Category: Articles

Similar is the player on "tilt" – a term flashed up on a slot machine if you attempt, physically, to attack it. This player has lost a few hands in a row, perceived them, rightly or wrongly, to be bad beats (results which seem to defy normal expectation) and starts throwing his money around like a petulant child. Don’t think you won’t do it, because you will. It happens to all of us sometimes. However, the key is, when it happens to you, to remember the feeling of utter desperation that comes with it, and use that feeling for the future as a warning signal to get up from the table (or the computer screen) and go do something else for a while.

There are three main styles of betting at poker:

1. Limit Poker
This style is played mainly in poker clubs and casinos in the US. Each round of betting is limited to an exact amount and the number of raises and re-raises is limited also. For example, if the limits were posted as $10/20, that would mean that the Blinds would be $5 and $10 and pre-flop you could only raise $10. When the flop appears, again, only bets of $10 and raises of $10 would be permitted. Following the turn and the river, these bets and raises would then be set at $20. You are not permitted to depart from this structure.

2. Pot Limit
This used to be the form most popular in European card rooms. The Blinds would be set and then the maximum bet possible would be the current value of the pot. If the Blinds were, say, $2 and $5, the first raise you could make would be $7. A subsequent re-raiser would then be able to bet $14 – the total in the pot so far. This meant that initial raises were quite small, but subsequent bets and raises could get very large. This allowed more players to stay in early on and see the flop, but allowed strong hands to drive out weaker players with big bets after the flop.

3. No-Limit
Simply the best. Now, most people play No-Limit Poker in one form or another. This style allows you to bet whatever you like, at any time. If the Blinds are set at $2 and $5, you can push all your money into the middle on a whim. It allows you to exert maximum pressure on your opponents and can lead to huge swings and unbelievably tense decisions.

From the off, playing no-limit, one fact must remain at the forefront of your mind – this could be your last hand you could be wiped out completely. Every hand you enter must be done wisely, and with courage.

However, the guiding principle is that you can bet only the money that is on the table in front of you. You cannot reach down and suddenly produce more cash from a secret hideyhole. Equally, as with all forms of the game, you cannot be pushed out of a hand, just because you run out of money. Once you have all your money in a pot – you are all-in – you compete for that pot up to and including all the betting made untIl you went all-in. If other players continue to bet, they form a side pot of extra bets for which you are not competing. You remain however in the main pot and get to show your, cards if you have won.

Perhaps the best form of the game is No-Limit with a take-down option. This is proving popular in home games because it combines the excitement of No-Limit with a few prudent safeguards.

You buy-in for an agreed amount – let’s say $200 – and, if you win, you are then permitted to remove extra funds over and above that $200. If you are winning, you must keep at least your original stake in front of you to give the other players a chance to win it back. Of course, you can choose to sit out a few hands, or cash-in if you don’t want to play any more.

This is the style I recommend as it best combines all the great elements of Texas Hold ‘Em Poker.

Aces High
With the exception of a Straight, aces are always high. In a Straight, they can be both high and low. A High Straight (A K Q J 10) is the best Straight available, the so-called Nut Straight, but an ace can also be low in a low Straight (A 2 3 4 5) sometimes called the Wheel or Bicycle. Although the ace is involved in this low Straight, the highest card is the five, and that means that if someone held 2 3 4 5 6, that would beat the five-high Straight.

The Nuts
means the best hand available based on the community cards showing. A Nut Straight would be the highest Straight available; the Nut Flush, the highest possible Flush.
 

Kickers
At poker, when two players have hands of matching ranks, the height of the cards is key. So, if two players hold 3 of a Kind, the player holding KKK will beat the player holding 888.

The size of the other cards in the hand may also become important in the matter of Kickers. A kicker is the next highest card not involved in the formation of a poker hand combination. For example, if two players held the following hands, it would be the kicker which decides who wins the hand:
    Player A     8 8 4 4 J
    Player B     8 8 4 4 6

Both players hold the same 2 Pair – 8s and 4s – but Player A holds a jack kicker, whereas Player B holds only a 6 kicker. Therefore, Player A wins the hand with the higher kicker.

Sometimes, there is more than one kicker involved.
    Player A     A A Q 6 4
    Player B     A A Q 5 2

This time, both players hold a Pair of aces and both hold a queen kicker. But, a poker hand is made up of five cards so, now, attention moves to the next kicker. Again, Player A wins the hand, courtesy of holding a 6 as his second kicker, opposed to Player B’s 5. This result is incredibly close. Player A will be blowing the tips of his fingers over this deal; Player B will be licking his wounds.

Perfect Ties
If two or more hands are a perfect tie, the pot is split between all the players involved. This happens more often at Texas Hold ‘Em than at many variations because there are five community cards. Let’s see an example:

The board shows 10(S),6(C), A(S),K(D),J(C)
Player A holds  Q(D),10(S)
Player B holds  Q(C),6(S)
Player C holds  A(D),Q(H)

Player A flopped (made the hand when the flop appeared) a Straight (A,K,Q,J,10) but, presumably, did not bet enough to keep the other players out of the hand. Unfortunately for him, although the turn did not hurt him, the river certainly did because, now, all three players have the same Straight. Player A may have both Q and 10, but that makes no difference now that the 10 has appeared on the river. All three players can now use the AKJ from the flop and the 10 from the river, to add to their own Q in hand, to make the Straight. The proceeds of this pot will be shared equally between all three players.

Side Pots
Sometimes, when one player has put all his chips into the pot and other players keep on betting, you need to form a side (or secondary) pot. This is how it works.

Let’s say that Player X has only $20 left in front of him.
Ahead of him, an opponent raises to $50 and another player calls him. Player X wants to call as well but he can’t match his opponents’ bets. You can never be driven out of a hand because you don’t have enough money on the table – you can always push your last money in and contest the pot. Thus, Player X can only play $20. So, he calls, and goes "all-in". The main pot should now consist of Player X’s $20, plus $20 from each of the other players’ bets – to match Player X’s stake. So, the main pot is worth $60 (plus any Blinds there might have been). This is all Player X can play for, because that covers his stake.

Now, there is a side pot formed from the remaining extra money which the other two players have bet. $30 from their $50 bets goes in there. Obviously, Player X can do no more betting, so he just waits patiently to see the result of the hand. Meanwhile, any further bets made by other players go into the side pot (which may well become far bigger than the main pot). Eventually, the result of the side pot will be decided first and then Player X will show his cards to claim the main pot (or throw them away disgustedly and skulk from the table).

The good news is that online, and in clubs and casinos where there is a dealer, you don’t have to worry about these mechanics. It will all be done for you. Although it sounds quite complicated now, they are in fact very simple and you’ll get used to them very quickly.

The ideal number for a game of poker is probably between five and eight players, but tables often hold ten players, and just two people playing "head to head" can be breathtakingly exciting. Home games have been played on kitchen tables for centuries, so throw a piece of green baize (or some felt, a rug, a carpet, even a towel) over your table and we can begin – almost.

Get hold of a full deck of cards, take out the jokers and give the pack a good shuffie.
 
You are going to need some chips. You can buy these easily over the Internet or from shops. You can use pennies, or play for cash or even, when following these pages, use matchsticks or sweets or ball-bearings. But remember, when the game really starts, you will be playing to win or to lose. You don’t get to collect your chips back again at the end of the evening and laugh about what good fun it all was. The chips are your money, and you must play to win. So, give each player about thirty chips, and that will do for the moment.

Now, a word about the dealer:
Dealing is either performed by a staff member provided by a card club or casino, or it is done by the players themselves. This might be done by drawing for seats: everyone chooses a card; the player with the highest is the dealer, the next highest on his right, and so on. If the players perform this task, the first person shuffles the deck thoroughly, asks the player on his right to cut the deck and then deals the hand. Then the role passes to the next player, in a clockwise rotation. If there is an appointed dealer, then there will be a "dealer button" (a white plastic disc with "dealer" printed on it) placed in front of the player to indicate for whom the cards are being dealt.
 
At poker, everything moves clockwise from the dealer. At Hold ‘Em, your position at the table in relation to the dealer is absolutely crucial. As you will learn, to be the dealer can be very advantageous – that is why the role must move around the table after each hand.

The dealer shuffles the cards and offers them to his right-hand opponent who lifts off a portion of the deck and places it face down next to the remaining cards. The dealer then puts the remaining cards on top of the portion cut off. This is called the "cut" and it ensures that the dealer hasn’t stacked the deck in his favour. Before the dealer begins to distribute the cards, there is still one task to be undertaken.

The player to the left of the dealer must make a Small Blind bet, let’s say one chip, and the player to his left must make a Big Blind bet – usually double the amount of the small bet – two chips. These bets are called the Blinds (because you have to make the bet "blind" – without having seen your cards) and they are used to set the action going. So, with the Blinds placed, the dealer deals one card to each player starting on his left and going around the table. He then deals a second card to each player and stops.
The players look at their cards, ensuring that their opponents cannot see them or the player’s reaction to them. There is now a round of betting, based on the strength of these two hole cards.

Now, the purpose of the Blind bets becomes clear. If players wish to stay in the hand, they must match – or exceed – the bet placed by the Big Blind (in this example, betting two chips).

This is a key part of poker betting. To stay in the hand, you must match (or, if you think you have the best hand, exceed – by raising) the largest bet currently made, If you choose not to do this, then you must fold (or muck) your cards, discarding them face down in the direction of the dealer. You now take no further part in this particular hand.

5-Card Draw was similar to Stud Poker but with a crucial twist. After the five cards had been dealt, there would be a round of betting. Then, each player in turn could exchange one or more of the cards in his hand, for new cards from the deck, to try to improve his hand. Then there would be a further round of betting. The result was that players made better hands and there was twice the opportunity for betting, meaning twice the opportunity to try to bluff, bully or seduce your opponents. Some players consider 5-Card Draw Poker the purest form of the game, but it is nowhere near as popular as many other versions.

As the third millennium dawned, the popularity of poker was beginning to expand from the millions who played it regularly in the USA, to hundreds of millions throughout the world. Inspired by television coverage, featuring secret cameras which revealed the players’ cards to the audience, the huge sums of money at stake for the most subtle of decisions and the sheer human drama of the game, poker’s universal charm became irresistible. Moreover, the Internet became the preferred venue for playing, especially amongst those starting out in the game. The ability to practise anonymously, to enter free tournaments and to play against really good players from aIl over the world, without leaving home, has bec orne a fine alternative to watching mindless television or sitting in gridlocked traffic.

In the twenty-first century, there is an abundance of different poker games: 5-Card Stud and Draw, 7-Card Stud, Hi/Low variations, Omaha and, the "Cadillac of poker games", Texas Hold ‘Em. There are also the many home-spun variations with jokers, wild cards, strange betting rules and topsy-turvey last-minute turnarounds. However, most poker players in the world today favour Texas Hold ‘Em. It’s the version which best combines skill with luck, which involves just the right amount of action, and the one which produces the most excitement right down to the very last card.

Bingo

 

The gameof bingo was heading towards extension around ten years ago and was perceivedhas drab and tired. There was no glamour attached to it, with smoke filled highstreet bingo parlours. Thankfully the game was saved by the rise of internet bingo and is nowone of the most popular leisure games online! They’re packed with brightgraphics and super smooth gaming options. At the same time, you can play usinga small budget so the game is accessible to everyone.

 

BudgetBingo

 

Gamingtickets can be purchased from as little as 5-10 pence at most of the popularbingo websites. So you can game for long periods of time for little amounts ofcash with no restraint.

One thebest options on how to plan you gaming is to set a weekly budget then set a maxcard value and play using the tickets through the week. Bingo really is anaffordable way to play online 24 hours a day.

 

Socialgame

 

You’reprobably into chat forums for socialising, banter and game tips. Bingo managesto combine all three at once! You can make new friends whilst starting newgames with the built-in chat rooms all day. Once there, you can take advantageof gaming advice and banter between new friends you will make. So if you’reafter an option to stay in on the weekend as opposed to going out, you canchoose online bingo and you’ll be sure to be impressed.

 

What’sfree?

 

When thehigh street parlours were popular it was popular for giving away free prizessuch as televisions and cars! And you’ll be pleased to know that the internet bingosites have also incorporated these types of prizes. If anything the prizes havebecome more advanced with holidays and large money jackpots. Be sure to lookout bingo reviews forno-deposit bonus offers.

 

Jackpots

 

One ofthe cheapest ways to win thousands is through bingo with low priced jackpottickets.

Althoughthe game is based on luck everyone has a 100% of wining the big prizes!

There is no physical contact between the players. You cannot see them and they cannot see you. This means you do not have to worry about keeping a poker face and paying attention to your body language. This also means that you cannot assess other players’ body language and look for tells. As technology improves, games may be introduced where the players can see each other via web cameras.

As you cannot see the players you need to develop a different strategy for playing. The strategy used needs to be based more on probabilities, betting patterns and knowledge gained from previous games with players that you may encounter in the future. If you regularly play on the same site, you may regularly play with the same players and build up a body of information about the habits and betting patterns of these players.

 

Internet tournaments

Online card rooms offer lots of poker tournaments. Internet tournaments are much shorter than traditional tournaments.

Single-table tournaments are where nine players compete. There is usually a prize for the top three finishers with the prize being divided as follows:

In multi-table tournaments, you will compete against hundreds of other players. The players will be randomly located seats and may play several rounds. As players get knocked out, the remaining players are re-seated until just nine players remain on the final table. The winner is the player who wins all the other players’ chips. The advantage of multi-table tournaments is that you can win a large prize for a small entry fee.

 

Speed tournaments

With speed tournaments, the value of the blind increases every few minutes. This ensures that the tournament is quickly finished. Speed tournaments can be played both as single table games and multi-table games.

Many sites offer regular freeroll events to attract new players and encourage existing players to return to the site on a regular basis. These may be either ‘true’ freerolls with no entry conditions whatsoever, or perks for players who have already provided the cardroom with a certain amount of patronage (typically measured by the number of raked hands in which they have participated).

The challenge for the cardroom is to structure these freeroll tournaments in such a way that they are attractive enough for players to visit the site, but not so attractive that their clientele will spend all their poker sessions playing freerolls at the expense of raked ring games or buy-in tournaments! Undoubtedly, some players who play in freeroll tournaments do so with no intention of ever depositing any cash to play in real money games, but even these players have some value to the cardroom, since they may encourage their friends to join the site, and those players may then make deposits and in turn encourage their own friends to sign up. A true freeroll tournament at, for example, PokerStars will attract 250-500 players, offering newcomers an ideal introduction to online tournament play.

There are two contrasting ways of approaching a freeroll event – you can either try and play your best game, treating it as a serious exercise, or you can decide to take lots of risks early on, figuring that you could get lucky and amass a ton of chips, but if you bust out you haven’t lost anything anyway!

Although collusion and all-in abuses are the most prevalent problems, there are other security issues which discourage some people from playing online. One common fear is that someone may be able to see your hole cards. This may be either because the original programmer has revealed the ‘key’ to the encryption algorithm to a cheat, enabling him to see everyone’s hole cards, or because someone has somehow managed to break into the server and bypass the code. (Players are recommended to provide themselves with an extra measure of protection by installing firewalls on their PCs.) Alternatively, the programmer may have disclosed the shuffling algorithm, enabling a cheat to determine which cards are likely to come next. Finally, the programmer may have left a backdoor into the software to enable him to insert hidden code to enable certain designated players to win. Although these means of cheating are possible, there has never been an instance in which anything like this has ever actually happened – it would be so damaging for any cardroom to fall victim to this kind of cheating that it is hard to believe that adequate security measures would not be in place.

 

Clamping down on the Cheats
Although they are in business competition with one another, if the major sites were able to get together and share their information about known cheaters, and even discuss methods of tracking down cheaters in future, they would undoubtedly be doing a great service both to themselves, and to the online poker-playing community as a whole. A firmer, across-the-board approach to the problem of cheating would encourage new players to participate and give existing players the confidence to compete for higher stakes. Indeed, according to Paradise Poker’s head of marketing Bruce Davidson (quoted in an article in the New Yorh Times from November 2001) one reason why the site has been reluctant to raise the maximum stakes, is precisely because they are concerned that this would attract more sophisticated cheaters and hackers.

Furthermore, it is not sufficient that cheaters be barred; each site should adopt an open policy of refunding losses to players who have been the victims of proven cheating. Although both PokerStars and Planet Poker, for example, have refunded cheated players in the past, this does not appear to be a universal policy among cardrooms at the present time. Short-sightedly, some sites may prefer not to admit that any specific acts of collusion have arisen, whereas a more open treatment of such instances would demonstrate not only that they hold a powerful stance against collusion, but also that they possess the resources to detect and combat it. In this way, they would not only reinforce public confidence in their commitment towards honest games, but also discourage potential cheats.

Without question many people are reluctant to play on the Internet for fear of being cheated, either by the cardroom or (more likely) by other players. Barely a week goes by without some anonymous poster on one poker forum or another telling how he was ‘cheated’ online in some way or another. Invariably the thrust of their argument is something along the lines of ‘I’ve been playing for 20 years and I’ve never seen so many bad beats. I know I’m a good poker player, so if I’m losing then the game can’t possibly be on the level.’ Although on occasion these complaints do turn out to be perfectly valid, in the vast majority of cases the players involved are almost certainly victims of misfortune (or their own bad play) rather than cheating. Furthermore, since there are plenty of other players who claim that they do win at online poker sites without having to resort to cheating – are we to assume that they do so only because they are such brilliant players that they can overcome stacked decks and collusion teams? It is true that most players lose when they play poker at an online cardroom, but then again most players lose when they play poker in a brick and mortar cardroom as well (the mathematics of the rake practically guarantees that this be so).

In July 2002 pokerpages.com published an excellent article by Andrew Glazer on this very subject, entitled ‘Ten Reasons Why You’re Not Getting Cheated Online’. His argument was not that cheating does not go on (indeed he stated that he was sure that in certain instances players had colluded with one another), but that there are alternative explanations for poker losses that players often ignore, preferring instead to blame someone else rather than themselves. Glazer offered the following possible explanations as to why players might experience (or appear to experience) worse results online than they do in a brick and mortar cardroom:
–    Players are forced to keep better records online. When you receive your monthly credit card bill it is pretty hard to fool yourself that you have had a winning month when you have actually lost, whereas live-action players who don’t keep accurate records may imagine that they are winning players even when they are not. As Glazer says, ‘Many players who think they are break-even players in live games are actually losers, and many players who think they are winning players are actually break-even or losing players.’ Thus some players may only be imagining that their results are worse online; better record-keeping would reveal that their live-action results are comparable.
–    Online play removes much of the skill involved in reading people from the game. Those players for whom tells and other people-reading skills are a vital element of their game will not be able to achieve such good results online. For such players Glazer eloquently suggests that ‘when you play online you have two arms and one leg tied behind your back.’
–    Many players don’t concentrate as hard when they play online as they would in a brick and mortar cardroom. By engaging in multi-tasking while you are playing online, perhaps watching TV, answering e-mails or surfing the Internet, you will not collect as much information about the other players as you would in a live game, and this will inevitably have a negative effect on your results.
–    Many more hands are played per hour online than in a live action game (perhaps giving the misleading impression that more bad beats are occurring). If you are already a losing player, then faster games will inevitably cause you to lose more every hour you play online (although this may partially be offset by the lower rake and the absence of tipping).
–    The nature of the online game sometimes encourages players to play more loosely than they normally would. The simple physical act of clicking on a mouse rather than counting out chips and placing them in the pot may cause players to enter and stay in more hands, often calling to the river with hands they would fold in a live-action game. Furthermore, there is no peer pressure to play ‘properly’: if you play an online hand badly and still somehow manage to win, you don’t have to endure any muttering or dirty looks from the other players, all tacitly censuring you for playing so poorly.
–    If the game is indeed looser than a normal brick and mortar game, then more players will stay to the river and more miracle, bad beats will arise as a result.
–    If the game is already looser than a normal game, then it may become even looser as additional players are sucked into every hand by the prospect of winning a large pot if they hit a big hand.
–    Players are more prone to going on tilt online. We have already discussed the phenomenon of cybertilt, whereby players are more likely to lose their composure and steam off their bankrolls when there is no-one watching them.
–    Players can run into more problems when they play two tables simultaneously. Again, we have already discussed this concept. It is harder for multi-table players to keep track of their opponents’ tendencies, while playing two or more tables at once can be particularly dangerous for players who have a tendency to go on tilt.
–    Players may play differently because they are paranoid that they are being cheated, making detrimental adjustments to their decisions merely because they fear the worst.