Is it more effective to play a tight Texas holdem’ tournament or a loose game?

You will unquestionably hear both sides of this argument from your fellow poker players or even the so-called poker professionals. Let’s take a look first at the tight Texas holdem’ players. All players including yourself will have a hard time winning, if the whole poker table is playing a tight poker game. What may take place if you have a poker table full of tight poker players is the poker players will end up swapping the smaller pots back and forth to each other. Meanwhile the poker lounge is raking in tons of your hard-earned poker money, and that of your competitors. So now you could say, is it better to play loose? Well, in this circumstance the better poker players are going to lose a smaller number of hands, but at the end of it all nobody is going to prevail.

How can I better my Texas holdem’ playing in the long run?

The answer to this question is as effortless as a piece of paper and a pen. A good tactic to learn a lot about your playing technique and tactic, is to keep track 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 opponents playing style, and what is the best strategy to overpower them.

Should I use the same tactics for every poker game?

If you consider that playing predictable poker is a winning strategy for playing poker, then you should think about altering your poker tactic. The Texas holdem’ pros have the same opinion that changing your poker playing technique is the greatest way to confuse and baffle your Texas holdem’ competition. You should test a handful of strategies, find the best ones for each situation and modify them for every poker tournament.

No Comments »

According to the 2006 WSOP winner, Jamie Gold, he would be happy to be recognized as the greatest bluffer in the poker world. But if his last poker tournament is any indication, his wish may not be granted at all.

The site is the 2007 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic held at the Sin City Bellagio Hotel Casino in 2007. Featuring $50 - $100 blinds and a $15,000 buy-in, Darrell Dicken is hanging on in the tournament for dear life. The seat 4 player has just raised his bet to $300, a tiny increase with only one player taking the bait. “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 passable hand, but he was in a superb position to make a move considering the quantity of dead money in the pot. Dicken ended up folding, 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 plan was to make a considerable move on the flop, as long as no ace came up. The second part of his strategy was to get Booth to fold, which he did. Booth folded with pocket queens.

Coming out of 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 converting his raise into a call. Jamie’s thought was that seat 4 definitely had an ace, but you have to defend it in case he hits his set on the following card.

A 2 of hearts was dealt on the turn, and Jamie quickly folded to what he thought was a top pair kicker. Seat 4 showed a king-jack off suit. Seat 4 tricked Gold by bluffing with a superb hand, he created a magnificent poker play and kept the bluff going to the end of the poker tournament.

No Comments »

Texas Holdem’ in the past was a game available only in Vegas Casinos or from electronic poker machines, but now it is more popular than ever in Las Vegas, Nevada thanks to the internet and TV.

The famous Venetian Hotel, is now banking on this popularity with its new audience-participation show called “The Real Deal!” in its Venetian Showroom, debuting in October.

Their new show will join comedy and game show elements to entertain its live audience. The audience will also be able to participate in the great game of Texas Holdem’ alongside the top poker players. The show has many prizes for the audience including a chance to win 1$ million.

In “The Real Deal!” the audience will play with players like Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu. Around 10 of the world’s top poker stars have already signed up for the game show. The audience will be able to play along with the 90 minute game thanks to handheld, wireless, touch screen devices located on each seat.

“People who come to Las Vegas casinos want to play poker,” Negreanu says, “but obviously they can’t play in a big game with the people like Doyle or Phil Hellmuth. But, in this show, they actually can.” When the show begins, six audience members will be chosen to sit at the poker table on stage with two professional players. Each audience member is then involved in the action by being dealt a unique poker hand on their devices. Everyone in the showroom is then involved in the action with big-screen monitors located on stage.

The show’s creators say that you don’t have to be a poker player to play in the poker tv show. There are other ways to enhance your point total, that doesn’t involve poker necessarily. Betting on the suit of the next poker card or trying to guess which state a particular audience member is from, are just some of the ways to come out a big poker winner in this game.

Creators of The Real Deal are also betting on the charisma of the pro poker players to create some exciting moments. Someone like Scotty Nguyen, the flamboyant five-time World Series of Poker winner, definitely definitely knows how to entertain the audience and is a sure bet for some great TV moments in this new idea for poker .

No Comments »

Shortly after the beginning of last week’s charity celebrity poker event to aid the Paralyzed Veterans of America, Ben Affleck goes all-in with a flop of Ace-Nine-King and two diamonds. He cringes when two of his opponents call the bet. He yells “Re-buy”, but the turn is a seven of hearts. Affleck is disappointed when a jack of diamonds is dealt on the river. He took the hand seriously even though there was no real cash at stake. This is just the kind of thing that Affleck and several other poker enthusiasts are pushing for.

Over $100,000 was raised for the paralyzed victims, but this was not the only purpose of the poker tournament held in Coors Field. Members of the Poker Players Alliance are working very hard to legalize online poker in the United States. As part of their agenda, they are pushing to repeal the 2006 legislation Congress passed which forbids U.S. Banks and credit card companies from processing transactions related to online poker websites.

John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, is optimistic about the direction that the new congress will lead this decision. Pappas says that the alliance is pushing for a licensed industry, just for internet poker, and not for all internet gambling. Pappas is interested in having a safe, regulated industry that all Americans can enjoy. The group is fighting for the rights of people and the privacy they deserve in their own home.

“There are misconceptions about poker and about online poker,” poker pro Andy Bloch said in between hands during the charity poker event. “Some people think that internet gaming is gambling like a slot machine, and it’s not.”

No Comments »