Aggressive Play Seizes Fold Equity

Poker pundits constantly drive home the point that aggression is a key factor in winning poker. Professional players understand this too and use aggression to gain “fold equity” – implied power that forces other online poker players to fold their hands.

Fold equity is a staple tool for those players in early position. To seize fold equity, one must enter pots by raising instead of limping in with a call. Pre-flop raises are likely to get most players to lay down their hands, so the field becomes small for the original raiser.

Continuation betting after the flop is the next tool to use. When trying to leverage fold equity, be mindful of your opponent’s stack size. Adjust your raise to make it painful to call – at least 25 percent of your opponent’s remaining chips. This should give any player on a draw reason to pause and consider the odds before calling.

When attempting to leverage fold equity, it’s best to refrain from the all-in shove. Once a player is all-in, there is no longer any fold equity and the cards just play themselves.

By making raised bets that take substantial chunks out of a stack, but still leave an opponent with chips, you retain fold equity. It is a lot harder for an opponent to call a raise with only a drawing hand on the flop when another raise, that will decimate a poker online player’s stack, is anticipated on the turn and the river.

One Pair Defined

One pair in a five card online poker hand refers to the instance of two cards of the same rank with three other unmatched cards, such as 8 8 J 2 3. It is the most commonly made hand in poker besides simply having no pair. In the event of a showdown between two hands with one pair, the player with the highest ranked pair wins. In the event that both players have the same pair, the online poker players then compare their unpaired high cards as kickers, where the player with the highest kicker wins, i.e. 8 8 A Q J would beat 8 8 K Q 8, etc.

The odds of a player making one pair in a five card poker hand is 42.27%.

Because having one pair is so common, the value of it often is often wildly variable. The common expression “Don’t go broke with just one pair” stands for a reason, in that risking too much with such an unsolid hand is reckless when you play poker online.

One pair in the hole before the flop is known as a ‘pocket pair.’ The odds of a pocket pair improving on the flop into a set is roughly 11.8%. The odds of it flopping a full house is 0.74%.

How Often Have You Raised Pre-Flop Already?

I was in the later stages of a sit ‘n go poker online tournament, when I had a King-Queen offsuit that missed completely on the flop. The flop was 2-9-5, all different suits, and since I had two calls on my large preflop raise, I was betting that nobody had hit. Literally, since the pot was already so big. I was in the last position and the other two casino online players checked to me, so I called them all in, attempting to buy up the pot. The first player folded immediately, and it was left up to the last player in the hand. He paused for a bit, the he called, saying that I’d stolen enough pots that night. He went all in and turned over pocket sixes, which held up through the turn and the river, doubling him up and carving a big chunk out of my chip stack.

Moral of the story: keep track of how often you bluff in poker. Bluff too often, and eventually your opponents are going catch on and your attempts will bleed you dry. Stagger your bluffs with some honest poker to keep your opponents in the dark. Once they see that you’re capable of winning whether or not you’ve got a winning hand, they won’t know how to react to you.

Poker Terminology: ‘Family Pot’

A ‘family pot’ in online poker occurs when everyone at the table has put in the required bet to see the flop, and therefore every player will be involved in betting when the community cards are on the pokertable. Family pots often are more common to loose or relaxed home games where the action is more allowed to see cards come free, or in situations where the majority of the players are looking to gamble. Hand values in a family pot, therefore, are drastically decreased, as there are so many options of ways for hole cards to make hands that the odds of any one hand holding are much less than in hands with 2-3 players. The value of poker hands like pocket aces are greatly reduced, and it becomes extremely hard to know exactly where you stand, as players could literally have any two cards. You may think that when you slowplayed those aces from under the gun that you were going to get a raise, but when everybody else at the table sees the flop, even if the flop comes 2 7 J, there are so many possible hands that its advised to play extremely carefully. In games with regular and aggressive, you don’t see a lot of family pots usually, and when you do there’s always got to be somebody who calls attention to it.

Anti-Poker Wave Hits the Philippines

More disturbing news from the anti-online poker front, as an overzealous politician wants to deny the good people of the Philippines the right to play online casino games and poker. As reported by the Philippine Daily Inquirer: A lawmaker has proposed that gambling on the Internet be made illegal in that country.

Alliance for Rural Concerns party-list Representative Narciso Santiago noted in his proposed legislation that there are no existing regulations on Internet gambling in the Philippines (which is a good thing).

Santiago’s bill proposes to make it illegal for people running a gambling operation to use the Internet or any other interactive computer service to place, receive, or otherwise make a bet or wager; or send, receive, or invite information that may assist in the placing of a bet or wager.

He also said there is a danger that gambling sites may be used in scams to trick people out of their money. This is of course completely false, as online gambling sites should not be equated to Nigerian phishing scams or some such thing. This is just another example of a crooked politician who wants to deny people their God-given right to play online poker. I am hopeful that this bill, and other bills like it worldwide, will be defeated and we can all play online poker in peace.

Checking in Poker

Why does it seem that so many people love checking when playing online poker? For some reason, I have noticed an inordinate amount of people sitting at tables playing casino games who, 90% of the time, don’t bet at pots or reraise. They just check, and often other people in the hand just check behind them.

This is something I notice more while playing online poker than in a casino, that may be because there are more beginners playing online(since it’s more convenient and less dautning for a newcomer than sitting at a table in a card room). Certainly, there’s nothing wrong with checking, especially when using it to check-raise. I think many players when they first begin check more often than they should because they may be afraid of losing more money to a pot.

But, you can’t play poker if you are going to be afraid to lose money. It happens to everyone, and you can’t let that fear get in the way of the game you’re trying to play. I know if you are just starting to play checking when you are unsure if you should bet is safe; and there’s nothing wrong with that. You’ve got to feel your way around the game in the begninning.

But, the next time you feel like you should bet at a pot but are inclined to check instead, try making the bet. You may like the results, and start to become more aggressive.

Better Sleeping Habits

Any number of distrations and disturbances can prevent a good night’s sleep. While they are often to do with intangible things, like stress or anxiety, we have come up with a list of helpful hints on how to get a full night of rest and relaxation. There are plenty of advantages to getting 8 hours of sleep at night, including reduced stress levels and a strong immune system.

1. Have a hot drink within an hour before bed. Herbal tea is best — and obviously avoid any drink with caffeine. Also avoid adding sugar to your drink.
2. Don’t set yourself a specific “bedtime” — sometimes this worries people more when they are unable to fall asleep at the “correct” time. Instead, focus on other things, like reading a book or watching a film, and trust your body’s internal clock on when you are feeling tired.
3. Make your bed a relaxing place to be. If beds are made, they seem more inviting don’t they? Get yourself a nice new set of sheets, or a few new fluffy pillows to replace the flat stained ones that are being covered up with pillowcases. Invest in a feather down duvet, which makes you feel like you’re sleeping in a cloud.

Bluff Considerations in Poker

<p>Attempting a bluff in <a href=”http://www.everestpoker.com/pl/”>poker</a> can be terrifying-only the very intrepid enjoy risking their chips when they’re not holding the nuts and they usually gamble away their chips in the first few rounds. However, sometimes bluffing is the only way to stay in the game. If you’re in the middle of a dry run of cards, you may need to buy a few pots just to stay ahead of the blinds. Scary or not, it’s a skill that every <a href=”http://www.everestpoker.fr”>poker</a> player has to learn at some point.

<p>There are countless nuances to think about when considering a bluff, but here are two general things to consider:

<p>Is it a large pot? If there is a lot of money in the pot, then it’s more likely that someone is committed to playing the hand to the end. People get less likely to fold as the pot size increases, so if you’re trying a bluff, your odds will be better if you’re going for a smaller pot.

<p>Are there a lot of players in the hand? The more players there are, the more likely someone is to call your bluff. Bluffs work much better when you’re playing heads up with just one other person.

<p>If you’re going to put your <a href=”http://www.everestpoker.se”>poker</a> chips at risk, try to make sure that the odds are with you. Bluff at pots and players that are likely to acquiesce to your chip collecting needs.

Legalizing US Online Poker

Hopefully, we are one step closer to online poker being made more accessible in the U.S. U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) introduced legislation this week that would legally define poker as a skill game and create a regulatory environment for the game to be offered over the Internet in the United States, reports casinocitytimes.com.

The bill is the first piece of legislation concerning online gambling that has been introduced to the Senate since the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which prohibits the transfer of funds from a financial institution to an Internet gambling site.

Menendez’s “Internet Skill Game Licensing and Control Act” calls on the U.S. Treasury Department to set up a licensing framework for games that use “simulated cards, dice, or tiles in which success is predominantly determined by the sill of the players.” The measure lists “poker, bridge and mahjong” as examples of those types of games. The bill also defines permitted bets as wagers “made with respect to the outcome of an Internet skill game that is a non-housed bank game.”

I don’t personally play bridge or mahjong, whatever that is, but I’m happy for those who do and especially happy for those who play poker.

I find it completely insane that I can’t use my own money to play online poker, and hopefully this bill is the first step in changing that.