Poker Reviews

Many players wanting to play online poker for the first time think it is easier than it really is to make big money. While you can make big money, you need to be prepared.

Here are ten tips that will help you maximize your winnings in online poker:

Poker Tip 1: Know Your Game

When playing online poker for the first time, it is best not to jump in at the deep end, but learn the basics first and then play free games until you are comfortable with the way you play.

Poker Tip 2: Focus on One Game of Poker

Many new players try out all variations of poker at once, which is a mistake – concentrate on one game and get familiar with it. This will help you focus and develop a clear strategy. Do you want to play seven card stud, Texas hold’em or Omagh hold’em? Decide in advance.

Poker Tip 3: Allocate Your Budget

Set your bankroll and stick with it. Don’t be tempted to chase losses and have a profit target where you quit the table.

Poker is fun and you can make big money, but don’t start committing money you cannot afford to lose.

Poker Tip 4: Be Selective with the Hands that You Play

Playing to many hands will lose you money; you need to be selective and patient.

You need to discipline yourself to fold when you have a bad hand, you might want to bluff sometimes, but don’t do it too often and only do it in the right circumstances.

Poker Tip 5: Learn Other Player’s Strategy

Other players are watching you and your strategy and you need to do the same to them.

By working out their play, you can gain an extra edge and enhance your winnings from the pot.

Poker Tip 6: Take a Break

If you’re having a bad time at the tables, or find that you are not enjoying the game, take a break.

To win at poker you need to fully focus on your strategy, if not you will probably lose.

Poker Tip 7: Bet Correctly

betting correctly and taking risks is an essential part of winning at poker. Make sure that you are only betting sensibly when the odds of winning are in your favour.

Under no circumstances whatsoever, lose focus when you lose or chase your losses.

Poker Tip 8: Don’t try to be Clever in Low-Limit Online Poker

Don’t try to be too clever in any low-limit tables. You will be up against players who are mostly inexperienced and unfamiliar with poker strategy and you will find your clever bluff goes over their heads and at low limit tables they will be tempted to call you!

Poker Tip 9: You Need to Move Up

Although it is possible for you to win big money at lower limit tables, the big money is made at higher limit tables.

It is here that if you have a good strategy you will make big money, as you are normally playing against players who know what they are doing, so move up only when you are confident.

Poker Tip 10: Formulate a Strategy and Practice!

Whatever game you play you must have a clear strategy that gives you an edge against other players.

This requires time and effort.

You need to have a betting strategy, know how to bluff, how to slow play etc. and remember that practice makes perfect.

To become a good poker player takes time and experience.

Poker-Spy has been around for longer than most other poker calculators and quietly ushered in the classification of empirical poker calculators. That being the type that offered you not only poker odds and drawing information while extracting the pertinent data from your poker screen, but also keeping track of you and your opponent’s profiles.

In fact, with Poker-Spy, profiling becomes the main thrust of this software along with hand history data to use during and after your game. While playing, Poker-Spy devised a readable hand history grid that progresses until all action for the most recent 17 hands are displayed with the winner and amount of the pot, while reminding you of your hole cards and those of any opponents that were revealed during play. Within this grid, you can click on any of those hands (they are numbered for easy reference) that occurred for more detailed betting, position, and pot information. The cross grid panel illuminates by way of background color extra information too, offering up data showing which players were not in the hand, pre-flopped raised, or simply saw the flop. Now all of these grid sections and squares can be a little confusing at first, but I think Poker-Spy does a nice job here of making this data quite clear and understandable. In cash and ring games, it also classifies your opponent into the classic poker player profile grid first described by Dr. Alan Schoonmaker, in his book the Psychology of Poker – as in Loose-Passive and Tight-Aggressive etc.

While hand play is in progress at your table, Poker-Spy created the patent pending Alert System that with tiny, numbered and colored circles adjacent to the players name within the Poker-Spy tracking grid, you can quickly view what Poker-Spy has deemed “questionable” play from your opponents. These visual aids help you quickly discern plays such as blind plays, out-of-position moves, or re-raises perhaps. The extent that such plays are made numerous times is represented within those circles by a corresponding digit clearly visible.

The data itself is further transformed into a database of hand history analysis that you may find yourself poring over to find out things like, what hand you play that has won you the most money, or lost you’re the most money. What position at the table is most or least profitable for you? Your pre-flop and post-flop play is also measured statistically for your own benefit as well. These reports of you and opponents you have played against are managed in the hand summary report, the hand analysis report, and the player report. In a substantial way, Poker-Spy`s value lays within these reports which have done well by this program in the growing days of online poker. I personally recommended this software nearly two years ago now, but let`s fast forward to Poker-Spy 2.0 which was recently updated with a few new features, albeit hard to find as they were.

I was rather enthused about the update when Poker-Spy contacted me for another review, but when playing with the software, I had to look really closely to actually find the improvements. One of the improvements is a new set of alert indicators that include possible river bluffs made by your opponents. This is a feature that could be useful to new players, although it doesn’t offer any clue as to what your opponent has, the make-up of the board and the tendency of your opponent contribute to this marker. The other new feature in Poker-Spy is an addition to the extensive reports that includes pre-flop play in many different categories including position, raises and re-raises, and hole card strength.

Although Poker-Spy paved the way for some in-depth analysis of a poker player`s weaknesses, other programs have certainly tripled up on what seems to be a slow, but methodical progression to Poker-Spy. Truly I expected far more for a major update in terms of its poker calculator functions and its potential to work with other software simultaneously. In fact, I now fear that Poker-Spy is suffering from over-programming without sufficient poker-player input.

The designers at Poker-Spy have never really been aggressive marketers of the software and I think this inhibits some of the feedback that they might otherwise be getting from a field of affiliates more attuned to the game and the what the players are interested in – in terms of poker calculators. You can even get a sense for this lack of ambition in the presentation of the Poker-Spy website which really in its present day mock-up, could be a grand relic of the waybackmachine.

With all that said, Poker-Spy2 has actually dropped to 2 of 4 aces in the Poker Calculator Report value ranking. Not because Poker-Spy2 isn`t better than the original Poker-Spy, but because it`s features and operating program are now clearly behind several other empirical poker calculator products and self analysis software programs.

So you want to play some Caribbean Stud Poker? Well, playing any casino game without knowing the ins and outs is rather foolish. Today, I’ll share some Caribbean Stud Poker tips with you and you’ll be a better player for it.

This game does have some player interaction, unlike a game like Baccarat, so you can affect the final outcome that is your bankroll. The big decision in Caribbean Stud Poker is deciding to stay in or fold. Remember, you’re playing against the dealer only. The other players don’t factor in at all-aside from taking cards.

Let’s talk odds

What are your chances of receiving a bum hand? How about a flush? By knowing the following odds, you might be able to make your choices better.

The biggest thing to remember is that one out of every two hands will have nothing at all. This goes for both you and the dealer. And this is why I love playing the progressive. I’m telling you right now, nothing is worse than getting a four of a kind, having the dealer not qualify and watching your big payday go up in flames.

On average, you’ll get one pair every two hands. And that’s where the favorable odds end. You’ll see two pair about once every 21 hands and three of a kind once every 47 hands.

The odds really start to jump now. A straight will show up once per 256 hands, a flush once per 526 hands and a full house every 694 hands.

The big three hands show up infrequently. You’ll see a four of a kind once per 4,167 hands and a straight flush about every 72,202 hands. Think that’s high? There’s one hand left-the Royal Flush. The big daddy of all hands. Don’t hold your breath. The Royal Flush comes once per 649,351 hands on average.

So, if a four of a kind only comes every 4,167, why play the progressive? In Caribbean Stud Poker, the progressive is paid for a flush-once per 526 hands-and a full house-once per 694 hands.

The progressive is paid out no matter what the dealer has. And according to our odds, the dealer will fail to qualify very often. I know many pros say the progressive is a sucker’s bet, but given these odds, not using it is like playing Russian Roulette. You’re just waiting to get screwed.

In part two, I’ll give you three or four great playing tips for Caribbean Stud Poker. By the time you’re done, you’ll be a pro. Money can be made at this game. But, if nothing else, knowing the odds and the tips I’ll show you, will add fun to your playing time.