Your poker life

Do you want to play poker and make it your game where you perform at your best levels during tournaments? Read on then.

Setting goals

Once you know what to do with your love of poker, you need to set your goals. Make sure that you make realistic, measurable, specific, and relevant poker goals.

Action

Setting goals will not get you anywhere unless you act on them. Look at your list and determine what you need to do in order to achieve each of them.

Diet

Your body and your brain will function depending on what you feed it. So you have to look into your diet and see factors like the size of your meals, composition, or maybe the timing.

Training

Your body needs to be in good condition. If you are in a better shape, the higher the chances that you can keep up with the demands of the game. You can focus more even if you have long sessions of poker.

Improve your game

Analyze your weakness by reviewing your games as much as possible. Feed your poker hungry brain with wisdom from the masters of the game. Read and watch poker videos when you can. Of course, play a lot of poker and try to maintain your balance so you go home with some winnings at the end each session.

King Jack Off Suit

While playing poker a player would implement a different strategy so that his moves are dynamic and not predictable. Winning money is easy when you are playing a loose poker game. A poker player should have the flair of breaking free from the perceptions that the players have developed about him.  A superior poker player should be able to surprise, shock and fool the opponents most of the times while playing at the poker table.

Players should master the art of ruthlessly punishing their opponents. You should not always penalize your opponents in the same round if you have an edge over them. Endurance is important and you should not be foolish by displaying your emotions by a sly smile or any facial indication would surely give away your game. Later, in the game you may at times realize that your advantage is no more present and you are safe as you did not indulge in extra bets. You should avoid playing too many hands as only ideal players to that. Your strategy should be tailored in such a way that it should fit all the games being played on the poker table.

Your strategy should keep changing while playing poker games. Tight poker games are very gainful as the profit comes from stealing on the flop and not much from stealing blinds. If you are playing against more than one opponent then you should check on the flop and observe the move and bets of the opponents. If they play then it would be wise of you to fold or else steal the pot from the fourth street exception being if an overcard falls. The right method should e used in the right situation.

Players bluff in a big way in poker games which rakes in a lot of money from opponents on the poker table.  If your opponents are tough players then you would be trapped by every now and then. You should master the art to bluff and do it with confidence. Playing poker with the right attitude and elegance would help you in making money. Diverse strategies should be adopted for special kinds of poker games. If pots become very large your only strategy should be to win it and sometimes, according to Pocker Info, it is the best strategy not to bet which would help in the forthcoming rounds as you could indulge in raising the stakes and playing the game as per your advantage.

Having the skill of figuring out what cards the other players are holding can help you make profitable decisions. This all depends on the information that you gather while playing.

David Sklansky defined in his poker book the level of thinking of poker players:

Level 0 – I know nothing

This is the level where people who has no knowledge of the rules of the game try to play poker. Playing drunk and not knowing what you are doing also puts one in this level of thinking.

Level 1 – What do I have?

This applies to players who are just starting to get a grip of the rules and knowing the rankings of the different hands. Most of the time is spent on figuring the strength of the cards that they have.

Level 2 – What does my opponent have?

It will be safe to assume that most poker players fall into this level. Most of the players here will be thinking of what their opponents have but will not base their actions on the mathematics of the game and right strategy for a certain situation.

Level 3 – What does my opponent think I have?

Winning players will belong to this level of thinking. These players think of how other players think and decide on what is the optimum move to take.

Level 4 – What does my opponent think that I think they have?

Things can be a bit tricky at this level. These are poker players who has a good hold of the thought processes to make a right decision on the poker table and use them to their advantage.

Level 5 – What does my opponent think that I think they think I have?

It might be very rare to see someone playing at this level. One good advice to follow when you encounter a player who can think what the opponent is thinking of what they think they have is to leave the table. Don’t play against the likes of Kenny Hallaert or Laurens De Smet.

There are diverse poker playing strategies. Some players play in a lose style while others and the paramount players are aggressive in their game plan and playing styles.

Most players and books would predict out the fact that the best poker players are aggressive poker players. They have a distinctive and exclusive style which results in dominating the poker table. Poker players should be able to play in miscellaneous styles which are dictated by the situation of the game.

Aggressive poker players tend to play in a very exceptional pattern and they interpret their opponents very well. An aggressive poker player would see through the strategies of beginners on the poker table. An aggressive player would play only if he has premium cards or else he would fold a game.

Few of the discrete traits of aggressive players is that they always to learn and continually enhance their playing skills. They do not resort to playing semi bluffs or bluffs and alter their playing strategy when the game demands it.

Aggressive players know when to crinkle a game which helps them from playing thoughtlessly. They imaginatively manage their existing bankroll and triumphant win pots with their self-motivated strategy and inimitable playing skills.

An aggressive poker player like Tom Dwan or Laurens De Smet will refrain from betting on every hand they play. Only a good hand which may help them win a pot will be betted upon. Aggressive poker players set the mood and even dominate the poker table to a large extent.

Aggressive play does not mean you should play maximum number of hands which would increase your chances of winning the pot. In fact aggressive poker players should not play all the hands as it would taint their reputation and they would end up betting a lot of money unnecessarily. Aggressive players resort to raising the bet rather than calling. They believe in betting rather than checking.

After reading this article you would know if you are an aggressive player or not?

Dutch Boyd is considered as one of the most successful poker champions. He gained wide popularity amongst masses after he defeated the former WSOP champion Joe Hachem to capture his first gold bracelet added upon by a cash prize of 475,000 USD.

In his childhood, Boyd grew up in Columbia, Missouri and he attributes his poker skill to his grandmother who taught him the basics when he was 10. Boyd was totally into poker at the age of 15 and used to call over his friends at his home to practice and showcase his skills.

Boyd turned professional in the year 2003 when he was just 22 years old. He finished at 12th place in the main event and won Razz poker that year and since then there was no looking back. He specializes in many variants of poker with Stud Hi-Lo and Razz his special areas of interest. Boyd also performed well in the WSOP in the year 2007 and took home a ransom of $71,650 in prize money. The same year he also finished at fifth place in NLHE event.

It was in the year 1999 that Boyd thought of becoming a professional internet poker geek like Derwael Poker and used to practice extensively on online casinos like planet poker and once he gained enough confidence he moved to local casinos to showcase his skills.

At present Dutch Boyd resides in Culver City, California and is added by his wife and kids. He spends his free time by reading and listening to hip hop.

No Limit Hold’em is extremely easy to learn. Texas Hold’em is the first type of poker that nearly every poker player starts out on. The rules are very simple, place your bet, watch the flop, bet, watch the river, bet, and see if you win big!

No Limit Hold’em is also very easy to play. Many people do not want to play a game that requires them to think intensely. With No Limit Hold’em all you have to think about is how much you want to put down, whether the cards help you, and how much you will be paid. It does not require you to chose all sorts of different bets, pick new cards, or anything of that sort.

No Limit Hold’em is appealing for another reason. The money that you can make with No Limit Hold’me is very interesting to many people. With no limit on how much you can bet, fortunes have been made and lost at no limit hold’em tables. However, make sure you remember to cash in your chips once you have finished playing your No Limit Hold’em!

Whether you play No Limit Hold’em for the ease, popularity or opportunity to make money, No Limit Hold’em is a great way to pass some time. If you have not yet found No Limit Hold’em, check your local casino or poker room and get in on some No Limit Hold’em action today! If you SHOULD consider playing online (which I do recommend), make sure to sign up for Full Tilt Rakeback, or you’ll be throwing free money out the door!

Don’t Play with Scared Money

Scared money will be your budget for more important things like your rent, fuel, or food. These are necessities that you can not live without. You bankroll should be an amount that you can set aside for poker without having to worry about the necessities of life. This really is my NUMBER ONE POKER RULE. Playing with scared money is a HUGE mistake, and you WON’T PLAY YOUR A-GAME!

Determine your limits

Your bankroll will tell you up to which part of your chips you can sacrifice without the chest pain. The bankroll will determine which games you will sit down and play. If you can’t afford the high stakes then why play?

Limit vs No Limit

When you play limit games, the thumb rule is to have a bankroll that is around 300 big bets. No limit cash poker on the other hand call for more cushion. No limit games usually will need around 20 maximum buy ins or around 100x the big blind. That may sound simple but things can get pretty bloody in no limit games.

Sit and Go’s

For SnG or sit and go’s, you must have at least 60 buyins in that bankroll. Muti table tournaments can be very volatile but the winnings can be very big. Remember that your skill must be good to ensure that you will not be just throwing away the money in what I call Go Broke Poker.

Learning to manage your bankroll will also involve varying your styles of play and knowing when to change levels.

I’ve decided to take $20,000 out of my bankroll and invest it in non-poker related things…

I know a real poker player is supposed to keep at it in the $5/$10 game but as I play poker non-professionally I’m happy with the profit and decide to move back down to the $2/$2 game, as I feel extremely comfortable there…

Fingers crossed – as always I’ll keep you posted!

Before its incredible rise in popularity following Moneymaker’s victory, Texas hold’em had been exposed as the expert’s game of choice in the movie Rounders in 1998. In this poker variation, each player holds two cards; after four betting rounds, everyone at the table eventually shares a board of five additional cards. The best five-card hands are then made from the seven available cards (two in hand, five on board), with the winner being chosen by standard poker hand rankings. Hold ‘em is a very simple game, and the average player can pick up the basics in a matter of hours. However, the balance of information in the game allows the better players to put themselves into advantageous positions more so than any other poker variant. Compare this to a game like seven-card stud, where the player must keep track of every card that comes out, or five-card draw, where the player has no information on the other player’s hand, save for patterns in betting. Thus, novices and experts alike have their own reasons for enjoying this particular version of poker. Professional poker player and commentator Mike Sexton is famously quoted as saying, “Texas Hold’em takes a minute to learn but a lifetime to master.”

As Texas hold’em blossomed, players realized that they could win considerable money if they dedicated time and effort to the game. They had just witnessed an amateur win millions of dollars in poker’s premiere event, and they realized that anyone with a stack of chips had a chance at the title. At first, the industry was infused with so much money from green players that skilled players were able to make fortunes for themselves almost instantaneously; even intermediate players were making enough to live on. Professional poker players became celebrities and established a new ‘dream job’ for men and women everywhere to aspire towards.

Even though the poker craze has slowed in recent years, the game is still enjoying unprecedented interest. The current success Texas hold’em in particular is predicated on several factors: the simplicity of the game, the advantages available to skilled players, the perceived glamorous life of professionals, and the constantly evolving strategies and techniques. Most importantly, though, is that poker offers every player the chance to compete and even win on the biggest stage available – the World Series of Poker Main Event.

Enjoy!