Televised Poker and its impact on the World Poker Tour

Now clearly the trend toward televised poker has had a great deal to do with our poker game's growing popularity. Specifically the advent of tiny "lipstick" cameras and "under the table" cameras have played a major part in making these telecasts more intriguing. Poker had been televised for years and it did find a loyal following. But it didn't really boom until those non-intrusive cameras were able to relay the secret cards to the viewing audience. Before that, you had to guess what a player might be holding.

To be sure, you could argue and some players did argue that showing the poker hands would make the telecasts less popular! They reasoned that it would take away the suspense. I sure didn't think so. I thought that, while it would destroy the suspense of wondering what a player might have in a hand, it would build suspense based on what a player might do with a hand. And that's exactly what happened.

There is something fascinating about knowing what all the players hold and watching how the poker play unfolds. You know something the players don't know. Even for seasoned professionals, the innovation added a whole new aspect to the poker game. Poker became truly a magnificent spectator sport, simply by adding a new dimension to the game that was geared specifically to those watching. In fact, this advance made televised poker so popular that the World Poker Tour is now the most watched program on the Travel Channel, its home base.

And I hear that on ESPN, poker is more watched than any other televised event except NFL football and some of the major league baseball games.

That's saying a lot. No wonder the major networks are now focusing on poker. And I know of many more network telecasts in the works. That's the contribution television made to poker in the last few years, turning it into a popular spectator sport. That's a turn of events few envisioned.

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How to make any Poker bully beg for mercy on a Poker Table

How to make any poker bully beg for mercy : call more often, raise less often and seldom value bet. For most poker player's, it's very uncomfortable facing a poker bully, on that tries to dominate the poker game through super agressive plays, mixed with bewildering bluffs.

But it's easy to defeat poker bullies and send them home crying for their mommies. You are looking at the three step formula now. If you follow it, rather than be lured into an escalating battle to determine who can be more forceful and creative, bullies can't damage you. There is no counter-strategy available to them and ultimately they have no choice other than to give you their money or behave.

I have enjoyed interacting some poker strategy with you, now I am returning to play on enteratlantis.com and have some fun. I am sure you guys will also have fun there.

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The Secret to "Thinning The Field" in a Poker Game

The Secret to "Thinning The Field" in a Poker Game : Often raise weak players when strong players wait to act; Seldom raise strong players when weak players wait to act.

You have heard a lot about thinning the field. The term refers to eliminating some of the poker players that are in competition for the pot. Thinning the field is sometimes an important weapon. Indeed there are poker hands that can be played more profitably against one or two opponents than against a whole herd of them.

I am on record as not being a fan of thin-the-field strategy because I believe that players usually attempt it at times when they would make more money by allowing extra opponents in. The really big issue I have with this strategy is that, if you succeed in thinning the field, you very likely have chased away the weakest hands, which might have provided profit to you had they stayed in the pot. Instead, you have left yourself stranded against only the stronger hands that you wanted to chase from the pot, but didn't.

Okay, now that I have shared my innermost thoughts about thinning the field in a poker game, here's when to try it and when not to try it. The most advantageous time to thin the field is when weak players are already committed to the pot and strong players are waiting to act behind you. If you raise, you are likely to chase strong players out and play against weak opponents and weak hands. The worst time to use this strategy is when strong players are committed to the pot and weak players remain to act behind you. If you raise, you are likely to chase weak players out and play against just the strong players with strong hands.

Next time you attempt to thin the field, dont just think about the number of opponents you did like to thin, think about which players you are going to thin.

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In a poker game your opponents have a calling reflex

Your opponents have a "Calling Reflex"...... and they will call anything that moves !

Your opponents did not come to the poker card room hoping to throw hands away. They have a bias toward calling. And most of them are looking for reasons to call, even if they have to invent those reasons.

That's why you are more likely to be called if you are slightly animated. Opponents might unconsciously be aware that you twitched or sipped your coffee. They are instinctively thinking, "That's strange, maybe that means he is bluffing." They are a little bit like snakes, predisposed to strike at the slightest move. Except they are poker opponents, predisposed to call for the slightest reason. I have given this universal poker condition a name : The Calling Reflex. And its easy to take advantage of it.

In fact, here is one huge poker tip : When you hold a strong poker hand and you know your opponent is about to fold, do anything! It's a freeroll because you are already about to lose the call and if you can change an opponent's mind at the last moment, you will win a whole bet you would have lost by just sitting there. It's pure profit.

So always keep in mind that your opponents have calling reflexes. As they begin to fold, assuming you want to be called jitter, shift your weight in your chair, knock over some poker chips, just do something new. Once in a while, you will get your opponent's attention, he will get suspicious, reconsider and call. You won't usually be able to trigger that calling reflex at the last moment but you will sometimes, It's like making a snake strike. And it doesn't cost anything to try!

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Never discuss Poker Strategy around weak opponents

Never discuss poker strategy around weak opponents, it makes them aware there is a strategy worth discussing!

I have seen even some of the best poker players in the world violate the advice shown above. Never forget that recreational players supply most of your profit. They came for the fun of poker, not to analyze it to death or to take it seriously. When you sit at the poker table discussing the finer points of poker strategy, you are alerting the players who supply your profit that they might be competing above their league. You are making them uncomfortable and its quite possible that they will either decide to sit in your poker games less often or to play better. You don't want either of those things to happen.

I often hear sophisticated players debating or chatting the technical merits of how a poker hand was just played in the presence of weak opponents. Serious discussions of strategy can alert these recreational players to the notion that there is strategy. You don't want to do that. And even more peculiar to me, the debates are usually over something as inconsequential as whether a call or a raise in a borderline situation was the better choice. These way-too-technical arguments can never really be resolved (except, possibly, by me), because there are too many side factors involved, such as how opponents were likely to respond emotionally at the moment and what the bettor's image was.

The truth is the discussion is often about which choice is better, when just by talking about it in front of a recreational player, the debaters potentially are costing themselves thousands of dollars. Let me put in gently, without insulting some of my poker playing friends who have made this mistake: The economic advisability of discussing advanced strategy at a poker table populated with weak opponents if hereby brought into question.

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Check out some poker strategies in a poker game

The more poker I play online, the more I speculate about my opponents. Not where they are from or what their lives are like, but how they can continue to be able to play. By being able to play - I mean financially.

There are so many Freerolls you can enter online that you won’t have enough hours in the day to play them all. But, if your goal is to win money, then look for free rolls that are either a one step tournament to another tournament that pays cash prizes, or one that has a prize pool of its own. Free rolls are the very best way to play poker for free but still have a chance to make money, just remember that if you are lucky enough to win one, you will probably have invested over four hours of your time. But what about players who don’t have that kind of time to play? They have options too.

After you have signed up, look for the promotions that the site offers because several poker sites offer free rolls for new players only, which pay cash prizes. Then look for poker games that are small, so you can play poker for a long time on the money you have deposited. The goal is to make your bankroll last as long as possible and build it up, not to jump in a game so big you may go broke in a few poker hands.

No matter how tough times get, everyone can still afford to play poker online. Sure you would rather be playing No-Limit Texas Hold’em game, but if you play good and build your bankroll, you may win enough to get in it. If you are a poker player, the goal is to be able to still play no matter what – the stakes shouldn’t matter. Who cares if all you can afford is a 10¢/20¢ game? You are playing poker!

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Find out your Poker Skills in a Texas Hold'em Poker game

Are you a fan of playing poker? Do you want to become a real poker pro. What you need to do is to learn more about poker skills. Let ‘s learn poker skills together. In some poker tournaments players get a lot of poker chips, blinds go up slowly, and each round lasts a fairly long time.

In other tournaments, each player gets a small stack of chips, the blinds go up fast, and each round is fairly short. The second type of tournament is often called “a crapshoot” -- meaning anybody can win, luck decides. It seems that most people look at this and view the crapshoot tournaments as having little skill. This is not true, and helps illustrate how poker skills come into play in all the various forms of poker game. Even though random luck is dramatically higher in crapshoot tournaments, the value of skill in these events also increases. Despite skill decisions being of more individual importance in a crapshoot, luck is more important in determining the winner because the luck values simply have increased more. Just to make up some numbers, if skill is twice as important, luck has increased ten times. So, the luck overwhelms the skill.

Skill is an almost ghostly thing -- but only “almost.” Skill does exist in a Texas Hold'em Poker. It is always there, but it is ever changing. Sometimes when it is more important, it is also less valuable. Sometimes Player A will consistently take more money from Player B than he will make from Player C even if Player B consistently beats Player C. Having skill alone is the beginning step on the very difficult road of applying your poker skill in the best ways available.
One talented player’s rose is another talented player’s thorns.

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Brief Introduction of Badugi Poker Game & How to play Badugi

Badugi is a poker game of Korean origin. Because of this you will sometimes see the alternate spellings of Badougi, Paduki or Padooki. It is becoming more and more popular in the rest of the world as well as in Poker Rooms in the last few years.

Badugi poker, played in an Online Poker Room, is a variation of lowball Poker. The betting structure and overall play of the game is identical to a standard poker game using blinds, but, unlike traditional poker which involves a minimum of five cards, players' hands contain only four cards at any one time.

Badugi can be played with two to six players. It is usually played as either a limit game, half pot limit, or a pot limit game. When it is played as a limit game, the first two betting rounds are small bet rounds and the second two betting rounds are big bet rounds. This means that if you were playing $3/$6 Badugi, the bet would be $3 on the first two rounds and $6 on the second two rounds. Because there are three draws, it is not uncommon for the dealer to run out of cards during the third draw round. When this happen the dealer will shuffle the discards back into the deck, and complete the deal. This makes it possible to receive poker cards you have previously discarded. Naturally, this makes it more difficult to complete your poker hand.

Online Badugi game is really easy to learn if you have played in an Online Poker room before, specially in lowball Poker Room; but it is simple to learn even if you have never played in an Online Poker Room in your entire life. And remember that hands in Online Poker Badugi style do not rank by their suits but by their card ranks. The lower cards you have in Badugi Poker Room, the better the hand is.

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