After a nice busy summer it’s about time to get back into the pokervibe! What better way is there than starting of with some high stakes poker…right?
The episode I saw this afternoon starred Phil Ivey and Jason Mercier. Phil Ivey obviously doesn’t need an introduction. Mercier on the other hand is not the big poker name yet, but has been moving up the ladder. The 24 year old made some nice runs in this years WSOP, finishing 6th, 7th, 14th, 21th en won a bracelet in Pot Limit Omaha Six Handed.
In the video below we can see why we will hear more from this guy in the future. After a small raise from Hansen, who gets some callers, Mercier raises the stakes and ends up going to the flop heads up with Ivey.
Ivey still has the best hand on the flop with pocket 9’s en raises Mercier’s bet. Mercier isn’t planning on giving up his hand though and makes a perfect semi-bluff. We can argue the fact whether this is a good call of Ivey or not. With 7 outs, Mercier is a 32% dog to win. I bet we’re gonna see a lot more of the kid in the future!
If you are new to the world of online poker, consider these tips:
1. Do not think that to play poker online you must have experience in conventional gaming tables: that is a myth!
2. Choose the online poker site where more feel more comfortable. How? Get an Internet search engine (eg Google) and enter a search criteria such as: online poker rooms. There you will be listed the most known clubs and poker rooms.
3. Make a quick reading of the requirements that must have your computer to download the software. The Anxiety for downloading the poker software can play you a trick!
4. Familiarize yourself with the rules and poker glossary. If you select a good poker room like Poker 888, these resources are accessible to you for you.
5. Look at the training methods that provides the website. Everest Poker, for example, gives you the chance to practice with 3 (three) coaches automated, as an instance prior to the games with real opponents.
6. Use care resources, such as user guides to download the software, tutorials, and all forms of contact with the support service that provides the online poker rooms.
7. Nothing beats experience! You know all the rules of poker, but if you do not play often … you’ll never be an experienced player.
8. You agree that you cannot always win but play as efficiently as possible.
9. Concentrate your best. Consider adapting your environment so as to promote your immersion in the game.
10. Take advantage of lucky streaks! There will be days that you will play at an ideal environment, you will get all the cards you wished to, your opponents will play in a way that will favor you… And you will win again and again! When that happens … don’t stop playing!
While watching an episode of the 2010 WSOP Main Event I came across a rule even I didn’t know about. I immediately felt a bit of shame coming up for not knowing this but then realised that if even Darvin Moon, the runner up of the 2009 WSOP Main Event, doesn’t know this, how could I?
The hand starts around 08′16″
As U can see, Darvin hits the nut flush on the river against an amateur with the name of George. George checks and surprisingly so does Darvin. He explains this rather foolish check by stating that he knew George wouldn’t call any more bets and he just wanted to see what George was holding. And here comes our rule into play!
– If you are last to act on the river while holding the nuts, you háve to bet –
Some other players on the table are aware of this rule and at the end Darvin gets a one hand penalty. This rule was established to prevent collusion between players.
So remember this when you’re sitting at the 2011 WSOP Main Event next year !!!
One of the things that online poker players need to consider when they choose a gaming site is whether they want to use a site that allows rakeback. Rakeback is a promotion accepted by some poker sites that can affect the amount of money you win.
Learning about what rakeback can offer will help you decide which gaming sites to use, and in the long run, a good rakeback deal can generate quite a lot of money to your bankroll.
How Sites Make Money with Rake
Online gaming sites make money from most of their games because the odds favor the House. After you have played a game like blackjack long enough, your luck will usually run out and the House will start winning more of your money.
With online poker, the players compete against one another instead of the House. The sites make money no matter who wins because they take a percentage from the total pot (usually between five and ten percent but never more that $3-$5).
The amounts are pretty small with most games. The House might take a $4 cut on a $40 pot. While this is not much when looking at an isolated pot, it certainly adds up over several hands. At the end of the month, a regular player might look at his earnings and recognize that a sizeable amount has been raked from the top. Someone who plays poker almost every day with fairly high stakes pays thousands of dollars to the poker sites on a monthly basis.
How Rakeback Benefits You
When you sign up with a new poker site, you can do so through a rakeback affiliate. This still means that your hands will still be raked, but you will have some of that rake returned to you at the end of the month. This makes it easier for players to increase their earnings.
Say that you sign up at Cake Poker with their 33% Cake Poker Rakeback deal and play for a month. When the month is over you have paid $500 in rake, something that is done a lot quicker than many think. Then you can expect to get a refund of $165 added to your bankroll.
Compared with regular poker bonuses, rakeback deals are far superior. When a bonus is cleared, you will not get any more money whereas a rakeback deal runs forever. It doesn’t matter what your skill level is as far as benefiting from rakeback. If you are a losing player, you will lose less. If you are a winning player, you will win more.
Why Offer Rakeback?
The most important thing to online poker sites is signing up new players. They know that every player on their site is a new income stream for them. They are willing to settle for a little less in order to guarantee that income stream, so they are happy to give a portion of the rake back both to the affiliate site and the player.
This, you have the chance to exploit.
One of the most important aspects of playing online is the way to get your money through to the online company offering to gamble online. If this is not a streamlined offering, millions of transactions would be null and void. By online poker rooms offering solid gambling deposits, the issue is quickly resolved and the online player would be able to make their online bet at the online poker room. In this article we will take a closer look at which poker room will offer which online payment method to make life a bit easier.
Looking at an online poker room offering Paysafecard is Bet at Home Poker. They have been involved in poker for a very long time and have established a huge player base and with that being said the bonuses and offerings are quite out of this world. Another big name is Party Poker which is available in different languages, so it should cater for the bulk of online players out there. Some benefits of playing at Party Poker is the fact that they offer various gambling deposit options via different currencies and to top it off, there is a nice bonus as well for online players.
Another big name in Poker and even online casino is Bwin – They are well known all around the world with their huge brand Bwin Poker. Their Sportsbetting division is also called Bwin and their casino is called Bwin Casino. A great payment method that works well at Bwin Poker is Moneybookers and by using this preferred payment method online players are entitled to scoop up huge bonuses.
Previously I discussed ‘the slowroll’ and ‘celebrations’. I would like to end this series of tips concerning poker etiquette with a post about ’speeches’
Saying things at the end of a hand is after all so useless. The thing that is really hot these days, but at the same time very rude, is saying “Ship it!”. If you’re playing online and you tell that to yourself while being alone behind your computer screen it obviously doesn’t matter. If you are in a casino however and you win a big pot , saying “ship it” or “send it” or any of that kind of remarks, is considered very discourteous. As if your opponent doesn’t try his best to win that pot?
Another very anoying thing are excuses. If you were lucky and won a pot in which you started out as a big underdog, just be quiet and be glad you won the pot. “What did you want me to do? I did had an ace right?” This is an example of a situation in which you just shut the f^ck up. It’s very contrarily that the person who won the pot starts complaining! “So what, you were lucky the previous time!”, is such an unnecessary thing to say as well. Just show some respect towards your opponent and be happy you won the pot.
Finally, talking about a hand in which you are not playing yourself, is a no go as well! Do not give hints about the hand you folded or about what you think everybody is holding. Every player has to play for himself and the players in the pot are the the only ones who are allowed to talk about it. Do not say things like “Yeah, I understand you’re thinking cause he’s been raising you for the past half an hour” or “Wow, did you flop a set?”. It doesn’t get you anywhere and it doesn’t concern you at any point. Even if you are in the pot, but you’re not heads up, it isn’t considered polite to be thinking out loud or asking your opponents questions.
Be sure to play with respect towards the other players at the table and imagine you being your opponent once in a while. If you lose a pot cause your opponent hits one of his two outs, you don’t want to see some idiot dancing on his chair and laughing about you. So do not do this yourself.
Last time I taught you guys something about slowrolling. This time, let’s talk about celebrating when winning a hand.
When you won a pot, celebrating this should be done in a modest way. If you lose a hand and your opponent gets up, yells ‘YEAAH’ and high fives some of his friends you’re without doubt considerably irritated. Off course it’s all right to be happy when winning a hand, don’t get me wrong. You’re allowed to celebrate when winning an important hand in a tournament which doubles you up. You can for exemple say ‘Yes’ and make a fist, that way you keep it a bit discreet. If your aces stay up in an important hand or a big pot it’s normal there’s a certain amount of stress release. However, nobody is waiting for someone who gets on his chair en goes screaming. The rest of the room doesn’t care about you winning a hand !
Not celebrating is especially important when winning an all in with a hand that goes in as the worst hand. If you win with against , both all in preflop, DO NOT stand up and start yelling you’re the best. You don’t want to point attention to the fact that you trew everything in the pot with the worst hand and just go lucky. So again, out of respect, you just stay calm. Saying sorry doesn’t work eather cause you absolutely have no regret winning the hand. When your opponent looks at you after a sick showdown, often a polite nod for saying you got lucky does the trick.
Next time a final post about etiquette concerning Speeches!
When you finish your meal in a restaurant, you put your knife and fork on the bottom right of your plate, with your fork left and and your knife right of it with the cutting side of the knife facing the fork. This is an example of etiquette in a restaurant. Something you do, or should do. The pokerworld has its own etiquette as well !
A lot of people, especially recreative players, do not know there are quite some no-go’s in the pokerworld. You can’t really blame these players and you’ll have to crop up with these people in exchange for the action you get from these amateurs
When playing with professionals, you can expect that everyone at the table will be treated with respect. Unfortunetely, this is more an exception than a rule. Quite often people don’t realise that certain actions at the table are low and impudent.
In this post and a few to come, I will point out to you beginners out there some important poker etiquette issues.
The slowroll
A lot of people don’t know the true meaning of this word. After all, there’s a difference between Slowplaying and Slowrolling. Slowplaying simply means you hide the strength of your hand in an attempt to get more money in the pot.
Slowrolling means you have the last action in a hand and you wait with calling while holding the nuts. E.g. someone goes all in and you’re holding , while the board is . More money can’t be put in the pot and still you’re waiting with your call while you know there’s no way you can lose. Doing so is extremely low, because you can give you opponent the idea he indeed has the winning hand. Why in godsname would you do such a thing?!
You can’t lose the hand and your getting nothing out of waiting with showing your hand. Some people say it’s part of the psychological aspect of poker, but no, it’s the lowest you can do. It serves no purpose at all and you’ll lose all the respect off the other players.
Next time I’ll be talking about Celebrations so be sure to tune in again!
Whenever people hear the phrase “online bingo”, they instantly think of
senior citizens sitting in front of their computers, slowly playing this
traditionally slow paced and boring game. They think the only way for them
to get their thrills is to be at a poker table or playing blackjack online.
The truth is, though, that online bingo can give you just as many thrills as
many of the more popular online casino games!
Let’s be honest…the basics of bingo are pretty simple. You are waiting for
numbers to be called out so you can mark them down on your bingo card and
wait to get a winning pattern. But, the excitement doesn’t come from that,
it comes from winning! There is nothing more exciting than winning a huge
progressive jackpot on a bingo card that you paid very little for. The fact
that you are not in control of the outcome of the game adds to the
excitement. It’s like you are just along for the ride, going wherever fate
will take you.
Also, playing different variations of online bingo can inject some extra
excitement into your game. You can participate in tournaments and even
partake in team play. Whenever you add additional elements to online bingo,
the thrill factor goes through the roof! Before long, you will forget that
online blackjack every existed, because you will be playing online bingo
whenever you get the chance.
If you want to experience thrills like you never have before, take a look at
the 888 bingo website. They are one of the leading online bingo websites on the Internet,
and make signing up and playing online bingo very easy. They offer great
sign up bonuses and an exceptional gaming platform that will have you up and
winning in no time. Don’t hesitate to give it a shot!
against 
, both all in preflop, DO NOT stand up and start yelling you’re the best. You don’t want to point attention to the fact that you trew everything in the pot with the worst hand and just go lucky. So again, out of respect, you just stay calm. Saying sorry doesn’t work eather cause you absolutely have no regret winning the hand. When your opponent looks at you after a sick showdown, often a polite nod for saying you got lucky does the trick.
, while the board is 
. More money can’t be put in the pot and still you’re waiting with your call while you know there’s no way you can lose. Doing so is extremely low, because you can give you opponent the idea he indeed has the winning hand. Why in godsname would you do such a thing?!