Category: Articles

“

If you only play poker online,
the importance of poker chips being used in the games might not be all that
obvious to you, but you should know, that besides being an integral part of the
whole casino atmosphere and environment, there are a few very solid reasons why
these tokens are being used instead of real money.

They are much more convenient to
use, counterfeiting them is almost impossible for several reasons: real casino
chips are specifically made in a way that makes counterfeiting very difficult.
The markings and prints on the chips are quite difficult to reproduce, and the
trained eyes of the casino employees mean nothing short of a perfect copy will
slip past their vigilance. Even if someone does manage to come up with perfect
copies, casinos have other ways to catch counterfeiters red-handed too. One
Canadian casino replaced all its chips and replaced them with alternative ones,
when they suspected counterfeiters were around. That allowed them to catch the
crooks in the act and have them arrested.

 

Chips are also much easier to
count when they’re stacked up, and the dealer has a much easier time paying out
players. The possibility of errors slipping into the payout is also much
reduced. Last, but certainly not least, it’s been proven that people find it
much easier to gamble on chips than on actual money.

Most authentic and/or quality
poker and casino chips are called “clay chips”. Make no mistake though, these
chips are not 100% clay by any means. If they were made of pure clay, they just
wouldn’t be resistant-enough to withstand the wear and tear they’re subjected
to, every day. This is the reason why – when making these chips – manufacturers
use a combination of clay and resin, plus sand or chalk. The actual
manufacturing process is a secret, but there are a few things, common to all
quality poker chips: The inserts, (aka edge spots) are not painted on. The maker
punches bits and pieces of the actual material the chips are made of, out, and
then fills the space with a different color, same consistency material which is
then molded together with the rest of the chip through thermal compression. The
extreme heat and pressure, the chip is subjected to, means the spots will mold
into it perfectly, and they will look like they’re painted on, but if you break
the chip, you’ll see the cross-section of it exhibiting the different materials
it’s made of.

 

Poker chips also have “inlays”,
which bear the graphics and artwork unique for every single casino and poker
room. Inlays are usually made of paper and/or plastic, and they’re applied to
the chip surface before compression, so once the chip’s done, they become
impossible to detach without breaking the chip first.

The fact that “clay” chips are
the most popular with casinos, doesn’t mean there are no chips made out of all
sorts of exotic materials. There are ceramic chips, wooden chips, leather chips,
aluminum chips, and let’s not forget about cheap old plastic chips. For these,
injection molding technology is used, and ABS plastic. Sometimes, you’ll find a
metal disk at the core of a plastic chip like this, which is there to lend it
weight.

 

With home poker games gaining in
popularity, poker chips manufacturers are also seeing a boom in business. If you
host poker games yourself, you should know that purchasing such chips (and other
home-poker accessories for that matter) is no longer a challenge. You can find
just about any quality and price-range online, what’s more, you don’t even have
to settle for what manufacturers have on stock, just place an order and have
your chips custom made.

Custom poker chips are not only
great to have around to play with, they make excellent gifts, too.

 

"Download some poker videos (there are plenty around on poker torrents) and see how the pros deal with certain situations. Don’t forget to sign up for a rakeback deal to further increase your odds."

”

“

Multi-Table No-Limit Texas Hold’em Tournaments

POKER STRATEGY

The Popularity of Texas Hold’em tournaments continues to grow and grow. This is to a large extent due to the increasing popularity of the WSOP (World Series of Poker) and also the WPT (World Poker Tour) and EPT (European Poker Tour) etc. These tournaments are now regularly shown on TV and a lot of people watch these high money tournaments and reckon that since they are OK poker players they’ll give it a go themselves, playing through the satellites. In fact these days most Texas Hold’em is actually played in tournaments instead of the more traditional single table games, "ring" games.

No-Limit Texas Hold’em has a truly exceptional amount of variance in terms of the size of the players stacks. The stacks go up and down far more than they would in a standard ring game and the reason for this is that the bets are so large preflop especially towards the end of the tournament. It is very common to see a battle between for example Ace King and a high pocket pair later on in a tournament.

Now I’m not suggesting that you don’t play in Poker Tournaments, in fact I encourage you to as they are great fun. The thing to bear in mind though is that effect of luck is far more pronounced in a Poker tournament than it is in a traditional single table ring game. The reason for this is that you have to take big risks and win plenty of 50-50 hands to have any chance of winning the tournament, if you play conservatively it will not work!

 

Beginning of the poker tournament

The strategy of Texas Hold’em tournaments is quite different form a standard Texas Hold’em ring game. For one thing there is far less value in bluffing, mainly because the other players stacks are smaller compared to the size of the pot. Another reason is that loosing chips hurts you far more than winning chips in a poker tournament.

This can seem quite a confusing concept so let me explain further. Lets say you try to bluff your way to 1000 chips in a 2000 chip pot and you expect that you have a 50-60% chance of success. Now in a ring game this would be fairly good odds but not so in a tournament. The reason is that the 1000 chips you can win are worth much less than the 1000 chips you stand to loose if it all goes wrong. If your stack is 2000 and it falls down to 1000 it will seriously affect your game whereas if it grows to 3000 it won’t really make all that much difference. Another way of looking at this is that chips in a poker tournament don’t equate to money, you can’t cash in your chips whenever you like, the only way chips count are either if you loose them all or win them all. If you loose half of your chips then you are halfway out of the tournament, whereas winning 1000 only moves you a little bit closer towards winning and isn’t worth these type of big risks, at least not in the early stages!

This doesn’t mean that you should play overly tight just that you should avoid any unnecessary risks. In a poker tournament the blinds go up very quickly so if you don’t regularly win pots, at least one every rotation, you will wind your chip stack reducing very rapidly and eventually you will get knocked out. Towards the end of the tournament you can maybe consider winning pots to win the whole poker tournament but in the early stages you just want to win pots to stay in the game.

To sum up, in the beginning of a Texas Hold’em Poker tournament you should avoid taking any unnecessary risk, in the majority of cases the potential win will not justify the risk. Of course if it is cheap to see a flop with decent pocket cards then do it or if someone goes all in preflop when you are sitting with AA then call but otherwise caution is the watchword. I would also strongly advice against bluffing in a poker tournament, the other players will quickly figure this out  and in any case players naturally play more aggressive in a poker tournament so the chance of being called and beaten is to large, in other words it is far too risky.

 

Middle of the Poker Tournament

As you approach the middle of the poker tournament you will need to increase the tempo a little bit and start taking a few more risks. The blinds at this point will be larger which makes it easier to steal a few of them and it is here that the "GAP" concept comes into play. It takes a much weaker hand than usual to do a raise and steal the pot and a much better hand than usual from another player to call that raise. The middle of the tournament also introduces a kind of survival mode in most players where they think that because they have gotten this far they don’t want to get knocked out now.

The majority of the time in the middle part of the poker tournament you are just trying to survive as before and increase your stack where possible. You should shy away from situations where you have to go all-in except if you are fairly certain that you are sitting with the best hand, the "nuts". The majority of the time you should play consistently and just try to occasionally steal the pot and try and get as much money as possible from your opponents when you do get a good hand.

If you have managed to build up a large stack in this middle portion of the poker tournament then you can start putting some big pressure on your opponents and exploit the "survival mode" instinct. You should take control of the play and put the other players into all-in situations through your raises, where they risk getting knocked out compared to you just loosing a few chips. You should be careful of doing this too often though as players will soon get fed up and you might end up with several players going all-in in which case there is a good chance of one of them winning and increasing their stack at your expense. There is also a risk in this middle part that you will have a few maniacs left, more through good fortune than good play, and they will call everything so beware!

 

Towards the end of the poker tournament

Towards the end of the Texas Hold’em poker tournament is where you are going to have to start taking some bigger chances if you are to have any chance of winning the whole thing. At this stage the blinds are usually so large that short stacked players often go all-in preflop. In general if you want to go all in or see these all-ins you should have an Ace with a good kicker or a pocket pair. If you have an Ace with a good kicker you will have a small advantage over most hands which are smallish pairs and dominate hands which are not pairs. If you yourself have a pair you will have a small advantage over hands which are not pair, except Ace King etc, and a big advantage over smaller pocket pairs.

Generally if you have a decent hand towards the end of the poker tournament you should play and just push all your chips in to the pot preflop. This is especially true if you find yourself short stacked where the blinds will very quickly drain the rest of your stack anyway. There is a good chance that the flop won’t help you but because of the survival mode there is a good chance that you can steal the blinds anyway and you avoid the chance of someone bullying you off the pot after the flop.

 

If you do all of these things and have a very generous amount of luck on your side then you might win the Texas Hold’em tournament. In any case you will get much further than you would otherwise and in a poker tournament the taking part really is fun.

”

“

La
plupart des casinos et salles de poker en ligne ces jours-ci offrent
des bonus pour attirer les joueurs et offrent des bonus supplémentaires
et des promotions pour les garder sur le site de jeux. Il ya aussi beaucoup de casinos haut rouleau qui offrent des bonus High Roller et ce sont ce que cet article est d’environ.

En
bonus Casino standard que je veux dire le type de bonus qui vous sera
normalement sur la page d’accueil du casino ou un site de poker, par
exemple à Joyland Casino ils ont un bonus de bienvenue standard de 300 €
ce qui est formidable, mais ils ont aussi une haute bonus rouleau de 850 €!

Il ya cependant des différences majeures dans la façon dont ces bonus sont payés sur. La plupart des bonus de casino standard fonctionnent sur le principe d’un bonus correspondant. Par exemple, à Joyland Casino ils correspondent à votre dépôt initial de 30% jusqu’à un montant maximum de € 300. En d’autres termes, si vous déposez € 1000, puis ils mettront un € supplémentaire de 300 dans votre compte de jeu. Le montant minimum que vous pouvez déposer pour obtenir ce bonus est de 20 €. Le
pourcentage qui est adaptée et les limites maximales et minimales
varient casino casino formulaire pour mettre le principe de base est
presque toujours la même. Maintenant,
pour empêcher les gens simplement en prenant le € supplémentaire de 300
et le fonctionnement du casino de certaines conditions de mise qui
doivent être remplies avant que l’argent peut être retiré. Au
Joyland Casino vous devez miser 30 fois votre dépôt et le bonus si vous
avez déposé 100 € et a reçu une caution de 30 € vous auriez besoin de
parier pour € 3900 avant de pouvoir retirer 30 € de bonus. Cela
ressemble beaucoup, mais en réalité, vous verrez que vous allez bientôt
avoir misé pour ce montant, il faut en moyenne que de prendre environ
150 jeux pour atteindre la limite et en supposant que vous avez la
chance de votre côté vous devriez toujours avoir un peu d’argent gauche. En
plus de l’exigence de mise, vous trouverez également que certains jeux
sont exclus de la prime de casino, en fait, aux jeux de machines à sous
ne peuvent bénéficier Joyland vers le bonus, mais certainement la
quasi-totalité des bonus de bienvenue exclure blackjack par exemple.

Le
bonus High Roller Casino est dans le même sens que le bonus de casino
de bienvenue, sauf qu’il est pour beaucoup plus d’argent. Au Joylands Casino, vous devez déposer € 5000 pour recevoir le bonus High Roller, qui s’élèvent à 850 €. Les mêmes restrictions existent comme pour le bonus de casino standard, mais le montant de la prime est beaucoup plus élevé. Le bonus standard de bienvenue est seulement jusqu’à un maximum de 300 € tandis que le bonus High Roller Casino est de € 850.

En
bout de ligne avec des bonus est de toujours vérifier les termes et
conditions avant de signer à eux, par exemple à Joyland Casino, il est
inutile de signature à l’une ou l’autre bonus de bienvenue € 300 ou le
bonus High Roller casino, si vous n’avez pas l’intention de jouer
sur les créneaux horaires que vous ne rencontrerez jamais les
conditions de mise pour pouvoir retirer l’argent mais si vous aimez
fentes, puis il est Avery bon coup de pouce à votre bankroll et par tous
les moyens que vous devez prendre part.

”

“

This chart is for blackjack games where you play with between 4 and 8 decks of cards. The dealer must stand
on a soft 17 and doubling after splitting is allowed.

 

Dealer’s Hand is on top

Player’s Hand on left side.

Hard Totals

Hard Totals	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	T	A
8	H	H	H	H	H	H	H	H	H	H
9	H	D	D	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
10	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	H	H
11	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	H
12	H	H	S	S	S	H	H	H	H	H
13	S	S	S	S	S	H	H	H	H	H
14	S	S	S	S	S	H	H	H	H	H
15	S	S	S	S	S	H	H	H	H	H
16	S	S	S	S	S	H	H	H	H	H
17-20	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S

Soft Totals

Soft Totals	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	T	A
A 2	H	H	H	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
A 3	H	H	H	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
A 4	H	H	D	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
A 5	H	H	D	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
A 6	H	D	D	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
A 7	S	D	D	D	D	S	S	H	H	H
A 8	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S
A 9	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S

Pair Splitting (DAS)

Pairs	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	T	A
2 2	P *	P *	P	P	P	P	H	H	H	H
3 3	P *	P *	P	P	P	P	H	H	H	H
4 4	H	H	H	P	P	H	H	H	H	H
5 5	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	H	H
6 6	P*	P	P	P	P	H	H	H	H	H
7 7	P	P	P	P	P	P	H	H	H	H
8 8	P	P	P	P	P	P	P	P	P	P
9 9	P	P	P	P	P	S	P	P	S	S
10’s	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S
A’s	P	P	P	P	P	P	P	P	P	P

* HIT = If double after splitting  is not allowed.

Action: H = Hit  
S = Stand  
D = Double  
P = Split

”

“

Online Casinos have been a part of peoples lives for so long that it’s almost impossible to imagine a time when you couldn’t just sit down in front of your computer and play exciting casino and poker games but they have in fact only been around since about 1996.

It all started back in 1994 when the Caribbean islands of Antigua and Barbucda passed a law called the "The free trade and processing Act" which for the first time allowed online casinos to be operated, and there are still a lot of online casinos based in Antigua and Barbuda today.

In the same year, 1994, 3 pivotal companies were established, Microgaming and Starnet Communications who were the first companies to make specific online gaming software. They were very closely followed by the two brothers Andrew and Mark Rivkin and their company Cryptologic. One of the early goals was to create software which could handle payments to online casinos in a safe and secure way both for the casino players and the casinos themselves. 

Over the next few years their was an explosion in companies offering software and online gaming solutions, especially in Canada but it was still Microgaming and Cryptologic who were the innovators and leaders in this emerging market. The innovations of eCash and money management systems were all thanks to Cryptologic and their software. In 1996 Cryptologic branched out into online casino game software with its subsidiary WagerLogic.

It probably won’t come as any real surprise to discover that the oldest online casino still operating is InterCasino, for more information on Intercasino you can read our review of it.

Starnet Systems International started up a franchise scheme whereby Casino operators could use their patented online casino software in return for a cut of the casinos profits. Starnet used these profits to set up their own online casino, World Gaming Net.

It was early 1997 when Microgaming proudly unveiled the first ever progressive jackpot slots game called Cash Splash, at the time this caused quite a stir as for the first time players could win really big jackpots at online casinos in the same way as they could in for example Las Vegas.

The whole time online casinos were becoming more and more popular, in fact by the end of 1998 the industry was worth a staggering $835 million!

Many of the players enjoying online casinos at that time were from America and there have been repeated attempts over the years to ban online gambling, although curiously not that many to ban Las Vegas or Atlantic City! One of the first to try and stop online gambling was senator John Kyle from Arizona who failed to pass his bill "Internet Gambling Prohibition Act"  through the senate, but he didn’t give up and over the next few years he continually tried to get online gambling and particularly online casinos banned in the USA, but in the meantime online casinos were becoming more and more popular, not only in America but the whole of the world.

Australia have only ever given out one license for an online casino and that was awarded to Lasseters Casinos, who were already an established Casino chain, in 2000.

Around this time, 2000, there were about 700 online casinos in operation and the dominant online casino software companies were Microgaming, Cryptologic, Playtech, and Boss Media, much as it is now in fact.

Also around this time Argentina gave out a few online gambling licenses followed by The British Channel islands of the Isle of Man and Gibraltar. Of these Gibraltar has gone on to be a popular home for online casinos and many well known online casinos are based there.

Since 2001 there have been many attempts by various countries to ban online gambling and this has been a major factor in the establishment of many alternative online payment systems such as Neteller, Moneybookers, Paysafe etc. Unfortunately the USA has at this present time virtually killed off online gambling in America via the passing of the law called UIGEA in 2006 which was tagged onto the homeland security bill at the eleventh hour. This makes it illegal for Credit Card companies and other online payment operators to handle payments from US citizens to online casinos which in effect means it is impossible for US citizens to enjoy online casinos. There are however plans in place to challenge this law and we all hope it can get overturned when some sanity returns to US politics!

In 2001 the UK passed the Gambling Bill which makes it far easier for online casinos to operate directly out of the UK plus paved the way for the construction of super casinos to rival Las Vegas in size and grandeur.

Every country which hosts online casinos keep a very close eye on the online casinos in their territory to ensure that they operate in a fair and ethical manner and do not attempt to defraud players.

We are now in 2007 and online casinos have never been more popular, even though the market has all but vanished in America there are exciting developments for online casinos as they are having to focus on non english speaking countries and consequently online casinos are now available in a variety of languages. The future is looking very bright for online casinos, they have never been as professional and well run as they are these days. 

 

”

“

Craps is a fantastic game but it is also a very strange game in many ways. One thing to be particularly aware of is that Craps offers some of the best bets in a casino with the lowest house edge at the same time that other best have extremely high house edges and are therefore amongst the very worst bets you can make in a casino. The table below shows you which bets to put money on and which you should only go for if you are really feeling extremely lucky!

Craps House Edge

Bet	House Edge (Percent)
Pass Line/Come Bet	1.41
Don’t Pass/Come	1.40
Pass Line/Come Bet 2X odds	.85
Don’t Pass/Come 2X odds	.83
Place 6 and 8	1.52
Place 5 and 9	4.00
Place 4 and 10	6.67
Buy 6 or 8	4.76
Buy 5 or 9	4.76
Buy 4 or 10	4.76
Lay 6 or 8	4.00
Lay 5 or 9	3.23
Lay 4 or 10	2.44
Field Bet	5.56
Any Craps	11.11
Hardway 6 or 8	9.09
Hardway 4 or 10	11.10
Yo or 3	11.10
2 or 12	13.90
Any 7	16.70

 

”

“

Here at High-Roller Casinos we like to ensure that your gaming experience is as pleasant as possible and to this end we have come up with 10 simple rules which will ensure that you enjoy playing at online casinos as much as we do.

1. Always play at a reputable online casino which has either been around a long time or is run by a company which have a good reputation in the industry. You are assured of this if you select one of the casinos and/or poker rooms listed on our pages.
2. Find a casino game which you really enjoy playing. For example if you enjoy playing Slots games then you should select an online casino which is focused towards that whilst if you prefer table games then other online casinos might be better for you. In the same way if you prefer playing poker then select from our list of online poker rooms instead of online casinos as the nearest you will get to poker games at an online casino are various video poker games.
3. Don’t chase your losses, this is in fact one of the most common mistakes made by inexperienced casino players and in a way it is easier to do when playing at an online casino than at a standard bricks and mortar casino. If you loose all the money you had for playing with then chalk it up to a bad night and walk away. If the luck hasn’t been with you up to this point in the evening then it is unlikely to change just because you pump more money in. It’s more likely that because you are already frustrated you will play badly and loose the extra money as well!
4. Check that the casino has a good FAQ section where they explain their rules and regulations as well as a good customer service. The best online casinos offer live support where you can chat directly to customer support staff.
5. It is vital that you decide how much money you are going to play with at the start of the evening before you begin playing. Please please remember that online casinos and poker rooms are meant to be fun so don’t gamble for more than you can comfortably afford to loose. If you decide to play for $500 and loose the money quickly don’t be tempted to put more money in, just analyse where you went wrong or put it down to rotten luck and try again another day.
6. Check the bonuses and promotions offered from the online casino or poker room and carefully study the requirements attached to them. If a bonus seems ridiculously generous then it may also be very hard to attain, but not always, some bonuses are genuinely incredibly generous. More often than not though the really big bonuses are hard to get whilst the more modest bonuses are attained without even trying!
7. Don’t play while the kids are still awake, they will only distract you and lead to you making errors in your play, which in turn will lead to you yelling at them and then you probably feeling bad and playing even worse! Instead I would say that whilst playing at online casinos is obviously great fun it is even more fun to spend time with your kids and when the little "darlings" have finally gone to the land of nod you can have some fun at the casinos. Of course if you don’t have any kids you can play any time you want, the beauty with online casinos is that they are always open!
8. Make the area where you play as comfortable and uncluttered as possible. Pour yourself a nice drink and if it is medicinal in nature make sure you don’t drink too much, whilst getting a bit tipsy is relaxing it isn’t particularly clever when playing casino games or playing poker so keep everything in moderation. Another huge benefit of playing at online casinos and poker rooms is that you get to decide when you have your breaks so you should make full use of this and take frequent breaks to keep yourself from getting into a rut or just getting tired and making silly mistakes in your play. It’s also a good idea to not stare at a computer screen for too long at one time.
9. When the luck is really with you it’s a good idea to put some of your winnings to one side so that if it all should go wrong you won’t be left with nothing to show for your nights work. When you are in the middle of a good roll it is very hard to remember this but it is so very annoying to loose your whole stack especially if you were up at one point!
10. A lot of online casinos offer an extra bonus if you refer a friend to them and you should really take advantage of this where available and refer as many of your friends to your favourite casino as possible. Not only do you get some extra bonus money but more often than not your friends will get a bit of extra money to play with as well.

”

“Sometimes, we just feel this overpowering blind impulse to reassess a big pot. Apart from if we are drunk or tilted, this urge is broadly when we flop a great hand. At other times, we like to comment medium-sized pots, and this is predominantly when we have a ace but not great hand. Sometimes, we want to pore over a small pot and get to showdown cheap, this is when we have a average but probably-best holding.
This is the reason it is so important to try to adjust the pot size to match the quality of your poker hand. If we say that we raised 99 from late position and an opponent called by both blinds. The flop is perfect for us – J93. This is one of those occasions where our highest wish is to just get the money in the middle – and this is why it is so vital to start developing the pot right away!
If the blinds assess to us, we should place a bet – about 2/3 to 3/4 of the pot is a acceptable bet. Occasionally our opponents will have missed the flop completely and fold, but if they have hit a piece of it they will call – or even raise the bet! – And the pot gets nicely bloated already on the flop, increasing our chances of stacking the opponent. By placing a bet, we give ourselves the contingency to win a galactic pot whereas if we look at behind, we will have pains winning a big pot.
Creating pots on early streets with cracking holdings is an essential part of ace regard.
Then what about the medium-sized pots? Well, let’s say that we raised AQ preflop and once again the blinds called. The flop comes QT3. If both investigate to us, we should bet for value, but at the same time a positive measure of care is needed. If we don’t have a acceptable read, we no doubt do not want to remark upon for stacks – the opponent could have two pair or a set. We are wagering to extract money from a straight draw or a top pair with a worse kicker.
The recognized turn check out is to comment behind if the other player checks, with the resolution of calling most rivers if bet into and value-wagering most rivers if checked to.
With bad holdings, our aim is to keep the pot small. If we say that we, in an online poker game, limped A4 suited from late position after a few limpers (to try to flop a straight, flush or bona fide draw). The flop comes AT8, which provides us top pair with a lousy kicker.
In this case, it is in our interests to keep the pot small. If checked to, we should study and see a turn card (if we bet, we are likely only getting called by hands that beat us). If another player bets, we can call on the flop and re-review in retrospect on the turn (or just fold if it is a tight player doing the wagering). If there is a place a bet and a call in front of us, we just throw away this hand. We have no interest to size up a medium-sized or big pot.
Changing the pot size to the strength of your holding is an imperative part of poker. Of course, sometimes it is imperative to mix up our report a bit to not make us too probable, but the above lines are long-term winning recognized plays.
”

“Sometimes, we just feel this irresistible urge to play a big pot. Unless we are drunk or tilted, this urge is usually when we flop a great hand. On other occasions, we like to play medium-sized pots, and this is
usually when we have a good but not great hand. Sometimes, we want to
play a small pot and get to showdown cheap, this is when we have a
mediocre but probably-best holding.

This is why it is so
important to try to adjust the pot size to match the strength of your
hand. Let us assume that we raised 99 from late position and got called
by both blinds. The flop is a dream for us – J93. This is one of those
situations where our highest wish is to just get the money in the
middle – and this is why it is so important to start building the pot
right away!

If the blinds check to us, we should bet – about 2/3
to 3/4 of the pot is a good bet. Sometimes our opponents will have
missed the flop completely and fold, but if they have hit a piece of it
they will call – or even raise! – And the pot gets nicely bloated
already on the flop, increasing our chances of stacking the opponent.
By betting, we give ourselves the chance to win a huge pot whereas if
we check behind, we will have trouble winning a big pot.

Building pots on early streets with good holdings is an essential part of good play.

Then
what about the medium-sized pots? Well, let’s say that we raised AQ
preflop and again the blinds called. The flop comes QT3. If both check
to us, we should bet for value, but at the same time a certain measure
of care is necessary. If we don’t have a good read, we probably do not
want to play for stacks – the opponent could have two pair or a set. We
are betting to extract money from a straight draw or a top pair with a
worse kicker.

The standard turn play is to check behind if the
opponent checks, with the intention of calling most rivers if bet into
and value-betting most rivers if checked to.

With mediocre
holdings, our wish is to keep the pot small. Let us assume that we, in
an online poker game, limped A4 suited from late position after a few
limpers (to try to flop a straight, flush or good draw). The flop comes
AT8, giving us top pair with a lousy kicker.

In this case, it
is in our interests to keep the pot small. If checked to, we should
check and see a turn card (if we bet, we are likely only getting called
by hands that beat us). If another player bets, we can call on the flop
and re-evaluate on the turn (or just fold if it is a tight player doing
the betting). If there is a bet and a call in front of us, we just muck
this hand. We have no interest to play a medium-sized or big pot.

Adjusting
the pot size to the strength of your holding is an important part of
poker. Of course, sometimes it is necessary to mix up our play a bit to
not make us too predictable, but the above lines are long-term winning
standard plays.

Written by Andris Kangeris for 24hPoker.com

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In this scheme you increase your wager by one unit after every loss and decrease it by one unit after every win. For example, with $5 units, you bump up your bet to $10 if you lose the first bet, then drop back down to $5 if you win the second hand. However, you never go below your starting unit, no matter how many hands you win in a row.
The D’Alembert may be a good way to keep your mind occupied, but computer simulations consistently show that no progressive system improves your overall results. Again, you encounter a lot of small wins punctuated by big losses.

Quitting Early
Another myth is that knowing when to quit saves you money. But quitting just postpones the inevitable results until your next trip. For example, you get off to a great start during a three-day jaunt to Tahoe and find yourself up $200 the first hour. Quitting early may have some positive psychological and emotional benefits, but it doesn’t make any difference in the long run. Your gambling bankroll continues on the next trip, because your money, the dice, and the cards have no memory of what previously happened. Playing less time overall in a negative expectation game can save you money, so in that sense, quitting has value. But if you plan to play 20 hours of roulette over the next year, it really doesn’t matter how you split the time up per trip.