Poker Table Selection

Well, online poker players, to increase your winning chances it is essential to select the right poker table. Table selection in poker is very underrated and misunderstood. In live casinos you would usually have very little choice about which table you sit at, so table selection becomes more difficult when playing live poker. However, when playing online you have the choice from a long list of tables and you should use this choice to your advantage.This could make the difference between winning and losing during your next session.

Most poker players think selecting the table is simple, but unfortunately Poker Table Selection can be quite difficult with so many available tables, different types of games and thousands of poker players that you have never played with before.

As a rule of thumb you should combine a few criteria: Average Pot Size, Hands Per Hour and Voluntary Put Money In Pot ratio, time of play. For example: If the average pot size of two tables are identical, you should take your seat at the poker table with the lower Voluntary Put Money In Pot ratio percentage and the higher number of hands per hour, because at this tables the games are usually less aggressive and it should be much easier to win consistently.

In general, when the average pot size is higher you can also expect to win more with a winning hand. For Texas Hold ‘em Limit Games a average pot size of 10-times the Big Bet or above is an indicator for a good table. Keep in mind, many of the online card rooms are trying to show the public that they have the best action, so what they have done is included the last betting round by a player even if not called which throws off the average pot size. So look for this and adjust your calculations if needed. This could be quite misleading, if not properly checked.

A good Indicator for Poker Table Selection is the number of players seeing the flop: On a good table the Voluntary Put Money-In-Pot ratio should be between 25% -40%. Above 40% the game can be too "loose" with a lot of "maniac/crazy" players and it can be quite difficult to win consistently. Below a Voluntary Put Money In Pot ratio of 25% the game is too "tight" and the pots tend to be very small.

The average number of players per flop figure should influence our table selection depending on our own style of play too. If you consider yourself a tight player it may be better for you to choose the tables with a higher number of players per flop and pick up the occasional big pots, whereas if you are a loose player you may find it beneficial to play at the tables with low numbers of players per flop to pick up many of the small pots.

Further poker table selection criteria should be the average pot size; this is a red flag of weak opponents. The average pot size figure should give us how much action the players at the table are giving. The higher this figure is, the greater the amount of money you can expect to win.

Some additional indicators that you’re at the right table are when there are multiple players limping into the pot, players calling weak hands after limping, players showing weak hands outside of being in the blind and the obvious – huge raises on top quality hands/small raises will top quality hands.

You have to think about all aspects, even the tiny things. There are so many things in poker that can make you that much better, the more that you can do to improve your game and give yourself an edge, the better you will do. Fortunately, most players do not take advantage of the tiny things. That is why, when you do, you will have a huge edge.

Keep in mind also; once you have found a good poker table you should monitor it continuously, because in Online Poker the behaviour of the players at your poker table can change continuously.There are thousands of other tables out there, and you do not have to stay if the table no longer suits your style of play.

Poker table selection, if properly done, is one of the main reasons for you to keep winning in style and skill.

Building Your Bankroll Playing Razz Poker!

For all those people out there who are like me and give many hours of their life to the world of poker there are a variety of poker games that will catch your interest. H.O.R.S.E. poker has a wide range of games and one of the games is Razz.

In Razz, everyone is required to put in an ante before the cards are dealt. After three cards are dealt (one card up and two secret cards), Razz plays much like seven-card stud poker with a few little twist. The highest card will start the bring-in. On all other rounds of the games the lowest ranking hand will act first. If there is a tie of low hands showing the first player clockwise from the dealer will be first to act. Another small difference is the fact if a player pairs his door card (4^th street), there is no double bet option like in seven-card stud.

At showdown, the lowest ranking hands will win. Aces will count as a low card and flushes and straights will be ignored. Just like seven-card stud, the best five-card hand will win. To figure out which hands wins is simple enough, you just start with the top card and work you way down.

For example:

Player one- 9-7-4-3-A

Player two- 9-7-4-2-A

Player three- 6-4-3-2-A

Player three has the best hand and will win the pot.

Razz poker is a game of patience but well-timed ante stealing is a great strategy to learn especially when moving up into higher limits. If the bring-in player is to your left and all other players have folded up to you, you should complete the bet to try to steal the bring-in and the antes. Another stealing opportunity is when you have the lowest card on third-street (prefer to have reasonable secret cards) and second lowest up card in late position if all other players fold up to you. Stealing in lower limits is a rough road to take at times as players love to play and see more cards, so do not get carried away.

Later streets become more difficult to bluff in compared to other poker games. It’s not impossible but it’s definitely one of those areas where you want to pick your spots wisely. Spots to look for include times where you open cards present you with more possibilities than your opponents.

Live and dead cards are a very important aspect in any poker game and especially in Razz. Many games you want your cards to be alive but Razz you would rather prefer them to be dead. For example: If your cards are 2-3-4 and you look around the board and see two other threes and one four and one deuce, this is an ideal situation for you not to pair your cards in later streets giving you a better chance of improving you hand.

So many of the players who play Razz really do not understand the game! They become over aggressive and try to steal or push people out of the pot at the incorrect times or just do not know when to fold a hand. Razz is a game of patience and you should treat it that way.

Remember one thing, do your homework on a new game before entering the battlefield and your out-come will be much better for your bankroll. You should consider learning how to play Razz poker. The expertise of your opponents in Razz poker is much larger than players in no limit poker. This is a perfect way to make money!

Saint Louis Riverboat Gambling

A cultural reference to most of the people in the entire world, this mythic river down south showed me everything your adrenaline desires. It wasn’t Las Vegas with all the lights and late night entertainment, but I found there was tons of action at the poker and blackjack tables. The Lumiere Casino offers 1-3 NLH every day and 5-10 NLH Texas Hold ’em two days a week. They even have a live straddle of up to 5 times the blind. Their staff of friendly dealers will happily show you the ropes and make you feel right at home. It’s a place you’ll want to be with friends every night of the week.

After playing a large amount of NL Hold ‘em for six days, I was ready for a change. Over hearing one of the players talking of all the large Omaha pots that were played down the street at Harrah’s Casino, I had to go see with my own eyes. The action was defiantly fast and furious and I was ready to get in the game swinging.

The casino trip was a big success and I have to credit it to a few tips I picked up over the years playing Omaha Hi-Lo. The first thing I learned about Omaha Hi-Lo is to make sure that every hand I Play has the potential to scoop both the high and low side of the pot at the same time. Playing Aces suited with other cards in your hand are the best starting hands, for example: As-2s-Ad-3d or As-2s-Ad-Kd.

Playing to many hands in early position in this game can be costly. Being a drawing game, seeing other player act first if defiantly a huge advantage. Position will ensure that you lose less money when behind in a hand and get to build a big pot when ahead.

Avoid being quartered; this is when you share the low or high side of the pot while losing the other half of the pot. This will often happen on the low side of the pot when you are playing with no back up low cards. Before the flop the danger hands are ‘bare A-2’ or ‘bare A-3’ hands, these are hands with the 2 low cards and no additional backup for the low side of the pot. When you do make the nut low in a multi way pot, it is best to check and call in this situation to avoid being raised by the nut high and being quartered.

I hope these tips help you the next time you sit at a Omaha Hi-Lo table and make your next riverboat poker trip a success.

Reading Poker Players

A fundamental part of playing poker is reading other poker players poker hands. Reading your opponents to determine what cards they are holding is part science and psychology that takes time to master. It is not an easy skill to learn, it takes many hours at the tables and patience to develop. It also involves paying attention during the game even when you are not in a hand.

Reading poker players should be done systematically. Possibilities are narrowed down until the options become specific enough to place a player on a hand. While each poker player has their own playing style, there are basically only four main categories of players.

The loose aggressive type of player, in my opinion, is the weakest. These poker players are constantly raising hands before and after the flop with not much strength. Their strategy often works against weak players and will win a lot of mini pots, but most times, these players will go broke in a short period of time. Reading these poker players is the easiest.

Loose-passive players are viewed as a weak player. Good players are looking to exploit their weakness. A loose-passive player plays a lot of hands and does a lot of calling. They won’t make you pay when you’re beat or on a draw, but you will be able to extract the maximum number of bets from them when they are drawing against you. Reading poker players is an easy task sometimes, and this proves it.

Most poker players try to play tight-aggressive poker. This type of player is viewed as playing only premium hands and betting them aggressively, forcing opponents to make decisions and mistakes and reading these poker players is a bit tough.

Loose aggressive type of player plays many hands and raises with them often. You can make a lot of real money off them, but be careful, their aggressive betting can trap you in a big hand as well and snap you off for all your chips. Reading poker players of this category is a bit tough too, because you never know when you might lose it big!

The more you know about the opponents you're in the hand with, the better. By spending the time studying your opponents' actions, you’ll know what the right play to make when it counts. This post actually is one of my shorter ones but reading poker players is not rocket science and its fairly easy when you are aware of what you are going to do when you sit at the table and play out your hands.