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Many interviews with the world’s top poker players include one version or another of the basic saying that you cannot control luck, but you can control how you react to your luck. This is a core concept that those who want to succeed in poker absolutely must master. It is essential to being able to pull down pot after pot and not get discouraged by a bad beat or other blow against one’s ego and bankroll. One thing that is interesting to note about self control as it relates to poker is that the vast sweeping majority of poker players both online and offline have a very low level of self control most of the time. This is understandable since most of them are simply playing for the fun of it and gambling as a rule is considered fun simply because taking large artificial risks is an inherent form of human entertainment. However, those who learn the self control they need to win will find that they can win quite a lot simply because they are practicing an art that a very small percentage of players they go up against practice. Are you interested in a new poker room? Read our Pokertime review.

Temptation is great in poker. This is your biggest battle and it is tough not to raise with a Queen Jack or Pair of Sevens even when you know that this is not a wise decision. Most players understand they are taking risks they probably shouldn’t, but the allure of a big pot can pull in money faster than any of us would like to admit. Also, the emotional after effects of losing will weigh on us and make us feel that we have to ‘prove’ we are not losers and not bad decision makers. It is a great irony, then, that we end up making yet another high risk decision and often losing that, too, in our efforts to prove what great decisions we make. This is ego, pure and simple, and while it is needed in poker in order to be aggressive, it can also cause us to make foolhardy decisions if we do not keep it in check at other times. Read about Poker reading abilities.

This is why the core of self control is not actually what most people think it is: refusing to take action. Instead, real self control is taking action. Simply knowing the right thing to do is not going to get you anywhere in poker. You have to take the next step and do that thing, no matter what it is. This is the basic principle that guides those who can move past their own emotions and the perception they worry others hold of them and really take that winning to the next level. Plenty of players know a great deal of strategy and tactics, they already know exactly what to do – but they don’t do it. If you can do what must be done despite all the distractions at the table or in your head, you can win regularly.

This is precisely what people mean when they say that poker is easy to understand, but tough to master. They’re talking about self control.

If there is one weakness that newcomers to the world of poker tend to have, it is that they over focus on the hand they are initially dealt. In Texas Hold ’em this is just not smart and it leads to a lot of issues that are going to wind up with these same players feeling that they got the dreaded bad beat, sometimes even sending them into a seriously negative tilt that they are unlikely to have skills to break out of. If you want to play smart, then you need to realize that your hand at the outset of the game, no matter how awesome it is, only goes so far. You are going to need the community cards in order to pull off a serious victory.

Pocket pairs are one of those things that new players get far too focused on. They seem to believe that since they got an Ace King or a Pair of Queens, they are really going to have a great hand and start pulling in the profits. This is not at all how things work. It is far too easy for someone else to put together another hand, using the cards on the table in a wiser manner, and simply beat them. This is a reality that poker players absolutely must understand. You do not want to make betting decisions based solely off the hand you are initially dealt. Resist the urge to even let that wonderful Pocket Pair of Aces affect your mood. After all, someone else can beat you with Triple Jacks. That’s no fun and it would all be the fault of you getting too excited over an early hand that would need more work in order to be a serious competitor.

Too many times, players obsess over a pocket pair and fail to take into account the possible combinations that can come up based on the flop. You have got to keep a tight focus on those cards if you are to have a general understanding of what might be possible for your opponent to put together. Once you start thinking about what the flop makes possible then you will be able to see exactly when you have a very high likelihood of holding an advantage versus all the times when it appears you’ve got a great hand but that pair of same suited cards in the flop could well wipe you out. Keep an eye on the flop at all times because it is the real artillery in a game of poker.

In the end, poker is betting and you are going to have to get comfortable with the fact that even if you have very good odds to winning, you automatically still have odds to losing with that excellent hand you hold. This is key to understand and it is exactly why bad beats are really a silly thing to get upset over. Guarantees are not what poker is about, playing to win and doing the best you can with the information you have is what takes poker pairs and makes them into something more than a nifty starting hand.

Most poker players already know that there is a lot of cash to be won in sit and go games so this is where many of us focus our efforts on, especially if we are looking to build our bankrolls. You can select the level of risk you are comfortable with this way and it gives you a wide range of experience in terms of the types of players you end up going against. That’s a great value for the buy in and that’s what makes this attractive, but if you want to use a poker calculator it’s going to be a bit of a pain because they weren’t designed for these types of games. Instead, cash games are what these were made for and that’s just not what the majority of us tend to play. As a result, you end up having to go against what the poker calculator recommends and that’s not always comfortable since the whole idea of the calculator is to help you minimize your risks to some degree when and where you can.

Poker calculators typically help you by calculating your odds based on draws, your position, betting and the size of the pot. This is great for cash games, but it is just not enough to make solid decisions in sit and go. If you wind up playing against someone who is going crazy at the table or you end up short stacked, the calculator isn’t going to be giving you decent odds. The same goes for when you’re heads up, playing as chip leader or even in 4th place out of 4 left. In these types of scenarios, you will actually have to do the opposite of what your poker calculator is suggesting. For example, if you are up against one of these super loose high aggression players who bet wildly, you do not want to fold to them if you know you are probably ahead despite the fact that this could be what the calculator advises. It is making that calculation based more on pot size which is going to be unstrategically higher than it should be due to a loose player. If you know your hand is good, it is time to go against the calculator and make that player either fold or prove their hand. Otherwise you fall victim to the exact strategy of that player. Our best poker bonus is from everest poker. Read our everest poker bonus review

So, the key when using a calculator for sit and go games is that you want to make sure you really do keep in mind the fact that these calculators, while providing you with solid poker advice, were not designed to give you the decision to make in a sit and go situation. Sometimes, you will need to assess the risk by including the fact that you are playing a different style of game. You will need to include whether or not you are the chip leader at the table because if you are then you can make different calls than you would otherwise need to in a cash game. When you balance out what your odds calculator tells you with other facts you know about the game in progress then you get the best results from these poker calculators.

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Psychology is always going to be one of the most fun aspects of a live poker game for many people. It’s always fun to see how others react to us and this is one of the parts of poker that makes it a great deal more entertaining than other similar games. Since there is more at stake, in terms of money, people work a lot harder to win. They also experience more stress and that shows in their body language. If you can get good at learning these things, you are definitely going to be a better poker player. There are a lot of habits and reactions which can provide you with rich clues as to your opponent’s hand value so always look for these things when you play in order to give yourself that added edge that poker pros often have.

From the start, you should be watching people’s eyes. What you want to do is notice where they are looking. If they are going to be using cards in the hole to build a winning hand they will often be looking at those cards that are most likely to help them do so. The other thing you may notice is that they spend more time looking back and forth if they are debating on a decision and that usually indicates that they are not quite sure they can win. When this is done calmly, it can demonstrate uncertainty, but if it looks a bit intense then beware that they could well be trying to throw you off with an overly demonstrative bluff to make you think they are not sure of their hand. The same thing holds true for players with weak hands, they are going to try and act as if they are just barely containing their desire to laugh at the rest of the table. This is something you learn with each person, but in general players will most often act the opposite of what they hold. Did you catch that word ‘act’? This is the core thing you need to be able to separate out – when a player is genuinely reacting to the cards they hold and when they are merely acting in the hopes of throwing off their opponents. If you want to check our Full Tilt poker click here -> Full tilt poker no deposit

Remember, players who hold a big hand often try to look disinterested and if they aren’t paying attention. This is an obvious ploy for those who have been playing a long time, but it often fools new players. Another dead give away for a hand that is good is a bit of trembling and overall anxiety. This is the human body preparing for confrontation: fight or flight. If you can start to notice when and why players get anxious, it can help you in the long run, especially if you frequently play against the same players.

After the flop, watch for players who are looking towards their chips. They are making that connection that their hand is going to be built well with the flop, in most cases. They are going to plan out next what they will do to as the next plays happen. This is a good time to study their reactions.

Body language and reading it is a vast field, but these tips can get you started.

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When it comes to keeping up with your bankroll and actually managing it well, you will have a number of things that you need to keep in mind. No one starts out as a star at managing their own bankroll unless they are already great at many of things it takes to win in poker or just so conservative with their betting that they rarely take any kind of risk. You can start out with a $50 bankroll and play on it for a long time if you know what you are doing, but it takes serious levels of self control and financial acumen – not to mention actual skill at poker – to get there. The nice thing is, once you start moving in that direction it is not so hard to end up exactly where you want to be. Once you get there, you will be extremely happy with the results and that is going to make sure that you can keep playing poker and actually start to turn a profit, as well. This is what makes the game so worth mastering, but keep in mind that mastery takes some time. For right now, let’s focus on getting good at better managing the bankroll that fuels your poker play. Take a look at the bankroll management chart.

Perhaps most important is to choose your games wisely. You need to know how to do decent assessment of the risks you face when you enter a game. You want to take into account that the cheaper the buy in is for a game, the more likely it is that the players who are there will be not that skilled. One reality in poker, whether it be online or offline, is that you really need players who are not skilled if you can find out where they congregate. This is because when you choose them to play against; you better your own skills. Poker is a game of every person for themselves, so there’s no reason to feel bad about playing with those whom you tend to win more than. Some people will eventually decide to do what it takes to get better and some won’t. The point is to do what we can for ourselves and win more – that ends up allowing us to share what we know with those whom we feel deserve it. You’ve got to target the games where you are likely to win because trying to play with sharks when you’re a tiny fish in the poker pool is simply not wise and will devour your bankroll super quick.

In addition to choosing cheaper games because they attract more suitable competition, consider the fact that you do not want to choose games that are so cheap that if you do win you barely get anything to add to your bankroll. Check out the pot size and make sure it makes sense for you. Decide if you would do better in a game with limits, too. Some people are just not in the part of their poker development where they have the discipline to fold when they’ve reached a limit. If this is you, take steps to make sure that you are guarding yourself against the impulse to push things in a game when it’s not the wisest decision.

These steps can help you manage that bankroll better and as the beginning steps, you can go further once you master them.

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Poker, much like any competitive endeavor, is a place where choosing your battles will frequently give you the best advantages. While playing winning hands is the goal of any poker player, some winning hands are simply worth more. Some are also easier to obtain. These two factors are the primary elements that are going to come into play for those who want to win consistently and maybe even turn a profit when they play poker: ease of winning and size of those wins. When you begin to see the more complex aspects of playing to win on a regular basis, it becomes easier to do so. The complex decisions are due to the fact that simply because a pot is large does not make it the obvious choice. You need to consider the competition because the likelihood of winning is just as important as the amount that you stand to win. A big pot that goes to another player costs you money and does you zero good. This is not where you want to be when you play for wins.

The first thing that is important is to do a realistic assessment of yourself as a player. Where is your skill level at? How well do you know your strategies? How far are you willing to go to fund your bets and raises at a table where the stakes are likely to get high? As in many other things in life, self knowledge is what leads to better decisions and if you want to win at poker then decision making ability is going to be what you must focus on. It is important to think rationally and clearly, choosing the games that are likely to be places where you can win. Even having deep pockets and a big, fat bankroll will only get you so far because if you hit a losing streak and don’t have the discipline to pull out then you stand to lose that money. Choose carefully every time and you avoid taking on risks that are simply unwise.

Stack size is often touted as a measure of power in poker and while a lot of players may not like to hear that, it is definitely true. The fact is, a large stack can wield a great amount of power at the table simply because those playing with a short stack are not likely to risk everything they have in one fell swoop – and wisely so. This means they may just end up folding when they could have raised or called. Yes, small stacks can peck away at larger stacks, but this takes a great deal of skill to do so you need to know, realistically, whether you are up to that challenge before you begin trying to win bigger pots with smaller stacks.

Making our money work hard for us is key. Those players looking at a game which has a lot of players who have relatively small budgets need to consider whether they are going to be bringing in an amount of cash or chips that is comparable with those at the table or whether they have the skills to wield the biggest amount of chips at that table. Those who are confident in their abilities can profit from clearing out the competition at a low stakes table, but this means they are going to be the prime target of bluffers who want them to build up the pot so that they can take it and profit.

Stay aware and you can refine your skills at choosing pots wisely.

If you know a little bit about poker already, then you are well aware that part of a solid strategy comes from how and when you place your bets. There is a great deal of psychology involved in modern poker and once you gain an understanding of how it works, you are going to be able to make much better decisions in terms of placing your own bets.

For those who might not yet have heard of them, blocking bets are bets that are placed with the intention of keeping one’s opponent from wanting to continue a showdown. They typically take place between 2 players who are left after the river card has been turned over on the table. If you still believe that you might be able to win the hand, but you aren’t quite positive, a blocking bet can help you as long as you are the first to act after the river card is revealed. The nice thing about being in this situation is that despite the fact that you will be ‘out of position’ you will be able to use this to your advantage. That means your opponent’s traditional position advantage is simply not going to work in their favor. Take this edge when and while you can get it.

When you place a blocking bet, what you are actually doing is setting a cost to find out if you actually have the highest hand. If you place a blocking bet of $5 then what that boils down to is it will cost you or your opponent $5 to find out who has the highest hand. Your opponent may call if they have the better hand, but had you not placed the blocking bet they may have raised the cost to continue playing higher and forced you to make a hard decision about whether or not to go on. If they have a weaker hand you may well force them to fold and collect the pot right away.

The crux of the blocking bet‘s usefulness lies in the fact that in poker when you show aggression, you give yourself an advantage. Instead of putting yourself in a position to analyze your opponent’s move and then try to react appropriately, you are taking the power into your own hands and guiding the flow of your game just like the best players do regularly. This is precisely what you want, whether you are a beginner or already have a significant amount of experience playing. Even the basic concepts are something we all need to remind ourselves of regularly. If you want to try out a great poker room take a look at: Pokerstars free.

In essence, what you want is to determine what your opponent is likely to hold. Obviously, this is poker and you are still making a bet. The core benefit a blocking bet brings you is the element of confusion. By making your opponent stop and think, you can shake their confidence in their own hand. That is exactly what you want. A blocking bet can take that win away from your opponent and put that pot in your hands instead. This is the goal and like any poker play, it may or may not always work, but having one more maneuver up your sleeves means you are well armed to take on more and better challengers to win more and bigger pots.

When you are playing poker, one of the most important things that you can do once you get to the table is begin to read the other players. You need to see what style they are playing in and what kind of reactions they give to the things that go on at that poker table. If you can get a sense of what those players are doing when they see a move that threatens them or, alternately, helps build their likelihood of winning, then you can begin to feel them out with the moves that you yourself make. This is a higher level of strategy than most players ever end up getting to, but it is crucial for those who are in the world of poker for the long term or who simply want to make sure that they can win on a more consistent basis. It takes skill to get to this place as a poker player, but the payoff is that you win more, but you also have more fun doing it. After all, who doesn’t like causing a reaction and seeing what happens when they do experiments with other players? Check out Celeb Poker and practice your reading abilities.

The primary aim that you should have is to use the information that you get, from making certain plays designed to trigger a reaction, to your advantage. Do not simply show up and start causing chaos, obviously, since this is going to get you ignored and your moves won’t be very effective. You should first educate yourself on how to read the body language of tells at a live game or the types of tells that can be found in online poker. Otherwise, you are missing the point of triggering reactions if you do not actually understand how to interpret what you see as a result of moves you make.

If you want to be able to read other players with the moves you make, you need to first establish their pattern. This means that you can’t effectively place bets to get reactions right off the bat. You will need to get into the game and play a few hands before you begin using these probe bets to find out more information. You need to also be aware of the sort of tells that you yourself may be giving. You do not want the other players to figure out what you are doing. If you are about to bluff another player by raising the pot dramatically in order to see if they truly do have a winning hand, be sure that you are inconsistent enough with the way you play so that it does not look out of place. Other players are likely to be watching you just as closely as you are watching them so you need to be aware of that.

Place a big bet when you want to find out how a player reacts to being outgunned. Watch them closely, in a non-obvious way. Pay attention to whether the hand you placed the large bet against wins or loses. If you can figure out what the way a player acts when they hold a decidedly good hand then you have a major advantage against them. You can reverse this process if you want to learn how they act when they do not believe they are going to win by seeing what they do if they fold. These small bits of information can be powerful additions to your poker skills arsenal.

When it comes to poker, both online and off, you really do need to know how to behave so that you don’t end up irritating the other players at your table. This poker game is just that – a game. That means it is supposed to be fun, but all too often egos start running amok and really ruin the fun factor for everyone. If you don’t want to be labeled a jerk and you’d prefer to have actual fun when you play poker then read on because this is basic etiquette you can benefit from and make more friends while you play your favorite game.

Don’t Splash the Pot

It is a good thing to remember that you are not, in fact, the star of a Hollywood film about a legendary gambler. All too often we see players in the casino setting who are new get excited when they want to make a raise and toss or shove a fistful of chips into the pot. This might look cool in the movies, but in real life it’s called ‘splashing the pot’ and no one likes it. If you don’t want to irk your dealer and you’d prefer to be viewed in a favorable light by those you are around, consider stacking the chips like a normal player and sliding them across the felt. This is the proper way to do things and it helps everyone out so go ahead and make this part of your casino gaming practice.

Avoid Antagonizing

It is easy to get cocky when you win a huge pot, but keep in mind that no one around you likes losing money or they wouldn’t be playing poker and trying to win poker money. Simple logic, but all too often we see gloating in online poker rooms since people believe they’re anonymous. The fact is, if you irritate people then they are not going to want to build the pot up in the first place. Also, it could have just as easily been won by someone else. Instead of lording your victory over others, why not compliment them when they play a nice hand and leave it at that? It makes for a better table experience and that means those with a lot more to wager are likely to stick around longer which means you get a chance to win more of their cash.

Keep Your Hands to Yourself

After you have folded you may feel the urge to explain why you did so. Don’t. The problem with letting others know the hand you just held is that it gives them an idea of which cards are left to be dealt and which their opponents might have had. This is an edge and no one wants their competition to have an edge. If you absolutely must talk about what a terrible pair of cards you had or how close they could have come to being excellent, please wait until after the showdown. Even then, odds are good that no one is interested and most would rather focus on the next hand.

People in the United States who had been hardcore poker fans for a number of years found the recent legislation passed midway through the first decade of the 2000’s to be very intimidating. After all, ‘wire fraud’ was the word being slung around and since that’s a Federal crime, most people are not interested in getting anywhere near that. A huge amount of bad information was circulating not only in the media, but among poker fans in the online poker community. Things looked grim and a lot of poker players had the idea that they were putting themselves in serious risk of not only legal trouble, but financial ruin, if they kept playing. Many sites closed their online doors to US players and the whole situation looked quite dark for a while.

Now, after things have settled, we should take a serious look at how safe online poker is for US players. What most people do not realize about the current legislation is that it was actually designed to punish banks and casinos that were funneling money to offshore sources and not to punish players.

There are a handful of states that do not allow for online gambling, but even they are not going to be able to do much to an actual player in this current climate. In reality, the casinos and those who operate them are the ones that are not allowed to be doing business inside the US. Since US laws apply only to citizens of the US, casinos in other countries can do business as usual and work with US residents if they choose to. Payment services, also, are free to work with US poker players and poker sites. Providing the games is what is not permitted in the US right now, but recent legislation in July 2010 may be about to change that.

If you worry that you are putting yourself at risk by playing poker online in the US then you need to understand that no one is in danger. The Poker Players Alliance is a legal fund that you can join for a few dollars per year and they will bring the full force of their organization, which includes politicians in Washington DC, to bear for you if you ever face legal action – which remains incredibly unlikely. They will defend you even if you are not a member, but having access to their news is a good idea. Checking out your state regulations is also smart and a quick Google search can help you with that.

The bottom line today is that online poker is thriving in the US; players make poker deposits and cash out their winnings on a regular basis. The only detail you should be careful with is reporting your earnings at tax time. Speak with your tax preparer for advice on this subject, but you should discover that things are easier to deal with that what you might have been led to believe.

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