker models it. Poker is life in a nutshell. The entirety of our existence compressed into a single hand of poker is a compelling thought.

A metaphor and a model for life! If true, there should be important life lessons everyone can take away from the poker table. When learned and applied, these lessons should make it much easier for a poker player to survive in a world where most people haven’t been force-fed these life-lessons across the poker table.

Being Selective and Aggressive

In the real world you do have to pick your battles, just as you must in poker. Sometimes you have to draw your proverbial line in the sand (”You’ve gotta know when to hold ‘em“); other times you have to carefully choose when to retreat (”Know when to fold ‘em”). Read the rest of this entry »