No Limit Holdem - Big Bluff

With no-limit holdem, bluffing becomes a much larger part of the game. Bluffing is one of the most exciting things you can do in poker, but it can also be the riskiest. This is where it becomes tricky and you need to know your players. You cab bluff in limit holdem, but with no-limit, you can put much more force behind your bluffs and really force your opponent to think carefully. As always, be very careful here, because things can get dangerously out of hand if you aren’t disciplined or don’t know your opponents well enough. There are some general rules for bluffing in no-limit holdem that you'll want to take note of:
1) If you're going to make a bluff, don't make it a weak one. If there's $100 in the pot, don't bluff with a $10 or $20 bet. Remember, you're trying to make them think you have a damn good hand, and you don’t want them to call it. Bet as if you had the top pair on the table, or a flush draw, etc. Also consider the pot odds – if you bet the whole pot, it’s only 2 for 1 pot odds for your opponent. If you bet more than the pot, it gets even worse.
2) Don't bluff too many opponents at once. You never want to try and trick 5 different people. The more people you try to bluff, the higher the chance that they have a good hand and will call your bluff. Generally, you only want to try bluffing 1-2 players, with a maximum of 3.
3) If someone else bluffs you, don't take it to heart. Also, do not make the mistake of thinking that they bluff often. Usually, a good player will play a bluff out, and then play tight for awhile. If they start betting heavy again, it could be that they have pocket Aces, but it’ll seem like they’re on tilt and continuing to bluff. Again, it can't be stressed enough that knowing your opponent is key.

Texas Holdem Starting Hands

These are the best to worst starting hands, rated in tiers. The higher tiers are the best hands, the kind you'd want to bet heavily with pre-flop as they have the best chances of winning the pot. I'm going to use abbreviations to describe the hands. For example, A-To would be Ace-Ten off-suit. Whereas Q-8s would be Queen-Eight suited. Note: These are rankings of the best hands prior to the flop. Even if you're holding pocket Aces, a flop of two four's can lose it for you if an opponent happens to have one or two fours in his or her hand.
Tier 1: A-A, K-K, Q-Q, A-Ks, A-Ko
Tier 2: J-J, A-Qs, T-T, A-Qo, A-Js, K-Qs
Tier 3: 9-9, A-Ts, 8-8, A-Jo, K-Qo
Tier 4: K-Js, Q-Js, J-Ts, K-Ts, Q-Ts
Tier 5: All pairs 7-7 and below, all suited Aces (example: A-Xs), T-9s, 9-8s, T-8s, 8-7s, 7-6s, 9-7s, 6-5s
Tier 6: A-9s, A-8s, A-7s, any two cards ten or higher, A-9o, A-8o
Tier 7: All the rest; play these hands very rarely

Don't let a bad beat get you down!

You might have the best starting hand possible but you’re not always going to have the best ending hand. You’ve just got pocket aces (Ad As*) and your heart starts to pound. As part of your pre-flop strategy you’ve raised and re-raised and now only one other player has called you. The flop comes (Ah 4c 9h). You’ve got your third ace giving you a set. You bet out knowing you hold the strongest hand (nuts) at this point and your opponent calls. The fourth card (turn) reveals a (Kd). Your opponent bets into you and you just call figuring you’ll fake weakness and re-raise after the river (5th card). The final card is the deuce of hearts (2h). You bet and he re-raises you, which you happily call with your last dollar. As you're sitting there ready to collect your winning you realize he turns over a (7h 3h). He has a flush and has now taken all your money. Your mind races. You’ve just lost with pocket aces to an idiot who played a junk hand. Don’t worry about it. It happens. It’s very easy to start questioning whether or not you should play pocket aces. Get over it and get on with your game. The best players in the world can tell you stories of their bad beats and bad bets. One of the reasons they have become great players is because they’ve learned it is just part of the game.

(*d = diamond, s = spade, c = club, h= heart)

Blind Stealing

When you are in the dealer's position and only you and the blinds remain in the game, a raise is called "Blind Stealing" and this is because the blinds may fold and if you did not raise and only called then the blinds would just check. This is a good way to make double your money.

Deuce to the Seven Triple Draw Lowball

This is one crazy form of poker I came across the other day........thankyou Jesse McLean

Deuce to the Seven Triple Draw Lowball (I'll call it triple draw for short) is a nasty horrible evil game. Unfortunately it's as addicitive as it is evil. This is draw poker, with three drawing rounds, and the worst hand winning (aces high, straights and flushes count so the best hand is 75432, hence the name Deuce to Seven). Confused yet? it does make sense pretty quickly. The basic structure of a triple draw game is as follows.

1) Everyone antes (the ante is a small forced bet just to keep things interesting).
2) Everyone is dealt five cards.
3) There is a betting round.
4) The active players (starting to the left of the dealer) decide how many cards (between zero and five) they want to discard and replace.
5) There is a betting round.
6) Active players discard and draw again.
7) There is a betting round.
8) Active players discard and draw replacements one last time.
9) There is a final betting round.
10) Active players show their hands down.

Blinds

Blinds are bets placed into the pot usually by 1 or 2 players. These amounts are counted towards the bets made on the first round of betting. There can be blinds of different sizes as in Texas Hold'em Poker or Omaha High Poker where the player one position after the dealer places a small blind bet and the player two positions after the dealer places a big blind bet twice the size of the small blind.

Introduction

We play poker online for money........only kidding we do it for fun. We do tend to win a lot so if you want some valuable poker insights come check this blog regularly.