CRACKING POKER

            
                   ALL YOU NEED IS A STRATEGY AND LADY LUCK BY YOUR SIDE


As a pro, you're not constantly attacking the weak players hand after hand after hand. If you are, you're guaranteed to go broke. Instead, you sit and wait. And wait. And wait and wait and wait some more. And finally, when you get a decent hand, you strike and win your nicely sized pot.
Then you go back to waiting.

It's a long, grinding game of patience and attrition. And that's because it's all about tediously waiting for the percentages to line up in your favor -- successful poker players only play about 20 percent of the hands they're dealt.  That's right -- 80 percent of the time, they're spectators. And, they know exactly what percentage of hands they're playing, because this is the type of minutiae they keep track of. People think that poker is all about reading facial expressions, but it's actually all about math. In fact, many poker pros -- especially the online players -- are outright stats junkies, entering the details of every single session into analysis programs to calculate their overall win rate and help them fix any holes in their games.

If you're fascinated by high-stakes poker players, odds are it's from watching them on TV in those huge multimillion-dollar tournaments (or, you know, Casino Royale). That's what everyone daydreams himself doing, but the first thing to understand is that those guys on TV are the Kobe Bryants and Tom Bradys of the poker world. And Kobe has decades of slow, dedicated, boring practice behind him, as well as millions of sit-ups and bench presses and endless miles around the track.

It's a pretty terrible life.

 

It's easy to forget that aspect of poker, because the whole point of gambling is that supposedly anybody can hit a lucky streak at any time and win big. That's what draws crowds of tourists to Vegas every year. Hell, maybe you're secretly a genius at it, like Rain Man at the blackjack table. And in fact, rank amateurs have made it all the way to the final table of the World Series of Poker, cashing in a nice million-dollar paycheck (like the ridiculously-named Chris Moneymaker).

Chris Moneymaker, seconds before destroying his opponent, Will Pushhisluck.

 

Even the superstars don't make a living stroking their egos and taking on the other superstars. They make their living beating up on the wannabe pros dumb enough to take them on. Look at it this way: If Kobe's only source of income came from betting his own money in a game of HORSE, do you think he'd take on LeBron? Remember, this isn't about winning a trophy and a ring -- in poker, if you don't win, you don't get paid. Period.

Some would argue this would actually improve basketball.

 

So if you want to make money, you simply have to seek out players you know you can consistently beat. Otherwise, the Peter Principle will destroy you. That's the theory that everyone in a field gets promoted to his own level of incompetence. So in poker, let's say you're able to win at a certain betting limit. So, you move up to the next higher limit, where the players will be that much better. And you keep doing this until you get to a limit where you're now the sucker at the table. And then you go broke.

 

 

 

 

Is good to know your poker odds but when you are playing a live tournament, those odds don't mean shit. You always see those donkeys getting lucky while you are scratching your head and figuring out what went wrong. I've been through this road already three times and now I keep getting beat with pocket 5's when I raised with AK, 4X bet,(ante 1k/5k/10k), I made the right raised at the right time, got all players out but there was always one player that doesn't  want to fold his pocket 5's. I had left 120k in chips and he decides to push me all in. I do have AK unsuited, the only thing i can put him on is a pocket or AK. As I call his all in, I was shock to see someone again making an all in with a small pockets and gettting lucky with it. On tv you see a poker pro going all in with AK while another player call with his pocket QQ's and then the flop is A-9-8. That only happens on TV but they don't show you how this so call poker pro  had been grinding his ass for the past 9 hours. He got far because of his strategy, grinding power  and a lucky streak. I will be writing a book soon and i will teach and show you what it takes to get to any poker tournament final table as long as you follow by step by step strategy. My strategy is so simple to follow and you must stick to it until you get to the final table. My strategedy can be apply to any tournament or cash game and you will see results once you start using it. I had apply this strategy to poker pro wannabes and tight players. As soon as I come out of my strategy, I start bleeding precious chips and then I go back to it and suddenly I'm up again. Poker is all about using a strategy that works and 75% luck.



                                                           POKERMANTIS

 

IMPROVING YOUR POKER GAME

Improve Your Poker Game

I think the standard way to improve your poker skills preached by
most players is: watch training videos, read books and contribute to poker forums by asking questions. Those are all great methods of improving your poker skill. For newish players or players who have just started winning, this is a great strategy. You will pick up a lot from watching videos and talking on forums. However, once you go past that stage and you want to get to an elite level, you need to go outside the realm of popular knowledge.

1) View data-mined hand histories / purchased hand histories

At one point I purchased over a million hand histories and used a popular player look up tool to find the biggest players at that limit. I then looked over the hand histories that reached showdown from these players in my poker tracker. What I did was analyse the why. I looked at all the decisions they made. I then Isolated the decisions which were different to the ones I would make and then considered the “why.” This has helped me modify my play. I have to accept that the people winning the most at the limits above me, know what the hell they are doing, so I figure it out, and copy. I personally need to do this more and when I make a foray back into playing again this will be the first thing I do. This tip really is golden.

2) Sweat good poker players on Teamviewer

I urge you to make some poker friends and try to sweat some of them playing. By asking questions in real time it's a learning experience for both the person playing and the person sweating. Ideally you should try and sweat someone better than you and pick their mind. If you can't find someone better than you because you are new or are an unknown player, I would suggest paying for a coach If you have a few friends on AIM who are a similar skill level as you, you can both learn some stuff from each other and hopefully become better players.

3) You are only as good as the company you keep

If you are a nl50 regular (reg) and have nl50 reg friends, chances are you will be a nl50 reg for a while. If you are a nl1k reg and have nl5k reg friends, chances are you're on the path to improvement and will join your friends soon. It's ok having friends who play the same limit as you, I have tons of friends who play nl200. I don’t want to sound arrogant, but heck, I am… Most of these players are ok but definitely not better than me. By sharing hands with them I’m not going to learn anything new. I have maybe 10-20 players on AIM who play higher than me who I talk to often. I tend to respect the advice of these players more and some of them have the ability to think more comprehensively about all of the variables. What do I advise? Try and make friends with regulars on the forums both as good as you and better than you. The better company you keep, the better you will get.

4) Get a coach

I have never been coached per se. I had a tilt coach for a small period of time and that was, LOL stupid. I also have gone through a few mid stakes coaches but didn’t want any more lessons when I realised they weren’t much better than me. If you are starting out at say nl50, nl100, nl200 a coach may be beneficial. All I’m going to say is that it hasn’t worked for me. There are lots of good and bad coaches out there so make sure you do your research. Get references and make sure they will tell you their screen name so you can check for yourself how good they are. Also keep in mind that being good at poker does not necessarily relate to being a good poker coach. Finding a solid poker coach can be gold - but spending a ton just to find the right one is a huge waste of resources.

5) Make a video

Make a video of you playing, upload it and share it with your friends or post it on forums asking for a review of your play. Cumulatively, if you get hundreds of players viewing your video, they will likely spot some of your leaks. Take the criticism constructively. You may (or may not) be surprised at how many leaks other players will point out. Use these as fuel to improving your game.

6) Buy premium poker e-books

I have had a decent amount of success with this. I have purchased or have had a friends purchase a great deal of premium poker content. From Bobo’s Bible, The Memoirs of aejones, CTS’s book, Let There be Range, Improva’s book, BalugaWhale’s book - Easy Game, etc. Most of the ones I mentioned are fairly decent and worth the money. It's okay to invest some of the profits you have made back into education. I would go as far as saying it's mandatory for any professional player looking to get better faster than the games are getting tougher. As a professional player your mind is your biggest asset, so it remains critical to invest in it.

7) Training sites

Mentioned in my initial paragraph, training sites are probably the best value way to get better fast. I think once you get to a certain level, videos start becoming less effective. I have memberships to almost every training site out there and only wait on videos from the best players, most of the lower/mid roster of the sites players I cannot learn much from. Also, I only want to be open to listening to the concepts and theories of big winners. Not some 1 pt winning reg who thinks he can teach me how to play better.
One tip I would give you is to watch a training video on mute every now and then. I think I a lot of training instructors tend to gloss over the details, either on purpose or by mistake. If you look at a training video on mute and keep re-winding, fast forwarding over hands, you can do the analysis yourself and ask yourself, "Why?" before even hearing their reason.

8) Play Cheap Poker Tournament 

One way I have gotten better is by doing a poker tournament once a week. This is like any career, the more you do something, the better you get. Lucky me, I'm able to dedicate a few hours and put some of my poker theories to the test. I had tested several poker strategies such as, being a loose player, an aggressive player, a mixed player and a tight is right player. As you know, I went with the strategy that works and put me in control of my game. When I stick to this strategy, I'm able to control my poker game and get so deep into any tournament and make it to the money. All poker pro, doesn't matter their ranking levels or bankroll they have, they all come to the table with their hidden strategy. These players will study you, read you, bluff at you and bully you around. But when I apply my strategy to them and crack their mental state, all I get is a nasty stared at me. If looks kills, I would have been dead at that instants. When I come out of this strategy, I start losing precious chips and then I jump back to my wagon and built it up again. I would recommend playing cheap poker tournament and see which strategy works better for you. But always remember, think positive and be creative and don't let any bad beat put you down, we all learn from our mistakes, poker is a game that will put those mistakes to the test for you and this will be a learning experience for your next tournament.


                                                    


                                                     POKERMANTIS.COM

What it Takes to be a Professional Poker Player

What it Takes to be a Professional Poker Player

• Self-motivation - You will not always want to play poker. Especially if you are in a downswing or your friends are doing something that seems like more fun. Sometimes, though, when a game is really good, other things just have to be put on hold.
• Discipline - Sometimes you need to take a shot at a higher limit game when the table looks juicy. However, doing undisciplined things like chasing losses and play on tilt will make you go broke before you even realize what happened.
• Adaptability - There are a lot of things you may need to adapt to. You may need to adjust to a new schedule possibly, new stakes, new players, new styles and even new sites or new games. Change with the times or get left behind.
• Creativity - You can't always play ABC poker. Sometimes you need to mix things up, confuse your opponents and try some new strategies.

Why so Many Wannabe Pro Poker Players Fail

One major reason why many players don’t make it is because they do not practice smart bankroll management. Always leave yourself with outs! It's ok to use aggressive bankroll strategies, that is fine. But you have to be able to move down as well as up fast. If you can't do that you may go busto like hundreds of other players who have gone on a hot streak, climbed up the stakes too quickly then eventually lost it all playing in games they cannot beat.
Other players play great when they are winning and are running good. But when things start to go the other way, they compound their bad run by tilting, spewing and generally losing their mind like a donkey. Unless you have experienced a huge downswing/break-even stretch over 75k hands in your career, you can't truly know if your good enough to make it. The best players in the world don’t have “downswings.” They play well enough during these stretches so that they become “break-even stretches.” If you get a graph of any top online pro, you will notice that they will have sections of hands where they make tons of money, then sections where they break-even/lose a little for a while and then repeat the cycle.
Other players don’t succeed playing professionally because they have other issues in life which aren’t directly related to poker. Say you are trying to play professionally and are 6 tabling NL100. Over the past 6months, you have earned $3500 a month playing poker, You also have a monthly nut of $2500, i.e., how much you spend on rent, food, gas, electricity, etc. This leaves you with $1000 a month left to play poker with. Smart people will spend that money on learning to increase your income, e.g., poker training, poker coaching, adding money to your bankroll. Dumb people lose money playing blackjack, sports betting or purchasing a $30k car on finance. These people put themselves in unnecessarily tight financial spots and put themselves in situations where they start to eat into their bankroll to keep up their lifestyle and ultimately go broke.

Final Thoughts on Going Pro

Hopefully you are getting the idea by now. Becoming a poker pro isn’t as easy or as desirable as it seems. A lot of people can't deal with the stress of long break-even/losing stretches. If you go through some good times, put the money aside for the bad times that will most definitely follow. Please try and stay level headed. Take it from someone who has succeeded in playing professionally for the past 2 years. Maybe I am not as skilled as some of the best players on the planet and my income hasn’t really increased exponentially over the past 2 years. I’m not struggling by any means but I’m not a millionaire yet either. If you are young and contemplating not going to college to pursue a poker career, its most likely a bad idea. I would only do it if you are earning over $100k a year already playing poker. The games aren’t going to get any easier and you will continually have to get better as mid stakes are only going to get harder and harder as the fish lose their money, regulars get better, and there is not a constant influx of new players. I’m not going to say things look bleak since we have the possibility of regulated poker in the US (which of course may not affect players in the rest of the world anyway), but poker may never return to the days where there is an abundant supply of fish just giving away their money. Good luck at the tables. Play smart, play tight, play aggressive but controlled and don't go busto!

                                                     POKERMANTIS.COM

AGAINST ALL ODDS

One of the things that make poker exciting is that regardless of how experienced or inexperienced you are at it, you’ll never quite know whether you’re winning or losing during the course of a poker game. I now realize that being a tight poker player is not fun unless you become a spontaneous poker player. If position is right, I would sneak-in with 8-9 or 7-8 and once I hit a straight or two pairs, I tried to get as much value from it. Then, I go back to my tight moves. It all depends on what position are you in and how many aggressive players are on your table. Connectors or suited connectors are great if lady luck is by your side, but also having a poker image at your table will scare anyone trying to challenge you.  Poker is a card game that requires skill, concentration, patience, and tactfulness. Winning is not easy in poker, and yes it takes more than just luck to overcome opponents. Good poker players have a high success rate because they use their strengths to exploit their opponent's weakness. There's no such thing as playing by the book in poker. Every individual has a style of game play that is unknown to opponents.

There are several poker strategies that can be used in various poker variants. Remember, you don't have to be a poker player that needs to possess every skill in the game; all you need to do is play smart. Every poker player must see to it that they do not get habituated to a particular strategy or game style in poker. The moment opponents detect a pattern in game play, they can change the game in their favor. There's a lot of practice involved and that can only be accomplished practicing more and more.

Smart poker players win poker tournaments or poker games by getting vital clues from opponents. How is it possible get a perspective on cards held by your opponent. Poker players get an indication of the shape of things in a game by observing opponents. When you are seated at the poker table, you have to be observant at all times. Watch every move of your opponent. Opponent behavior at the table gives vital information. Although a dead expression on the face is what most poker player's showcase, if you are a hawk eyed individual you will be able to detect changes in facial expressions. For instance, watch out for movements near the jaw line of an individual. Several poker players grind their teeth when they have a look at their cards. When an individual grinds teeth there is expansion and contraction that is visible on the outline of the jawline. This is a spontaneous reaction that most poker players exhibit when they take a look at their cards or, make their move. Noticing breathing patters of opponents also gives vital clues on the cards held. Change in breathing pattern can occur when an opponent is trying to play a bluff or is taken aback with an opponent's move. Several men and women avoid wearing flimsy collared tee shirts, shirts or tops because opponents in the past have got vital information on cards held from the movement of collars during breathing.

So remember my mantis, constantly changing gears while playing poker it will be hard for other players to figure out which dynamite you are holding, they will pay you just to see what the heck you are playing with, and that's where you show those donkeys the nuts!.


                                                        POKERMANTIS.COM

A POKER GENIUS, PHILANTHROPIST, PLAYBOY, MONEY WILL FOLLOW

Each poker tournament or cash game I play, I gained more experience and I'm able to apply these experiences to my next poker event. I would also recommend my poker players to also participate in charity event such as pushtowalknj.org, their 4th annual event held March 16, was out of this world. There was 11 poker tables, $5000 visa gift card and other prices for top 10 poker players that made it to final  table. I was one of those player that made it and it was fun. Actually, I made it to 3rd place and I won a seat to play at poker4life.org main event in NYC held for April 18. Poker is not about winning big and showing off your skills, is also about giving back to your favorite charity or if you don't have any charity, there are so many out there that for just $150 or less, you get to give back to your community and help others in need. What is push to walk? A non-profit exercise gym for people with spinal cord injuries, paralysis, and other neurological conditions including, but not limited to Multiple Sclerosis, traumatic brain injuries, and stroke. They provide intensive one-on-one workouts so our clients can maintain their physical and mental health allowing them to regain their independence. Our approach is a cutting edge technique encompassing what the medical community terms Activity Based Training. Push to Walk is passionate about inspiring and motivating people with spinal cord injuries to realize their individual potential. You see my fellow mantis, by playing in any charity event, you are also helping others in need and it feels good making a difference at it. Next month, I will be playing at another bigger and better prices, actually, a seat to wsop main event for first price and many other prices for final table finalist. I will be representing pushtowalknj.org and now i have good reason to win this event.

WHY PLAYING TIGHT AND AGGRESSIVE IS RIGHT

But just what is tight, aggressive poker?

My name is donkey Marc, All-in 2-J  vs a tight player 4 bet raised

 I dedicate this blog to my friend Jun, a good poker player that keeps getting pushed around by super lucky donkeys.

A tight poker player is simply one that does not play many hands. Not only is he selective about the hands he does play, but also the position from which he plays them.
As a result of this careful approach, it can be assumed that this player has a reasonably good hand whenever he comes into the pot, as there is a limited set of opening hole cards that he will play.
Conversely, a loose poker player is one who never saw two cards he didn’t like and will jump into just about every pot ready to gamble. It is hard to tell what he is holding, because it could quite literally be anything.
Aggressive refers to the way in which a player plays his hands. An aggressive poker player will rarely limp into a pot, but will instead raise or even re-raise if the situation warrants it. After the flop an aggressive poker player generally continuation bets and pursues the pot with all guns blazing.
Passive players rarely raise and simply call or limp into pots. Because they are timid they can often be knocked off pots by aggressive play as they are nervous when the action gets hot and heavy.

So why is tight aggressive good, and loose or passive bad?

Tight players play premium hands, which have good expected value  and simplify decision making. Because you are avoiding marginal hands, your poker playing will result in fewer costly mistakes, earning you more profit.
In addition, the other players at the table will learn to avoid tangling with you because you are generally playing premium cards. This give you the opportunity to pick up pots as the other players fold to your raises and continuation bets – allowing you to make well timed and profitable bluffs.
Unskilled or unobservant opponents may not realize you are playing strong hands, and will therefore pay you off when they get into a pot with you.
Aggression is essential because no one is going to give you their money – you have to take it from them. Therefore, without aggression you are going to struggle to win pots. Once you decide to become involved in a hand, you should also be ready to fight for the pot. If you don’t, your opponents are going to notice your reluctance and they will begin to bully you like you are back in the schoolyard.
But realize that blind aggression is not the solution either. You need to adjust your aggression levels according to the type of table you are playing on and the way in which the board develops.
For example, if your table is filled with passive players who continually fold to a raise, then this is an excellent spot to show aggression. But if you are sat with several highly aggressive players, then too much aggression could start a war. Also, betting when the board probably has you beat is just like throwing money down the drain.
So make sure you have a good hand and a good table image before you draw your guns, as marginal situations will lead to you only firing blanks.

Starting hands and decisions

You will see a variety of starting hands suggested in charts and tables, some of which are extremely complex and some of which are extremely simple. If you ask experienced poker players to list their favorite top ten hands, the majority of answers will include the following:

1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 
6. 
7. 
8. 
9. 
10. 

The reason that these hands are popular is because they have good equity and are normally quite likely to win a pot. Another reason is that these cards are generally considered to be relatively easy to play after the flop and should not get you in to too much trouble.
That is the reason that small pocket and medium pocket pairs are not on this list. They are a lot more difficult to play post-flop and thus open you up to making costly mistakes.
To paraphrase Sklansky’s Theory of Poker, your opponent makes money when you make a mistake, and you make money when he makes one. A mistake is defined and as playing a hand differently from the way in which you would have played it if you could see your opponent’s hole cards.
For example, let's say that you're on sat on the big blind and the small blind completes. You are holding 4s-4c and decide to make a small raise since there are only two of you in the pot. The small blind calls and the flop is 9h-8d-Jh. The small blind then checks to you. Question number 1: Do you bet? If you could see your opponent’s cards and knew that he had missed the flop completely, the answer would obviously be yes. If you knew that he was holding a pair, you probably would not. Well one time in three, with random cards, your opponent will have made a pair on the flop. And this means that one time in three, you will probably make a mistake in this situation. And mistakes, as we have already mentioned, cost you money.
Still not convinced? OK, let’s continue the scenario and assume you bet in this position. Your opponent check-raises you!
Question number 2: Uh oh, now what? Your opponent could now be holding a wide range of hands. He could be saying "no way" to your flop bet, believing you to be making a continuation bet with a hand like A-K. Or, he could get tricky and be semi-bluffing with a hand containing a 10 or maybe two hearts. He could even be taking a stab at the pot with absolutely nothing like 52. Now do you see how hard it is not to make mistakes?
This is why is important to play tight. Your decisions become easier, and easy decisions result in fewer mistakes and therefore waste less money. Yes, you may fold hands which are winners, but it is better to make a small pre-flop mistake, than a big post-flop one.
The ability to play marginal hands well is the hallmark of an expert poker player, and even they are not immune to costly screw ups. Stick to premium hands and play tight aggressive. Your bankroll will thank you.

Changing gears

Your opponents are going to be watching you just as closely as you are watching them, and it won’t take them long to pick up on your tight aggressive style. Therefore, it is a good idea to keep changing your playing style to prevent them from spotting patterns that they can exploit. This will enable you to become a constant winner.
In addition, some players will take offence at your aggressive play, considering it a personal insult against them. They may play back at you constantly, or wait to trap you with a check-raise. Remember, most profit comes from tables where people are having fun, so don’t keep beating up the same player and don’t let it get personal.
If you keep changing gears, throwing in some loose play along with your standard tight aggressive style, you should be able to keep your opponents guessing and keep your profits at a maximum.

Timing is everything

Understanding when to get aggressive and when to let go is fundamental to this style of play. We are therefore going to wrap up with two examples that should serve to illustrate when you should bark and when you should bite.
Example 1 – To river bet, or not to river bet? That is the question.
You are playing against loose, but not stupid, players and your table image – for the ones that have been paying attention – is pretty good. You haven't pulled off any obscene bluffs and you don't think anyone has any particular reason to believe you're betting with air.
You are holding J-J and your pre-flop raise gets three callers, with the board falling A-9-6. You figure that there was a good chance no-one had an ace and bet again. Two players fold, leaving you and one opponent to continue.
The Turn brings a 7 and you bet again, hoping to charge your opponent for chasing a draw and to try and prevent a medium pair from spiking two pair.
Your opponent calls your Turn bet and a 5 comes on the River. This puts you in a tight spot. You have been playing aggressive, so do you fire a third barrel on the River?
If your answer is “no”, go and get a cookie and move to the front of the class.
Against a calling station you can bet away as they will call with all sorts of hands and you are likely to have them beat. But your opponent is a standard player and if he was on a straight draw, there's a very good chance he just filled up on the final card. If he has an ace, there is no way he’s going to fold. There is a slim chance that he’s holding T-9 and that you have missed a value bet on the River. However, as a rule of thumb, don't bet on the River unless you can:

1. get better hands to fold (no way on this board); or
2. get worse hands to call (not entirely likely, but possible)

If you now bet and he check-raises, you will almost certainly have to lay your hand down. Take the free showdown and see if you win. There is a good chance you do not have the best hand here, so caution is the key.
Example 2 – Go after the flop, or go floppy?
You are sat on the button and look down at A-K, raising a single limper pre-flop. The big blind and the limper both call, and the flop comes K-8-3.
The big blind checks, but the limper now bets into you. Neither player has shown any signs of being maniacs or calling stations. So what do you do? Do you raise him?
Once again, the answer is “no”.
Raising this flop is not necessarily good. While it is likely that you have the best hand at this stage, (barring your opponent holding a set or a hand like K-8, but both are pretty unlikely), you won’t earn much profit by raising.
Let’s look at it another way. If you raise his flop bet, there are only a few hands he can be holding which he will call with and not have you beat. He is more likely to check-raise the flop with something like K-T and would normally just call a bet if he was holding a 9-8. So if you raise and he folds you have let him get away without making a mistake.
Calling a single bet here is a worse mistake for him than folding to two bets. Give him the chance to make that mistake. If he has nothing then you don’t lose all that much by not raising this flop anyway.
Thus the correct play would be to just call, giving the big blind a chance to make a more expensive mistake. You can then trap him on the Turn for two big bets.
What you should recognize in this hand is that there are no profitable draws available on the board, and your hand is not very vulnerable which makes raising less profitable. However, when holding a hand like 9-9, on an 8-5-2 board, you should definitely raise because almost the entire deck consists of scare cards for you. Raising thus becomes imperative. You must learn to analyze the flop texture and see these differences to time your aggression correctly.

Conclusion

Tight aggressive poker is all about careful, solid play that is geared to minimize your mistakes, while pushing your opponent to make them. By following this style and understanding when to change gears and when to apply the brakes, you will continually rack up good wins against the majority of the opponents you will face in cash games.
But always remember that this playing style is no silver bullet. Tight aggressive poker play still has vulnerabilities that a good player will exploit. Nevertheless, it should definitely be part of your poker arsenal and you should wield this weapon mercilessly whether you play online or live. Also, playing solid tight at the beginning of any tournament is a good strategy to double up your chip stack. By being very conservative and not opening up to early, once you 4 or 5 bet with AK or any of your selective cards and hitting it on flop, your will start accumulating chips and getting deeper into the money. Not only will you get deeper but using this strategy, playing tight and then changing gear, you will see other donkeys and fishes eating each other out while you keep waiting for them to make mistakes. I had tested this strategy and it does work, you will get deeper and deeper. The good part is, you will be playing with real poker players that will bring their own strategy and you will learned from it. At the end, you are not playing with donkeys or calling stations, you are playing with the best and getting paid for your efforts.


 


                                                                POKERMANTIS.COM

HOW TO WIN POKER TOURNAMENT STRATEGY

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Winning poker tournaments is always fun. Tournaments are Fun and profitable, though cash games are alot profitable. Tournaments prove you that you have patience, most often when you get deep in a tournament.

So; there are 3 levels, Early, Middle, and Late.

1:Early stage: In the first stage; i suggest you play tight. Playing tight will move you ahead of the tournament while donkeys/fishes bust before you. How i play my tournaments is; For early, my Starting hand selection is (99-AA)AQs-AKs. Playing all other hands gives you more chance to bust. More often playing these hands; you have alot better chance to get more chips. So; playing tight will move yo onto the next level, MIDDLE STAGE.

2: Mid stage: Here; you loosen up. By loosing up here; you get to grab alot more chips than you did in the early stage. This is where i loosen up because their are no more Donkey's and fishes. All the great players remain. So; i suggest you loosen up. No loose as a fish though. I play atleast 30-50 % of my hands dealt at this stage.

3: Late stages: In the late stages of a tournament; you have to Play your 'A' game. Playing your A game will help you win. Just because you went this deep into a tournament, doesnt mean you have to play anyhow. Remember; the longer you last; the better you are. Dont play for the money, test your game. If you think about the money too much, you end up Leaving the tournament. Cause you weren't paying attention to your players.

 

                                                POKERMANTIS.COM

TOP 10 MISTAKES MADE BY AMATEUR POKER PLAYERS

1. Playing Too Many Hands

An early lesson in poker is to realize the majority of hands you are dealt must be folded. I've known an amateur player turn round to me and say You've got to play the hand you are dealt, why fold. I was shocked and soon put them right. However, there are a lot of beginners that seem to ignore this most basic rule.
They will call with ace-rag out of position, even call a raise with it, they play any two suited cards or even any picture card. You can get away with playing loose like this in a game of no limit hold em but you must have a strong post-flop ability to be able to pull it off.
Situation dependent, most of the time you are looking to only play premium hands such as high pocket pairs, and very strong aces. Simply fold the rest.

2. Not Folding Mediocre Hands

After the flop has hit, amateur players find it very difficult to let go of marginal hands. Suppose they hit middle pair or top pair with top kicker, the will find it hard to lay down. Its a crazy situation to still be involved in a pot holding top pair when there are flush and straight draws on the board and players are betting like theres no tomorrow. I've seen people play online when they will see their hole cards all the way to the river even though the board has paired up, AND there is 4-to-a-flush on the board, AND a straight possibility. They just wouldn't let go of their flopped top pair.
The best hand on the flop may not always be the best hand on the river. Play with caution and don't be afraid to get out if the action heats up and you are holding a marginal hand.
A good way to look at it is to look at the board and think to yourself "What two cards could my opponent be holding for them to beat me?". If you can narrow it down to one or at most two sets of hole cards you should be fairly confident in carrying on playing. If you have to say to yourself "I hope he doesn't have X, or Y, or Z, or A, or B or C..." then you should really think about folding. The more combinations of cards that your opponent could be holding that beat your hand, then the more likely it is they are holding one of them. If there is only one or possibly two combinations of cards that beat you then continue to play but with caution. Bet out or raise to gain information on how good your hand is. If they fold, you win the pot, if you are raised then you are probably beat.
There's no shame in folding. Remember, especially in a tournament, poker scores are based on the player that loses the least amount of chips.

3. Under-Betting The Pot

In no limit texas hold em you can bet out as much of your stack as you like in order to protect your hand. You should be using this to your advantage. Weaker inexperienced players on the other hand tend to bet small amounts such as $30 into a $500 pot. These kinds of bets offer good players fantastic pot odds to call and suck-out on the river because of the money they stand to make in relation to how much it costs to see another card. A bet of around 75% of the pot is enough to discourage players on a draw. Any bet under half the pot is normally not enough.

4. Over betting The Pot

It is an easy mistake that amateurs make. They make a half-decent hand and the adrenaline kicks in and they decide to over bet the pot by pumping $300 into a $90 pot, or they move all in pre-flop for 1500 in a sit-n-go while blinds are still 15/30. The trouble with doing this, is that it makes hands weaker than yours fold, while hands stronger than yours call. By consistently over betting the pot you are either going to win a small pot, or lose a big one. Quite clearly not the optimum poker playing approach.

5. Ignoring Position

Knowledge is power in the game of no limit hold em. The more information you hold about the round of betting the better position you are in to act on this information. Playing hands under the gun means if you bet out, you could face a massive re-raise from a later position. You could check post flop in the hope of a check raise but instead find the entire table checks after you. If you are playing from a later position you have the ability to see what the rest of the table is doing before you act.
Amateur players will often ignore position and play a certain set of hands regardless of position. you should be playing only premium hands in early position, and then widening your range of starting hands the later your position becomes. TJ's plays badly from UTG but very well from a late position.

6. Failing To Protect Your Hand

Many amateur players are guilty of playing far too passively. They will simply check or call unless they are 100% sure they have the best hand in which case they will raise. By failing to bet, or failing to raise they will make it easier for their opponents to draw out on them who might otherwise have folded. If you find yourself against a tight passive player, raise more often than you usually would and you can find yourself winning a lot of small pots.

7. chasing unprofitable draws

Playing a drawing hand is only ever going to be as good as the value of the pot you are trying to win. You should always fold if someone makes a bet where you are no longer getting correct pot odds to call. Amatuer players make the mistake of ignoring these odds and will call all the way to the river in the hope that they hit. It is possible they do not even understand pot odds or know what they are.
As frustrating as it is when monkey players like these suck out on the river you have to remember that they are playing bad unprofitable poker and they will end up losing more money than they win. Just make sure you are in the pot when they lose

8. Bad Stack Management

Amatuer players often neglect their stack size when it comes to playing holdem. If you are playing a cash game you should always have around 20 big blinds to capitalise on your monster hands. If you are falling short, then reload your stack. There's no point hanging on with 50 in a 5/10 cash game only to flop quads next hand and miss out on a huge pot. If you are playing a freezeout tournament, you should stop calling pre-flop when you are between 10 times the big blind (worrying) to 5 times the big blind (critical). There is no option but to push all in with any Ace, pocket pair, suited connectors or any hand under the gun.
You are looking to have enough chips to maximise your big hands, or to keep you alive in tourmanet situations. Bad players will flat call hands when their stack is 5 to 10 x BB. Good players will push all in. Bad players will not reload their chips in a cash game, good players will.

9. Adapting Your Style

There is a big difference between playing cash games and playing tournaments. In cash games you have to be prepared to put your entire stack over the line when you know you are going to win more times than you lose, when you have a positive expected value (+EV). If you lose then you can just reload. In a tournament you have to be more protective of your stack as if it goes then your are out of the game. There are many other subtle levels, but these are the fundamental differences between the two games. Bad players are those that do not adapt their game accordingly and play tournament strategy in a cash game and cash strategy in a tournament game.

10. Trying To Imitate The Pros

The generation of poker players coming through nowadays are those raised on watching it on TV. People have their favourite poker players they have seen making big bluffs and talking the talk. Amateur players seem to copy-cat these actions in order to come across more professional. what they fail to realise however that on TV they are only watching edited highlights. Not every hand is a monster raise, or a trap, or a bluff - in fact most of the time it is one player raising with a genuine hand and everyone else folding. This is unfortunately the less interesting side of poker but it (should) represent a large majority of your game.
We have a generic nickname for these kinds of players at the table. Those that come in wearing the shades, the cap, the iPod, talking about how other players should have played their hands, talking crap. The nickname given is "All the gear, no idea". Make sure you are able to spot these players if they are on your table and more importantly make sure that you are not one of them yourself!

                                                       POKERMANTIS.COM

IS POKER A GAME OF SKILL OR LUCK?

Back and forth. Back and forth. This is the way the pendulum swings with regard to the debate over whether poker is a game of skill or chance.

The implications of that decision are enormous, as was in evidence in a recent court ruling wherein US District Judge Jack Weinstein determined that a New York businessman accused of operating an illegal poker establishment was not violating federal gambling laws because poker is a game of skill.

The U.S. government's contradictory stance on the issue only further muddies the waters. While the Department of Justice shut down three of the biggest poker websites serving American players in April of 2011 on the basis that they violated anti-gambling laws, the federal government seemed to rescind that finding in December of the same year, declaring that said anti-gambling laws - namely, the Wire Act of 1961 - applied only to sports betting and not to skill games like poker.

Numerous studies have been undertaken to clarify the issue. Some have determined that poker is a game of skill; others that poker is a game of chance.

A recent German study looked at tt The methodology was as follows:

• Three average players and three experts sat down at a six-player table and played 60 computer-based hands of Texas Hold'em. In each hand, one average player and one expert received (a) better-than-average cards (winner's box), (b) average cards (neutral box) and (c) worse-than-average cards (loser's box). 
• The standardized manipulation of the card distribution was intended to control for chance and thus reveal the differences in performance between the average and expert groups. 
• 150 participants played a "fixed-limit" game and 150 individuals played a "no-limit" game.

The researchers in that study found that card distribution and not skill was the decisive factor in poker success. The study's results showed no distinction between the expert players and their average counterparts when it came to final cash balance. They did, however, reveal that the expert players were better able to reduce losses when confronted with challenges like worse-than-average cards.

According to the researchers, “Luck, rather than skill, was key in determining final balance, with experts taking no more, on average, that novices. Experts did play differently, on various measures, and seemed better able to cope with bad luck, losing less. But they also won less when given good cards.”

While the study's findings are based on fact (i.e. the outcomes were accurately reported), there were more than a few flaws in its basic construction.

First, the self-determination of by the players of their skill levels leaves a lot to be desired. It is conceivable that more than a few of the average players underestimated their talents and experience, while the reverse is likely true for the expert group.

Second, The limited number of hands played represents an insufficient sample size to reflect the statistical complexities of poker. Consider that there are 52 cards in a deck. A deck allows for more than 2.5 million possible five-card combinations. In Texas Hold'em games, which are played with seven cards, that number increases to approximately 133 million combinations.

So what is to be gained by the study? Frankly, not much. It's yet another example of the research world trying to define a game whose probabilities and nuances are next to impossible to quantify.

Particle physicist Michael Vonk puts it this way: "Good poker requires that you make sound game-theoretic decisions, but there is still plenty of freedom to try and outsmart your opponents. Other casino games miss that second element. All you can do in blackjack or roulette is make the best possible mathematical decisions, and even then, you will still lose in the long run. I have never been attracted to those games. It’s the fact that you play against other people that makes poker so interesting, and that makes it possible to actually be a winner at the game.”

Vonk breaks down the process of poker play to a few simple questions: What cards do I have? What range of cards do I think my opponent has? Given these, what are the odds that I will win the hand after all cards have been dealt? And lastly, given these odds, will I make money in the long run when I pay the bet?

While all of these questions are math-based, Vonk says that solid math skills aren't the only factor in poker. Good instincts are also vital. This is because poker is a game of incomplete information. The ability to calculate probabilities, though helpful, is simply not enough to consistently win. Variables like player numbers, game pace, consistent versus inconsistent betting and player temperament all work in conjunction to affect and alter each game's outcome.

“There are many people who hate math but are great poker players, but there are hardly any players who lack the people reading abilities and still manage to be good poker players,” says Vonk. “Mathematical knowledge can to a large extent be replaced by intuition and experience. After a player has played a million hands of poker, even if he does not know the math at all, he will have a decent feeling about when it is profitable to draw to a flush and when it is not.”

Thus, it stands to reason that a study examining only 300 players and 60 hands of poker cannot possibly take into account so many intangibles.

A 2008 study by researchers Michael A. Dedonno and Douglas K. Detterman asked the same question - 'Is poker a game of luck or skill? - but based its findings on the results of more than 920 hands divided into two distinct sessions.

The first session was played with participants receiving no poker instruction. The second session was played after participants received poker instruction. The aim of the study was to determine what effect player knowledge has on game outcome, and therein determine whether poker is a game of luck or skill.

What the researchers found was startling. In short, even the most elementary instruction and nominal practice changed game outcomes.

"The reason," say Dedonno and Detterman, "that poker appears to be a game of luck is that the reliability of any short session is low…. [O]btaining accurate estimates of poker ability may not be easy. Luck (random factors) disguises the fact that poker is a game of skill. However, as [this study shows], skill is the determining factor in long-term outcome.”

We couldn't agree more.

                                                        POKERMANTIS.COM

9 TOURNAMENT TIPS FOR INTERMEDIATE PLAYERS

 

1. Be smart with your poker money. You should have enough to backup cash to buy-in to 100 tournaments. If you have a $100 bankroll then play $1 tournaments. You will lose tournaments. Even the best pros lose several times in a row.

2. Wait for strong cards at the start of the tournament. There’s no need to risk losing your chips early in the game with fancy bluffs. Play few safe hands and fold with weak cards.

3. You have to be an aggressive player. Generally these players have higher odds of winning because they can win in one of two ways: with strong cards and by getting opponents to fold. If you only call with strong cards then your win purely depends on your hand.

4. Bet and raise when you think it is appropriate. Only go all-in if you have a hand that can fight. Learn how to calculate poker hand odds mentally.

5. Become more aggressive as blinds increase. Avoid fancy bluffs – just play tight and smart. The higher the blinds the more aggressive you should be. Increase your aggression as the bubble approaches.

6. Players with a middle stack are more likely to fold. As the game progresses chips stacks are not evenly distributed. Those with large stacks have chips can afford to call you out. Those with fewer chips will call out of desperation.

7. Position matters because those who are last know more. If your position is early then stick to strong hands. You can play around more if you are among the last because you have an advantage of knowing ahead.

8. Learn from your opponents. Many opponents play in several tournaments and if you are the same you may encounter them again. Know who to avoid until you have the experience. Sit in on games and to learn from them, but don’t copy them. Note that copying a famous player is not advised because playing poker is situational. The famous player may have been calculating or luring his/her opponent into this one hand.

                                                             POKERMANTIS.COM

HOW TO CALCULATE HAND ODDS

Learn to calculate poker hand odds

How to Calculate Hand Odds

Ever wonder how they calculate the percentage chance of winning when you watch Poker on TV on shows like the World Poker Tour? Well, wonder no more- you will know how to do this yourself in one minute.

1. Count your total number of outs. In other words, the number of cards that will give you a winning hand.
2. When the flop is dealt, mutliply you number of outs by 4.
This gives you the percentage chance of you winning the hand.
3. When the turn card is drawn, these odds are halved as you have one less card to draw.

It is that simple!
Count your Outs, Multiply by Four, Halve on the Turn

Here is an example to demonstrate
Your Hole Cards: J(h) 10(h)
Flop:4(h) Q(h) 9(d)
So the winning hands you can make are:
A Flush- any heart, you have 4 of 13 hearts so there are 9 hearts you can hit.
A Straight- you have 9, 10, J, Q. So an 8 or a King will give you a straight.
8 more outs.
Total number of outs: 9 + 8 = 17
Then multiply this by 4 to get your percentage change of winning, 4 x 17 = 68%
These odds then half if you fail to hit on the turn…combine these odds with Pot odds and you cannot lose.


                                                  POKERMANTIS.COM

LEARN TEXAS HOLD EM

Starting Hands Tables

Phil Hellmuth’s How to play Poker like the Pros starting table

Tier

Hands

Category

Our advice

1	AA, KK, QQ, AKs, AK	Top 12 Hands	Raise/re-raise(never call)
2	JJ, TT, 99	Top 12 hands	Raise(or call if raised)
3	AQs, 88, 77	Top 12 Hands	Raise(or call if raised)
4	AJs, ATs, A9s, A8s	Majority Play Hands	A? J? 6? 4? 2?
5	A7s, A6s, A5s, A4s, A3s, A2s, KQs, KQ	Majority Play Hands	Call if raised, fold if re-reraised
6	QJs, JTs, T9s, 98s, 87s, 76s, 65s	Suited Connectors	Call, fold if raised/re-reraised

Sklansky’s groups

Tier

Hands

Our advice

1	AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AKs	Raise/re-raise(never call)
2	TT, AQs, AJs, AK, KQs	Raise(or call if raised)
3	ATs, KJs, AQ, 99, QJs, KTs	Raise(or call if raised)
4	88, QTs, A9s, AJ, JTs, KQ, A8s, AT	Call if raised, fold is reraised
5	K9s, A7s, KJ, A5s, Q9s, T9s	Call, fold if raised/re-raised
6	77, J9s, A6s, QJ, A4s, KT	Call, fold if raised/re-raised
7	QT, A3s, K8s, JT, A2s, Q8s	Fold if beginner. Otherwise…call, fold if raised/re-raised
8	T8s, K7s, 98s, 66, J8sT	Fold if beginner. Otherwise…call, fold if raised/re-raised

COMMON MISTAKES PLAYING POKER

Mistake 1: Fancy bluffs can be fatal

Ever seen the movie Maverick? Don’t be fooled into thinking poker is just like the Hollywood movies. Making hard core bluffs like all-ins with a high card of 9 is best left to pros. Get a lot of experience playing low stakes and then work your way up before even attempting these maneuvers.

Note that you are still supposed to make bluffs – just strategic ones. When you have a strong hand like JJ (pre-flop) then you bluff by raising so that your opponent will fold. Keep odds in mind as you bluff – if after the flop there is a J then raise again. Even if your opponent may has a KK they will think twice before trying to call you. The amount you raise should be strategic. Remember that playing to the river increases your stake exponentially.

Mistake 2: Do not give away information

Do not give your opponents more information about you. It’s tempting to send messages or talk during the game but it also gives your opponents valuable insight into your state of mind. Continuing to repeat this pattern will give opponents more time to study you and know your “tells.”

Experienced players can read “tells”. How you say something gives them a good idea about your cards. Some professionals are said to even be able to get a gauge on the strength of your cards. Keep your focus and avoid giving away information. There’s no rule that you says you have to engage in small talk or answer your opponents.

Mistake 3: Not quitting while you’re ahead

It’s normal to lose in poker. You aren’t supposed to win them all. In fact some people can lose several times in a row, but it does hit you emotionally and mentally. If you keep playing just so you could win once you may end up in a bigger mess than before. You’re emotional at this point and might make an emotional call. Set a limit for yourself – I will quit if I lose 50 dollars or lose 7 times in a row – then stick with it.

Believe it or not, it’s the same for winning. A winning streak can also make you emotional and make you overconfident. You might end up making a foolish bluff only to lose it all. Or you might join higher stakes tables thinking you’re ready to take on sharks. It is imperative that you know when to quit.

Give your mind time to readjust and process the events. Whether you win or lose, treat yourself. Go to an all you can eat buffet. Why do you think Vegas has so many cheap all-you-can eats? Chat with your friends – you might gain some valuable insight from different perspectives.


               
                                                 POKERMANTIS.COM
 

PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH

Poker Pro: Do You Practice What You Preach?

Being a poker player is certainly not an easy job. As a poker pro, you have to deal with high levels of responsibility and pressure. Expectations are very high, no matter where they come from.

Take the expectations of those who you lead, for example: they expect you to motivate, inspire and guide them. They want you to be courageous, wise, fair and credible. They turn to you when no one knows what to do. They look up to you and hope you are the one who does the right thing. It may sound like a lot, but that’s what for them – it justifies your  poker knowledge.

If you fulfill those expectations, chances are that the influence you exert is big. And influence is crucial in gaining your team’s willingness to coordinate their efforts towards organizational goals. As I write this article,
I would like to let my poker followers know that is not easy becoming a poker pro. Each poker tournament or cash game you play, you are constantly learning and adapting to a new environments. The time and efforts you are dedicating as you are gaining more experience from each game you play. As any career out there, the more you know the better you get at it, poker is all about this. As you are getting better, the deeper and closer you are reaching your goal. Your main goal is to master this game and become successful at it. Each game you play, you must always have a strategy to achieve your main goal. And besides that, your goal should always be winning big, always use the power of attraction. Always bring a positive attitude to any tournament or cash game you play.

As you are becoming a successful poker player, one of the problems we all encounter is bankroll issues. You must have control of your bankroll and do not spend your hard earn winnings playing another casino game such as roulette, black jack or even worse, casino slot machines. Now you are a poker pro and you must learn how to maintain a healthy bankroll so you can move on to your next level of tournaments. We all do get tempted to double up our bankroll by trying another game but is doesn't work that way. Some people get derailed fast and after spending 12 plus hours playing poker and winning big, they don't know how to manage this new profound wealth. At the end, they end-up losing all of their winnings and going back to another tournament hoping to win again.

Do you have what it takes to become a successful poker player? Are you ready to practice what you preach?

                                                POKERMANTIS.COM

POKER VOCABULARY 1-2-3

Donkey

Stupid, weak player of stupid move.
Usage: Like in sentence "Let's go to this poker room. it is full of donkeys"

Fish

A player who loses money. An old saying is "If you can't spot the fish at the table, *you* are the fish."

Pigeon

An easy player such as Kamikaze Marc. 

Shark

A good/crafty player often posing as a fish early in the game.

Vultures

From PokerMantis vocabulary, a group of poker players waiting to devour your stack, constantly looking at your stack and waiting for you to get hurt so they can clean you out.

 

Aggressive

Adjective to describe a player who raises and re-raises and rarely calls.
Usage: Like in sentence "John is really an aggressive player".

Anna Kournikova

A name for A-K starting hand.
Usage: So called because "it looks great but doesn't win anything".

American Airlines

Two Aces.
Usage: This is a name of card combinations which was succesfully used by some player and historically called American Airlines. Abbreviated signing of this term is A-A.

Belly Buster

A draw and/or catch to an Inside Straight.
Usage: Like in sentence "Harry hit his 4-out belly buster on the river."

Bankroll

The amount of money you have.
Usage: Many serious poker players have a separate bankroll just for poker. If you bankroll someone, you are giving them money to play with, usually in exchange for a percent of their profit. Like in sentence "She doubled her bankroll after 1 month of playing the PartyPoker."

Bet in the Dark

To announce a bet before cards are dealt or looking at your hand.
Usage: Like in sentence "Phil announced a $5000 bet in the dark before the flop cards were dealt".

Bet for Value

Bet a hand with the intention of getting called by one or more lesser hands, as opposed to getting the others to fold. Usually implies betting a hand that has only a slight edge, and one that a conservative player would likely check with. Also value bet.

Big Slick

A hand that contains an Ace and a King (A-K).
Usage: Used in hold'em games, also known as Santa Barbara.

Backer

A nonplayer who finances an active player.
Usage: Like in sentece "How you gonna get into the tournament? I thought you were broke." "I have a backer."

Check-Raise

When a player first checks and then raises in a betting round.
Usage: This is done in an attempt to "trap" an opponent into betting to extract more chips/cash from them.

Counterfeit

To make your hand less valuable because of board cards that duplicate it. Example: you have 87 and the flop comes 9-T-J, so you have a straight. Now an 8 comes on the turn. This has counterfeited your hand and made it almost worthless.

Cheese

A very substandard starting hand.
Usage: Like in sentence: After being dealt Seven, Two again Howard announced "Nothing but cheese again!"

Coffeehousing

This is when Players chat about a hand they are involved in, with the intent of misleading or manipulating other Players.

Conservative

(of a poker player or play) tending to bet only with a good hand.

Dead Man's Hand

Two pair - Aces and Eights.
Usage: According to a legend, Wild Bill Hickok was shot during a poker game in Deadwood, South Dakota, and that the hand he held was two pair, black aces and black eights. The fifth card is not known for certain.

There is also a computer game about these cowboys.

Dead Money

Chips that are taken into the center of the pot because they are not considered part of a particular player’s bet.
Usage: Used to describe an inexperienced player with little chance of winning.

Double Belly Buster

A two-way inside straight. ie:, 3-5-6-7-9. Also called a Double Gutshot. 

Fifth Street

Also known as the "river" card. In flop games, this represents the fifth community card on the table and the final round of betting. In Stud games, this is the fifth card dealt to each player and represents the third round of betting.  

Fishhooks

Slang for Jacks.

Hit And Run

The act of joining a poker game, winning big in a short period of time, and leaving the table.

Iron Duke

An unbeatable hand (Ironclad Hand).

Late Position

Position on a round of betting where the player must act after most of the other players have acted (usually considered to be the two positions next to the button). 

Hitchhiker

A player who comes into a pot cheaply as the victim of a trap.  

Middle Position

Somewhere between the early and late positions on a round of betting (the fifth, sixth and seventh seats to the left of the button). 

Early Position

Position on a round of betting where the player must act before most of the other players at the table. (It's considered the two positions located to the left of the Blinds. )  

Maniac

A very aggressive player who plays a lot of hands such as my friend Kamikaze Marc.

Monster

A very big hand. In a tournament, a player who begins to accumulate chips after having a small stack is considered to be a monster.  

Muck

To discard or throw away your hand. It's also a pile of cards that are no longer in play. 

Komodo Dragoned

When a players hand is defeated because of an opponent completing a straight or flush on the river.  

Nuts

The best possible hand at any point of the game. A hand that cannot be beat. 

Open-ended Straight

Four consecutive cards whereby one additional (consecutive) card is needed at either end to make a straight. 

Passive

Checking and calling hands rather betting and raising hands.

Pegging

A cheater's technique to mark cards with his fingernail or a device

Raise Blind

1) To raise without looking at one's cards.
2) A forced raise.

Semi-Bluff

Betting with a mediocre or drawing hand.

Steal the Blinds

To win a small pot consisiting of only blinds by betting a weak hand and having other players fold.

Solid

A fairly tight player (and reasonably good).

Pay Station

A player who rarely folds, thus who frequently calls better hands and loses.

Calling Station

A passive and loose player who does not raise much, but calls more than he or she should.
Usage: Also known as "Policeman" these type of players rarely bluff.

Whore

A queen.

Wash

To Shuffle. 

Zombie

A poker player with no tells (see tell), one who has a poker face, shows no emotion, and otherwise exhibits no behavior to give away his holdings.  Jun plays like a zombie.

                                                 POKERMANTIS.COM

PLAYING POSITION PREFLOP

Tip: Playing position preflop
Explanation: Playing winning poker comes from playing the right cards in the right position. As with all the other tips, take this tip with a grain of salt. Every hand is different, and you have to incorporate these concepts with the situation at hand to come up with the correct decision.
If you ask any player what the best position is in poker, the answer will probably be the button. Why? You are the last to act postflop, you are in perfect steal position preflop, and you can get into the pot with more marginal hands than in any other position.
Situation 1: You have Q-J under the gun (the first player after the blinds). What do you do?
Ninety-nine percent of you probably agree that folding is the correct play here. The other one percent is probably calling a raise with 9-3 looking to hitting a straight on the flop (yes, I know that doesn't make sense). Q-J is not a very strong hand and calling with this in early position can get you caught in a really bad situation if someone were to play KQ or AQ. As you move on to middle/late position, QJ becomes a better hand, one that is worth opening the pot with a raise if nobody has entered it yet.
Opening the pot with a marginal hand in early position is a losing play because chances are high that someone after you will raise with a better hand. As your position gets later, the chance of someone after you with a better hand gets smaller.
On the button, Q-J is a must-raise hand if nobody has entered the pot. In any position, if you are the first to enter the pot, make sure you raise. You might as well raise and try to get some players with marginal hands behind you out of the way.
Situation 2: You have Q-J on the button and a player before you has called. What do you do?
Calling here is the correct move as you have the positional advantage over any player during this hand. If you miss the flop, but it is checked to you, you should try a feeler bet to see where everyone else is in the hand. If you really hit the flop (i.e., flopping broadway) and a player bets into you, you are in great position for a raise.
Calling (after someone has already called) with hands like K-Q to K-9, Q-9 to Q-J, J-10, A-x, and suited connectors are perfectly acceptable in this position. You are getting into the pot with a big drawing hand in great position. If you hit, you will be stacking the chips in no time.
As I mentioned a couple paragraphs ago, this is the reason why you should always raise when opening the pot. Even on the button, calling a raise with A-x is just asking for trouble. With the raise, the marginal hands will be eliminated, and you win the pot.
Situation 3: You have Q-J on the button and a player before you has raised. What do you do?
Knowing your table is the factor here. If a really tight player has raised it up, throwing away your Q-J is the way to go. However, if a loose, wild player raises it up, you might be throwing away the best hand. The amount of the raise and if someone else has already called should affect your decision as well. Even though you are in position here, you may not have a hand that is close to matching up with that of the other players.
Situation 4: You have 5-5 in middle position, what should you do?
As I mentioned before, raising is the way to go with this hand if you are willing to play it (and the first to enter the pot). However, there are some players who like to limp in with this kind of hand for the sake of just seeing a flop. The same goes for a hand like Q-J and J-10, where you are truly drawing because the strength of your starting hand won't hold up if it goes to a showdown. Seeing a cheap flop is very valuable, so make sure if you are at a table with a player like this and they limp, they could have just about anything.
On a more general note, players that open up the pot with a raise from under the gun usually signify a big to really big hand. Make sure that you are both aware of this, and use it to your advantage if you think your table image is good enough to steal from first position.

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PLAYING POCKET PAIRS

Tip: Pocket pairs preflop
Explanation: Some of the toughest hands to play start with a pocket pair. Although this is a difficult subject to discuss due to the varying schools of thought, playing a pocket pair can be profitable if you make the right decisions in the right positions. There are generally two ways to play pocket pairs before the flop: limping into a multi-player pot in the hopes of hitting a set and raising to cut down on the number of players you'll face. Keep in mind that early in a tournament, seeing cheap flops with pocket pairs is very advantageous. If you hit a set early on, chances are you will be paid off and take an early chip lead.
2-2, 3-3, 4-4
Quick hit: Although a pair of ducks, threes or fours will win 51 percent of the time against two overcards, these are not the hands where you invest a lot of your chips. Play these hands in middle to late position, but understand that if you miss the flop, you should get rid of them very quickly. Some people like to limp with these hands, but limping allows other weaker hands to join into the action and I'd rather limit the amount of competition than have to outdraw a couple of players.
Early position: Fold. It's not worth it. Everyone is left to act after you and if someone raises, what are you going to do? It's only a 51 percent to 53 percent chance, so pick your spots a little better. Some people believe that if you are going to play these hands in early position, then raising is the way to go. A raise here signifies a bigger hand, and if people are going to lay down their hands to you, it might be a good move. However, if you do not have a good table image, throwing them away is the right idea.
Middle position: I'd still be very cautious here, but if you insist on entering the pot, raise it up. You are probably ahead preflop if nobody else raises, but run if you face any resistance. If someone else has called before you, a call is OK, as long as it is cheap enough for you to gamble. If someone raised ahead of you, get out.
Late position: At this point with these hands, if you are the first to enter the pot, do so with a raise. Playing these cards this way will reduce the amount of opponents that will enter the pot and there is a good chance you will steal the blinds by acting strong. If there are callers ahead of you, by all means try and hit your set.
Blinds: If you have a pocket pair like this in the small blind and there are limpers, by all means see a flop. If there is a raise ahead of you, you need to remember you are completely out of position after the flop and folding is the correct play. If it is just you and the big blind, raise it up. Chances are, he doesn't have a pocket pair as well.
5-5, 6-6, 7-7, 8-8
Quick hit: The middle pocket pairs are as tricky as the smaller ones, but will allow you a little more flexibility when making your decision. Playing these hands to hit your set is the optimal outcome, but stealing the blinds with these hands is usually a result depending on what position you enter the pot. As mentioned earlier, some people like to limp with these hands. I'm not a fan of limping into pots, so if I'm playing these cards, I'm probably raising.
Early position: Two options: raise or fold. With 5-5, 6-6 and 7-7, your table image will have to play a big factor in to how you are going to play it. If you can represent a real strong hand with a raise here, then by all means, go for it. If you know you can't, maybe this isn't your spot. Pocket 8s is moving into the realm of a stronger hand and I think raising here is a good play. If you are reraised by another player in later position, you will be out of position for the rest of the hand if you were to call. Understand your opponents, and if it's someone you feel you can outplay after the flop, call. If not, onto the next hand.
Middle position: Learn to say, "Raise." If you are the first to enter the pot, raising here is a must. You have a solid hand with only a couple of players behind you. If there is a caller ahead of you, calling is OK as well, since you have position on this player. If the caller is a loose player, make him pay for trying to enter the pot by raising it and taking him out of the equation. If someone has raised ahead of you, you need to think about who raised you, how strong their hand could be, and your position. If you are getting the right price, calling is a good idea, but be cautious postflop.
Late position: Play the cards similarly to middle position. One main difference will be that if there are a bunch of limpers into the pot, raising from late position will eliminate some of those players and still keep you in position against anyone that calls.
Blinds: In the small blind with these hands, calling or raising is the way to go. If you are heads-up with the big blind, putting in a raise is a must. If you are in the big blind facing a couple callers, checking is a good idea as it will give you a free shot to hit your set. If you feel you can take the hand down with a raise, overbet the pot and take it home.
9-9, 10-10, the death hand (J-J)
Quick hit: I hate pocket jacks. Who doesn't? Even though I hate them, they, along with 9s and 10s, are still extremely playable hands in just about any position. They aren't premium hands, so don't play them that way, but they will win you some big pots if played correctly.
Early position: I know what you are thinking, how could he tell us to raise with 9-9 preflop? Well, if you are going to play 9-9, you need to raise. Raising these three hands from early position will reduce the competition. If a player in earlier position than yourself raises, I'd be extremely careful of playing this pot, but if you have a good read, go for it.
Middle position: Entering the pot with these pairs is a must unless you face a lot of resistance. Be aggressive with these hands, because you aren't going to pick them up too often. Also remember that it's better to win a small pot than lose a big one, which is completely possible with these hands. If a player ahead of you has raised, you can call since you are in position, or reraise and put the pressure back on that player. Since there are more players to act after you, I would be tentative to reraise unless you are sure that it will create a heads-up situation.
Late position: If you are the first to enter the pot with these hands in late position, if you don't raise, you either (A) are praying you get outdrawn or (B) like to lose pots that you should win uncontested. Raising here will usually take care of the blinds, unless they wake up with a big hand. If a player ahead of you has raised, you can call since you are in position, or reraise and put the pressure back on that player.
Blinds: In either the small or big blind facing callers, a raise is necessary, that should eliminate some competition. If there is a raise ahead of you, a call is probably best. If you are facing a raise, then a reraise, you've got to lay them down.
Q-Q, K-K, A-A
Quick hit: Raise early, raise middle, raise late, raise often. Everyone loves these hands. Why wouldn't you? If you are holding any of these, there are so few hands that could beat you preflop (none if you have aces), that you need to be aggressive.
Early position: Raise. I'm not a fan of the theory that if you limp in with a big pocket pair preflop, you are going to get reraised and then you can reraise that person. It just doesn't happen that way. What if nobody raises, the big blind checks and the flop comes 2-3-4 and your opponent has 5-6? You need to get the junk hands out of the way, no matter what hand you hold. Every hand you hold has the potential to get outdrawn.
Middle position: This is the spot where you get a lot of the chips into the pot. If a player limps ahead of you, raise. If a player raises ahead of you, reraise to get more of their chips in the pot. You need to build the pot preflop, then take it. There is no benefit to you limping with these hands.
Late position: I'm almost breaking the record for most times in a column with the word raise in it, but I'm not worried about that. Raise! Play these hands strong, because that's what they are. Put in as many chips into the pot as you think your opponent will call.
Blinds: You guessed it: raise. The big blind should never check with a premium hand. Build the pot any way possible.
Additional note on premium hands in relation to online poker: When a strong opponent online raises the minimum, that should send up some red flags warning you that he or she has a monster pocket pair. People use the "min. raise" button online to build the pot, because almost any online player will call the minimum raise.

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