A vital aspect in poker is deceiving your opponents by making them believe your poker hand is better, when in all honesty you could possibly your hand is much worse than theirs. This is called “Poker face”, a straight expression for tricking your opponents into buying something that could be a lie.

Holding a good poker hand is most likely going to make you feel nervous, could possibly cause your hands to shake, and your heartbeat race. These are signs that your poker buddies may see very quickly, especially if they are good friends of yours. Try not to look at the pot if you have a good poker hand. This is an obvious gesture for your poker buddies that you are, in your head, counting the poker chips.

In the situation where you have a god-awful poker hand, try not to avoid looking your opponents in the eyes, keep your eyes up, and don’t act reluctant about your bet. In the event that you can prove to yourself that your set of cards is just as good, or superior than your fellow poker players; you will possibly convince them of this as well. Remember to make this seem as natural as possible. Your gestures and motions could be saying one idea, while the things you are talking about are making them believe something else.

One more crucial point of poker is to be able to read your opponents “poker tells”. A “tell” is a gesture or habit that could might give away information about their hand. One critical point to remember is when your competition is acting as though he has a strong hand; he, in all probability, has a weak Texas Hold Em hand. From a different angle, if he behaves as though he has a weak hand, he probably has a pretty decent hand.

No Comments »

Is it more effective to play tight or a loose poker game?

You will unquestionably hear both theories from your fellow poker players or possibly the so-called poker stars. Let’s have a look first at the tight Texas holdem’ players. All players including yourself will find it hard winning, if the entire table is playing a tight Texas holdem’ game. What could happen if you have a poker table full of tight Texas holdem’players is the poker players will wind up exchanging the smaller pots back and forth to each other. In the meantime the poker room is raking in heaps of your hard-earned cash, and that of your competitors. So now you may think, is it better to play loose? Well, in this circumstance the better Texas holdem’ players are going to lose a smaller number of hands, but at the end of it all nobody is going to triumph.

How can I improve my poker playing in the long run?

The answer to this question is as effortless as a piece of paper and a pen. A great tactic to discover a lot about your playing technique and tactic, is to keep some sort of record of your Texas holdem’ playing. You could write down this information during the poker game, and then transfer it to a database on your home computer. This can also help you learn about your challenger’s playing style, and what is the best tactic to conquer them.

Is it a good idea to use the same tactics for every poker game?

If you think that being predictable is a winning tactic for playing Texas holdem’, then you should think about varying your Texas holdem’ tactic. The Texas holdem’ pros have the same opinion that modifying your poker playing technique is the greatest way to confuse and bewilder your poker opponents. You should try a handful of tactics, find the ones that work for you and adjust them for each Texas holdem’ tournament.

No Comments »

According to the 2006 World Series of Poker champ, Jamie Gold, he would be happy to be celebrated as the all time best bluffer in the world. But if his last Texas Holdem tournament is any indication, his wish may not come true ever.

The setting is the 2007 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic held at the Vegas Bellagio in 2007. Featuring $50 - $100 blinds and a $15,000 buy-in, Darrell Dicken is close to the end of his run. The seat 4 player has just raised his bet to $300, a pretty small raise with only one player biting the line. “I put him as being weak,” Jamie said, “I was thinking about raising, but instead I just called with a 10-3 of hearts to see what would happen.”

Jamie was thinking that Brad Booth would make some kind of move, which he did. He re-raised to $1600 from the big blind. Gold had the idea that Booth had a reasonable hand, but he was in a superb position to make a move considering the amount of dead money in the pot. Dicken folded, and the unknown in Seat 4 called Booth’s raise.

At this point there was more than $4000 in the pot, so Jamie raised the wager by $4000. His thought was, only if someone else had aces or kings there would be no possibility they would make that call. Jamie’s strategy was to make a considerable move on the flop, as long as no ace was dealt. The second part of his plan was to get Booth to fold, which he did. Booth folded with pocket queens.

On the flop there was an ace of ace-6-5, two clubs. The player in seat 4 checked and Jamie bet $2000. Jamie’s first thought was to make him think that he had clubs. Seat 4 tossed out a $10,000 chip, but didn’t say anything thus turning his raise into a call. Jamie’s thought was that seat 4 most likely had an ace, but you have to protect it in case he hits his set on the following card.

A 2 of hearts appeared on the turn, and Jamie folded to what he thought was a top pair kicker. Seat 4 displayed a king-jack off suit. Seat 4 beat Gold by bluffing with a higher hand, he forced a magnificent poker play and took the bluff to the end of the poker tournament.

No Comments »

You have most likely heard the miracle stories about dogs sensing stuff before it happens, or animals acting weird or behaving weird before major events happen. This is because animals rely on inner self, they trust and rely on instinct for survival. They don’t have time to thoroughly think things through or contemplate, they feel there gut trust it and react on it.

This is not to say that you shouldn’t think about decisions or problems and should just do what your first inner self is, because evaluation is an important and critical part of the decision making process. Going over all the variables presented to you to come up with a conclusion. So evaluation is important and should be done, but you should be able to feel your first natural instinct and let it play a major role in your decision making process. You should give your gut feeling the best value on the list of variables that you consider when making a decision.

For the majority of people they will never be able to tap into there inner self or will never be able to know when they hear it or feel it, this is because in order to hear and listen your gut feeling you need to have balance in your mind and body, you need to have emotional control over yourself, you need to be in touch with your feelings. Everyone has instinct and gut feeling so if you don’t know what your gut feeling is it’s probably because your mind is clouded and cannot clearly identify when your gut feeling kicks in and talks to you.

Being able to hear and listen to your gut feeling can become a very powerful tool in your poker playing, you have to listen to your gut though, the first instinct or thought you have is usually always the correct decision. Your mind is a powerful database more powerful then any computer and has a hard drive that stores every hand you play, every bet that people make, every situation that happens. So your gut feeling is usually what the mind feels based on your database of similar Hold’em poker situations.

So practice listening to your self, identify when your gut tells you something and believe in it and use it in life, use it on the Texas Hold’em tables. Hopefully this will help you improve your Hold’em game and make you a better player.

No Comments »

When an event such as the World Series of poker tournament in Las Vegas is advertised and hyped to such an extent that it is at the forefront of the popular conscious of the world, it can sometimes unbalance the level of activity and interest that takes place in the gaming and gambling capital in the desert. With this extremely polarizing effect, the players who are fascinated with the World Series of poker might forego traveling to the area for any other reason throughout the year, preferring to save up for the one big shot at the World Series of poker tournament. While it is true that the World Series of poker tournament in Las Vegas is one of the most exhilarating and exciting experiences in the gaming and gambling world, it does not make sense to put all of the emphasis on this one event to the exclusion of all other events throughout the year, this is exactly what happens as the Las Vegas World Series of poker tournament becomes more and more hyped through marketing and advertising efforts around the world. With professional level players who travel less and less, intending to put all their effort into this one annual competition, the revenues generated throughout the rest of the year in Las Vegas tend to dwindle at the gaming and gambling tables only to resurge again when the famous events such as the World Series of poker tournament in Las Vegas are held. Beginning weeks in advance and lasting till long after the event itself is over, the hyping and marketing of the event has much to do with Las Vegas hotels and casinos and their determination to earn revenue from the investments that they have made in these types of events as well as the excitement and buzz that builds around the tournament on its own.

With the extreme popularity of this one type of event, it makes it easy to overlook the wealth of Texas Hold’em poker tournaments that take place throughout the year in various locations including Las Vegas and other cities around the world. By overshadowing and even eclipsing the popularity of the lesser-known Texas Hold’em poker tournament events, the World Series of poker tournament in Las Vegas creates a warping effect on the Las Vegas economy that is focused on the one world-famous event to the exclusion of all others, creating a vacuum of advertising and exposure that is detrimental to the Las Vegas economy in general due to the lack of year-round income and effort to stay strong at the Texas Hold’em poker tournaments.

No Comments »