Poker Reviews

Here’s some stuff that has helped me put some extra cash in my wallet.

Tip # 1 Here’s a great way to tell if you suck at poker (in case your not sure), Keep a spread sheet!!! Starting now log your wins and losses, dates etc… Even who you played with if you want to really keep track of what’s going on with your game. If you play a lot It’ll be pretty clear if you need to adjust your game or not, or maybe find a group of friends who are playing on the same level as you (beginner, advanced etc), cause getting as good as those guys who are consistently beating you is gonna get pricy! The school of hard knocks sucks, which brings be to my next tip.

Tip # 2  READ A BOOK!!! No not “To Kill a Mockingbird” a book on poker by someone who seems to win a lot, your Daniel Negraneaus, your Phill Helmuths, Doyle Brunson, ANY BOOK!!! These guys aren’t winning consistently because they’re lucky. They’ve been there done that and you can’t put a price on experience. So take $20 bucks and go get a poker book! Daniel Negraneau says “The day you admit you don’t know everything about poker is the day you actually start learning something”.  



Tip #3 Practice!!! Go log on to Full Tilt and open an account, try to play tournaments with your make believe chips, why tournaments? People tend to play tighter if they know that in order to cash they have to finish in the top 2 or 3. On line for fake chips people are total idiots and it becomes Bingo not Poker in “fake cash games” if anything you’ll get sucked into playing like a donkey cause “Hey, that guy just pushed all in with 7-3 off suit and won, why can’t I?” Cause you unlike him are trying to get better.

If you’re generally playing a home game with 4 to eight people in your weekly game, then don’t get all crazy in a 27 man tournament. Simulate your weekly game, use what the Pro’s told you and what knowledge you have and develop your game.

Tip#4 Set limits for yourself! Hold’em is a sick perverted game in which you are constantly trying to take other people’s money, God I love this game! But if you walk into a friendly cash game with $100 dollars be prepared to walk out without it. At the end of the night you walk to your car, cry on the way home, wonder how much of that $100 your gonna tell the wife you lost, but hey nobody made you push all in with pocket 3’s, you lost, Accept it. Even if you think you did everything right, you still are gonna have those nights. Only risk what your willing to lose.

Tip# 5 No book can teach you this one…but it is soooo important. PATIENCE!!!  If you have it then your probably a better poker player than most of your friends so cheers.

So there I am, I’m card dead, I forgot what a face card looks like and I’ve had 4-10 no less than 6 times in the last hour, well I can do one of two things, Get up and walk out or, wait for some cards. I suggest getting up and leaving but that’s no fun!  So be patient and wait for a decent hand. It also puts people on high alert that if your in a hand you probably finally got something so play that K-Q aggressively.

May the Nutz be with you!

Poker Connects announces its Beta launch to members of the Philadelphia poker community. PokerConnects is a forum to help poker players find home games in the Philadelphia area. The website functions similarly to craigslist and other classified sites. Hosts can post their game using the “create a game” form, filling out details of their home games. Players can then browse games and contact the hosts directly. Similarly, players can post what they are looking for with the “looking for a game” form, and hosts of games can then contact them directly. PokerConnects is completely anonymous and free to use. No registration or login is required.

Poker Connects Areas of Operation

PokerConnects is currently only open to members of the Philadelphia poker community, but we hope to expand the site to other cities in the near future. We also plan to launch a number of new features. Our goal is to make the site a social hub for poker players around the country and world. We would love feedback and comments on our site as we move forward with development

We are pleased to announce that www.pokerconnects.com, the place to find poker players and home games online, has had over 10 games and 30 players post to our site within the first month of launch. We have subscribers from Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs in Delaware and New Jersey. We are excited about this growth and hope to continue to generate new visitors and posters. Our goal is to be the ultimate destination for poker-related content on the web. We are planning an expansion to other cities in the near future.

News Stream – Unique Feature of Poker Connects

We also recently launched a new feature, the PokerConnects News Stream. Every day, we pull three interesting pieces of poker-related content from a large database of websites and display the links on PokerConnects. We display a variety of content including videos, stories, and hands. Previous day’s entries are also visible in our archives. We hope you will enjoy News Stream and would love to hear any comments.

There are hundreds of poker rooms on the Internet serving millions of customers throughout the world. Since the game of poker has become one of the main sporting activities on television, people everywhere are now familiar with the varieties of poker and how the best players in the business manage their game. Many of the world’s best poker players got their start online in poker rooms. They were able to gain seats at prestigious professional events, such as the World Series of Poker.

The best way to become an accomplished poker player is through practice. Now, if you learn by competing in tournaments online, you could lose quite a bit of money in the process. If you’re smart, you can find a less costly way to improve your poker prowess, and that’s by playing on free poker sites. Free poker sites offer you the opportunity to play the most popular variety of poker games by studying the rules of the game first, and then practicing what you have learned.

When you play poker online on free poker sites, you can take ample advantage of the tutorials that are offered, while preparing yourself to compete in poker tournament play online. The World Series of Poker originated in Reno, Nevada in 1968, and it has been a fan favourite ever since. It is the epitome of poker honours, and the winner is embraced as a World Poker Champ.

When you play poker online at free poker sites, you are gaining the experience it takes to become a champion. You don’t need to spend too much time in training in order to rise rapidly in the sport of poker. For example, Jerry Yang is a recent winner of the World Series of Poker, which is the ultimate event of the professional poker tour. Jerry won the championship despite having less than two years experience in the game of poker.

The same success can belong to you. All you need to do is practice your craft, and the best way to hone your skills is to play poker online at free poker sites. In this manner, you will be gaining an education in the game of poker without spending any of your own money, and you will learn the tricks to increase your winnings.

Poker chips are small, but the success of a poker game depends on this accessory. Understanding the differences between the basic types of poker chips is important because it will help you decide which type of chip is right for you. The different types of poker chips vary from plastic, composite and clay and thousands of designs are available as well. Many poker players are curious about the basic types of chips and what makes a poker chip better or worse than the rest.

Let’s start answering these questions by explaining that plastic chips are the most inexpensive ones. These functional chips are thin and can be had for about $4 for 100 chips. The styles and colors are limited and the durability is questionable but the chips made of 100% plastic are a great option if you want to organize a casual game. Besides, these poker chips are lightweight, as well as replaceable and compact, which makes them great for travel.

There was a time when stacking plastic poker chips was not possible, but now the system has been improved by brands such as Bicycle, allowing the chips to interlock. Again, using plastic poker chips will not impress your home game opponents but using them on any trip is a great idea. Some disadvantages of these types of chips are that counting them from any distance is very difficult, measuring up the stack of your opponents is almost impossible and the price of these poker chips makes cheating a lot easier.

Diamond poker chips are a significant improvement considering the small price increase compared to plastic chips. Diamond chips weigh 8 grams and add a casino feel to any game. The material of these chips is a composite resin and wider varieties of colors are available. The chips cost roughly $8-$10 for 100 chips. The quality of the diamond chips varies between distributors; most of these chips are imported into the United States, mainly from China and Taiwan. There’s practically no clay in this composite mixture, and even though the injection point of the resin is visible you will not feel it.

The textured surface of most diamond chips makes them easy to handle. Most of the brands of these chips don’t have slim and round edges but the matte finish gives a decent look to the chips, which is appreciated when trying to organize inexpensive games. The diamond poker chips are cheap and you can find them easily, which means that not too many serious poker games will use them but smaller home poker games or well monitored games can be played with these chips. The value and durability of the diamond poker chips is great, casual home poker games or dorm room games are the perfect occasions to use these chips.

The most common composite poker chips are the familiar chip designs that have been used in many home poker games across the country and in videos, book covers and marketing photos for tournaments. The composite poker chips weigh 11.5 grams and some people consider them the new plastic chip; however, the differences are more than evident: the look of the composite chips is smooth and glossy, and when these chips are stacked the edge spots make them attractive.

The composite poker chips have a wide variety of chip faces and the ability to personalize the game becomes endless because of all the customization options available. The composite poker chips are a high-quality product that facilitates heat stamping and labeling, and the $12-$15 for 100 chips price is still relatively low. These chips are made of a metal disc that is surrounded by a mixture of clay and resin.

The 11.5 gram weight comes from the metal insert, lending a feeling of quality and authenticity and giving a more distinctive sound to the chips. Unlike the textured diamond poker chips the feel of a composite chip is smooth and there’s a much more discreet injection point for the composite mixture which creates a more complete casino experience. Overall, composite poker chips are the dominant chip for home poker games because of their durability, price, chip faces and customizations available.

Clay poker chips are the most popular ones, since the look, feel and sound of these chips is inimitable. Capturing the casino experience at a home poker game without clay poker chips is impossible; however, these chips haven’t been available for home games for very long. These days imported clay poker chips are available as alternatives to the more expensive clay chips from U.S. manufacturers. These imported chips are as durable as the domestic chips but the quality of design and aesthetic is not the same.

The most common type of clay poker chip for home poker games is the 13 gram Casino Clay chip. A metal insert is used in these chips to provide a substantial weight but the disc is enveloped with clay and not resin, which results in a chip with deeper tone, richer texture and softer feel and finish – clay poker chips never lose luster. Chips used in casinos generally weigh only 10 grams and have a label with the card room’s name. Since there’s no metal insert these clay chips are usually considered “ceramic chips.”

Most clay chips are not made of pure clay anymore; this material has been replaced by composites that are known for delivering better security, economy and results in most of the largest casinos in the world, while the new materials let players enjoy the feel of clay chips. Don’t be obsessed with clay when deciding which set of poker chips is right for you, remember that clay is a common substance that can be found in the ground – it is not very valuable, it is not gold.

Some people believe that if a poker chip is not made of clay then this chip is not the best. This idea has to change: in the past 75 years not too many casinos have used true clay poker chips. Nowadays the composite materials provide more durability, strength and handling, facilitating a more vivid screening and labeling. Buying 100% clay poker chips does not necessarily mean that the person will get a superior product.

In this article You are going to discover how to get free texas hold em poker lessons from online poker schools. Not only will You learn how to play poker for free, but You also get free poker money to start playing with at real money tables. No deposit is required to get a free poker bonus and lessons.

Online Poker is booming for quite a while now and more and more people want to learn how to play poker. A while ago the only way to get a decent poker education was to read a good poker book like the ones from Doyle Brunson or Harrington for example. But the online poker boom has also brought up a new way of learning the game of poker. Online Texas HoldEm Poker Schools.

These free poker schools over a wide variety of material to help You learn how to play poker online. You usually have the choice of watching videos or reading poker strategy articles and discussing specific hands or strategies in a forum with other members. The bigger poker schools even offer free live coaching sessions with experienced online poker players.

Here’s an other great spect of the concept behind these poker schools. You join the poker school for free and get instant access to the basic lessons. After You have mastered the basics You are given the opportunity to take a quiz, that will verify Your newly gained poker knowledge. Passing the quiz will give You the chance to get a no deposit poker bonus from the poker school at one of their partner poker rooms.

You can then use the free poker bonus code and lessons to start building a poker bankroll for free. Apply what You have learned in the poker school and grow Your free poker money. If You keep playing and reach a certain amount of frequent player points the poker school will give You additional free poker money.

The good thing about online poker schools compared to poker books or DVDs is that everyone will find the right medium to learn with. If You are not feeling comfortable with reading articles about poker, then switch to the video section and learn by watching the strategy videos You are offered. The live coaching and the forum gives You the chance to get in touch with other players, discuss Your poker strategy and learn a lot from mistakes others have already made for You.

Since the poker education You get is free and supplies You with a starting capital without investing own money You can start playing online poker without any financial risk. This way typical beginner’s mistakes ( and we all make them when we start playing poker ) will not cost You any of Your own money. This takes a lot of pressure from You and helps You to develop Your best game.

Hold-em or fold-em? That is the question. And if you can make the correct decision at key times during regular cash games, or even tournaments (I’ll get into tournament play in the upcoming installments), then you’ll be on top of the game, not under the table.

The game of poker is not really a game, but rather a testament of will, wisdom, patience, and a little bit of luck. Okay, maybe more than just a little luck.

First things first, where do you play? Well, for simple and easy access to casinos and card rooms in your vicinity, log on to 104Poker.com. With its state-of-the-art geo-targeting technology, it will automatically bring up the closest casinos to you – without having to type in your zip code! I tried it and it really worked for me. I simply logged on to 104Poker.com and it gave me a listing of all the casinos in my area, conveniently with addresses, phone numbers, and even a link to get me directions.

Okay, poker junkies, now that we know how to get there, let’s prepare with a crash course on strategic play for the “Cadillac of Poker” – Texas Hold ‘Em.

Pre-Flop play (Part 1)

Everyone is dealt two cards, face down. Simple enough, right? Well, looking at your cards seems like an easy task, however it will determine the entire tone set for the hand. The key is not to look at your cards until it’s your turn. And don’t bust out your cell phone and text your friend at the next table. Look at your opponents’ reactions as they look at their cards. Did you see it? Did you see that look of disgust on someone’s face, and the eyes of another player light up? Well, it’s these subconscious pieces of information that you will need to determine whether to hold-em, or fold-em.

Stay tuned for Part II of Pre-Flop play, coming soon!

 

Pre-Flop play, Part II

OK poker fans, in our last installment we began to touch on the fine art of reading players pre-flop. The key is information – and speaking of information, if you need any help finding casinos or anything poker related, log on to 104Poker.com

Now, every single movement, action, reaction can be used against the player at the table at any time; in any case, we’ll get into reading players later in this series. Let’s deal with working on pre-flop play. The biggest deciding factor for you to either fold or hold your cards can be summed up by one word: position. Position. Position. Position.

You see that little white disc on the table labeled ‘dealer’? Where that little guy is will determine how you play your hand. If you have the ‘dealer’ disc in front of you (term known as being ‘on the button’) you are in the strongest position because you get to act after everyone else; in this position, you can see how many players have already folded, who’s raised, etc. Why is this an advantage? Simply put, would you rather face-off with 10 players or just 3 or 4? The higher the number of players in a pot, the higher percentage of your hand getting cracked by a potentially worse starting hand.

Here’s a little cheat-sheet. You want to be as close to that button as possible, so that you can see more of your opponents’ movements prior to you making your move, ultimately making your decision easier. For example, let’s say you are dealt 10-J off-suit. If you were in late position and one person raised and a few people called, you would lay down this mediocre hand. However, if you are on the button and half the table has folded, then you can pounce on your opponents with timely aggression, raising the pot to try to steal blinds. And in the event the remaining player(s) call you, you will still have the luxury of acting after they do, making your decision to check, raise, or fold that much easier.

This may be a bit of information overload at the moment, so I’ll let you soak that in until my next installment. In the meantime, go to 104Poker.com for all your poker needs!

 

Poker Play – On the flop and beyond!

Welcome back, poker fanatics. Well, we’ve covered what to do pre-flop, so let’s get down to what to do on the flop. Your action should and can be summarized in one word – aggression! In the same manner that 104Poker.com is aggressively going after what the people want, you should go after what’s rightfully yours – all the money in that pot.

So, there you are. You raised pre-flop and everyone has checked to you. After already establishing a strong hand with your initial raise, place a bet approximately ? of the pot, regardless if your hand has improved or not. This aggression will more times than not lead to victory. It won’t always work, but by putting pressure on your opponents, you get them on their heels.

This tactic should be utilized on the turn and the river as well. So, what’s your next step? Why not try your skills out on a real poker table. Simply log on to 104Poker.com and it get a listing of all the casinos in your area, conveniently with addresses, phone numbers, and even a link for directions. Go out, have fun, play relaxed, and good luck!