Poker Combinations

A great article for all those poker starters who do not yet know which cards give which combinations and/or which combinations are the best and which are the worst. Don’t get lost in cards again and start predicting your combinations more often.

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How To Play On Poker Freerolls

If you think, that after reading this article you will only win at poker freerolls - you are wrong! Because when you lose another freeroll, I bet you never thought about mistakes you did or any improvements you should make in your playing strategy. In most cases, you will blame bad luck or bad cards. Basically, the target of this article, is to provide you with useful information about freeroll strategy and point players to the biggest mistakes they make during their game. Ready?

Most of the freerolls I played at are divided in 3 stages (even if some are not, the strategy is very similar, you might just feel the stages described below)

First stage of the freeroll

Or the so called losers filtering stage. A lot of people go All-In before Flop or play high bets with bad cards. Exactly this is the right moment of the game when you should need to become a leader of your table or even tournament. While bets are 20, 30 and 50 - you play all cards. This includes:

• all cards that are higher than 9
• A/K + any same suite card (for example 6 K)
• connectors, or following cards (6 7)
• all pairs, including 2’s

Your target for the first stage is to to get your chip count higher than $5000. $10000 is a great achievement.

Second stage of the freeroll

Most losers are gone, but there are still some left. Careful players are dominating, so we have to change the style of our game a little bit. Always remember, placing bet in an early position, you might get an All-In on flop, this way you will just lose your bet. so we have to increase our card requirements a little bit. Now we play only with:

• all pairs
• high cards, like A + Q, K +Q, A+K
• any card + A or K (same suits)

Your target for second stage is to get your stack higher than $40,000. Stack $60,000-$80,000 counts as a perfect achievement.

Third stage of the freeroll

Now we set very high card requirements, as most careful players are out there. This is also a stage where bluff comes in. You should bluff too, but if you are feeling someone is stronger than you, it is not worth it, just drop the cards. Now we play only with:

• high cards (A K Q J) with the same suit
• all pairs higher than 9

Last thing to say, don’t go All-In with only one pair, do not try to get flush or straight for big money. Don’t trust your game to the dealer.

Good luck winning your first freeroll - the tournament where all poker players started.

Rules for Texas Hold Em Poker

When you sit at the table, your first questions probably are like, where am I and how should I play? In this article, I will try to do my best and explain the best I can, how you play the most popular poker game - Texas Hold Em.

The first thing you must have noticed, is that you play with 9 players (10 if counting you). These are players just like you, playing from their homes on their computers. On some online poker sites (not on all) there are people called “dealers” who deal the cards. Usually “dealers” are marked with D sign. Before start of every hand, dealer changes clockwise.

2 players, who are sitting after the dealer, are required to pay bids. The player who sits right after the dealer is Small Blind, and the 2nd players after the dealer is Big Blind. The required bid depends on the bid,which is currently on the table. For example, if bid is $0,25-$0,50, then Small Blind will pay $0,25 (no matter if he wants to play or not), and Big Blind will pay $0,50. When bets are done, cards are dealt.

The players target is to get the best combination he can. At first, you are given 2 cards, and 5 cards after. The 2 cards are only yours, but the 5 cards (which are on the table) belong to all players.

Player received 2 cards, which can see only himself. This stage is called “Preflop”. You have 3 actions to choose from:

Fold - Drop your cards and don’t bet anything (this way you’re exiting from current hand)

Call - Bet the required amount of chips and play with your cards

Raise - Raise the bet

Right after all players took their decision, 3 cards appear on the table. This stage is called “Flop”. Please note that these cards belong to all players, and they start to build possible combinations from their 5 cards now (2 theirs and 3 on the table). You also have actions to choose from, but now 4 of them:

Fold - If some did bet before you and you don’t want to play, pressing Fold will drop your cards

Check - If no one did bet before you can just press Check and continue playing.

Call - If someone did bet before you, you can just “Call” his bet, and continue playing.

Raise - Raise action will raise the bet till how much you want.

After everyone took their decision, 4th card is being shown on the table. People now build combinations out of 6 cards. This stage is called “Turn”. The process with betting repeats as in “Flop”

After everyone have the betting process done, the 5th card is shown. This stage is called “River”, but it isn’t the last round. The last round is “Showdown”, which means all players reveal their cards, and who has the best combination takes the pot.

World Series of Poker Academy In L.A In September

As you may have guessed World Series of Poker (or WSOP) Academy is basically a school, poker school of course, which is dedicated for starting poker players. But it’s not just a poker school, your teachers are professional poker players, and most of them competed and some of them even won WSOP events. This is the main reason why this poker school is called so.

For the first time ever, WSOP academy will be in Los Angelos in September. The poker school will be going to Bicycle Casino from September 6 till 7th of September. Good thing is, Kenny Tran is joining the instructors squad, and will be helping them to teach people to play poker. We would like to remind, that Kenny Tran is a winner of WSOP 2008 bracelet (and by the way, that event he also won $540,000), so he has some good tips to share. Kenny will be helping with team of Annie Duke, Joe Navarro, Alex Outhred and others.

The Academy will host in-depth seminars, live hands, various good handbooks from pros and many other useful stuff. The Academy covers everything about the game, including positions from which you should play & calculating pot odds. Whether pupils want to be good at home table with friends, or they want to compete in WSOP, playing with top professional poker players on one table. Be the best in No Limit Texas Holdem!

As we have mentioned, Joe Navarro (who is by the way former FBI agent) will be going to Los Angelos, to participate in helping students from WSOP Academy.

“I look forward to working with WSOP Academy students in Los Angeles to help them see inside their opponents and change the way they view the game,” Navarro said.

Right after one day of instructions, the Academy will host a tournament, and the main prize is $5,000 seat at WSOP Circuit event.

The cost of learning in such poker school is $1,499 and space is limited (only 100 entrants). Additional details you can find on official WSOP Academy website - http://www.wsopacademy.com

Texas Holdem Online Poker

Thanks to the invention of Internet, we can now play poker at home, and this thing is called online poker. You have a choice to play Texas Holdem or Omaha (at some poker sites, there are other types, like 7 Card Stud & 5 Card Draw). Omaha and Holdem are both known very well, but I would say that Texas Holdem is a bit more popular. There are more rooms which play Texas Holdem, and even all the newbies freerolls Texas Holdem games. I can’t say which game I prefer more, I like both of them, and it’s really a matter of choice, which game you like more. But I think Texas Holdem is better for a newbie, who is only starting to play online poker. Personally I prefer to play Omaha at casino.

By the way, it’s worth mentioning, that Texas Holdem is currently the most popular poker game in casinos and in online poker card rooms all across North America and Europe. During the 2000’s active exposure of Texas Holdem, it replaced the popular 7 Card Stud game, which was very common game in US. I think the ability of playing anonymously and cheaply, were the main reasons why Holdem became so popular these days (and of course because of it’s betting form).

So it’s just up to you, what you like and dislike. It’s up to you to decide whether yo uwant to play Holdem or Omaha (or even both) at online poker rooms, one thing is for sure, you have to try first, and make conclusions after. I just think Holdem is more popular and is easier for a poker newbie, but it’s just my opinion. Good luck in your poker ventures and have fun playing this awesome card game!

What Is World Series Of Poker (WSOP)?

If you at least played poker once, you must have heard about WSOP or World Series Of Poker Tournament tournament. It’s not really one tournament, it’s a large set of tournaments. World Series Of Poker is held every year in Las Vegas - the city of poker! Since 2007, WSOP consists of 55 events, and of course the most famous - “Main Event”! The winner of each event receives World Series Of Poker bracelet and a money prize based on how many players were at the event. The biggest cash prize was in 2006, that year Jamie Gold won $12,000,000 and of course a bracelet! For all poker players, it is a big honor to win a WSOP bracelet!

But the most important event, is “Main Event”, with $10,000 no-limit hold’em, which since 2004 gathered thousands in contestants. The “Main Event” is one of the best hold em poker tournaments ever.

First WSOP tournament was played in 1970 it was first and last WSOP tournament without any cash prize. There were only 7 entrants that year (comparing 6844 in 2008). After 1971 (including) all tournaments were awarded by cash prize. First winner of WSOP in 1970 was Johnny Moss, the true poker legend. If it wouldn’t be for him and Nick the Greek and Binion, WSOP would never be born, and heck, maybe poker wouldn’t be so popular as it is nowadays. I even think there wouldn’t be online poker, if it wouldn’t be for him!

You want to go to WSOP in future? Train hard and play every day, it is possible, it is the only advice I could give you. Remember, nothing is impossible!

Links:

• World Series of Poker (WSOP) 1970-2008 results