Official Poker Strategy

noreply@blogger.com (Sport7.co.uk) — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 18:16:00 +0000

Poker Game Strategy
Our strategy guides are designed to give you the edge against your opponents by giving you the outlook and approach that most successful players have. These aren’t just taken from dated poker books out there, they are proven strategies used by today’s leading online poker players. Select your strategy guide on the left hand side for additional information.

Tournament Strategy
With the explosion of televised poker over the past few years and our growing fascination with online poker, we've created 2 online poker tournament strategy guides. They are created to give you the information needed to be win your next tournament. Broken down into phases, we advise you on the mind frame and playing styles need to get the win.

General Strategy
The simple guides provide you with the basics to being a good poker player online. Understanding the difference that exist online poker, allows you to use them to your advantage when playing. Most poor poker players fall into same traps, learn what they are and avoid them making you a better player.

Pot Odds

noreply@blogger.com (Sport7.co.uk) — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:07:00 +0000

Pot Odds

Pot Odds is a ratio of calculating how much money is already in a pot compared to the amount of money you have to put in to remain in a hand. A simple example would be that you are playing online poker and in a given hand the pot is currently $150. The action is to you and you must put $15 to remain in the hand. So the pot is $150 and you must put $15 to stay in the hand, your pot odds are therefore 150 to 15 or 10 to 1.

The reason for calculating pot odds is comparing those odds to the odds of bettering your hand in a given situation. Let’s look an example to clarify:

You have AQ of clubs and the turn came with 2 clubs. This gives you the possible nut flush draw. Simple calculations tell you the odds of hitting your flush on the last card is roughly 5 to 1 (46 cards remaining and 9 more clubs). Using the above hand situation and pot odds of 10 to 1, this situation makes for an easy call as you’ll be getting 10 to 1 on your money with a 5 to 1 chance of making your hand.

At all times you want to compare the pot odds with the odds of making or bettering your hand. If you ever wondered what those players on TV or better players online take so long to make their play, part of it is because they are calculating the pot odds.

On a more detailed level there is something referred to as implied odds as well which involves potential future odds given the hand scenario and players at the table. That is something we’ll cover in the near future. For now getting used to calculating basic pot odds is more than enough.

General Online Poker Strategy

noreply@blogger.com (Sport7.co.uk) — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:05:00 +0000

As opposed to actual online poker strategy, this guide is more of summary of the unique elements to consider because the poker is played online. There are some distinctions that should be mentioned here, the goal is to provide them to you to help strengthen your game and in turn increase your chances of profitability.

The Right Online Poker Room

There are hundreds of online poker rooms out there to choose from. The top 10 or so probably account for over 90% of the play online. You’ll want to stick to these poker rooms for a number of reasons.

- They are reputable meaning their poker room is safe, secure, and trustworthy.
- They have a larger player base which means you can find competition suitable to yours or less.
- They tend to have better player incentive programs such as lotalty promotions, deposit / re-deposit bonuses, freerolls tournament, and more.

Stay Within Your Limits

Many new and inexperienced players play online poker in games that are way above their limits. When we wanted to become profitable, we researched what other players did to be successful. The single most important factor was playing within your limits. As a general rule, we found that the successful players only played in limits where they had 200 times or greater the big blind in their account. Meaning if you want to play a $1/$2 Texas Holdem ring game, you should have $400 in your account. For tournament play, it is recommended you have 50 times the buyin in your account. This is suggested so you can comfortably play and survived the “bad days” that all of us as players go through.

Patience & Discipline

Online poker brings a unique element to poker in general, you can easily find a game anytime of the day. More so, you don’t have other people watching your play. The result is that many players play a wild poker game not carefully analysing their game or the game of their opponents. Patience and discipline are the cornerstones to successful in online poker. The mottos are win as much chips as you can with a good hand, and lose the least with a bad hand. Another factor is that the slow pace of traditional poker is offset in online play. You no longer have to worry about the other players at the table looking at you in disgust over a bad play, or having to get up and leave as soon as you lose all your chips. With online poker, 2 clicks of the mouse and you are back at it. If your excuse is being bored playing patiently, simply do what most of us do. Open up additional tables and play the simultaneously. That way you’ll see more poker hand and in turn be in the action more frequently with playing a poor hand.

Multi Table Tournament Strategy (MTT)

noreply@blogger.com (Sport7.co.uk) — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:04:00 +0000

Similar to our sit and go strategy guide mtt’s (multi table tournaments) are broken down into several stages. Mtt’s also come in several formats including rebuy & addons tourneys, freerolls, and satellite events. This guide is designed for the standard mtt’s found on most online poker rooms daily. Buyins can be anywhere from $5 to $200 with the amount of players ranging from 150 – 1000 players.

Early Play

It’s early in the tournament and there are plenty of novice players in the game who play loose hoping to catch that lucky hand and double up. Do you want to be the person they do this to? Obviously not, we recommend you play tight and only going in a hand with something premium like AA, KK, QQ, AK suited. Also play the hands aggressively betting out, raising, or re-raising. We’ve seen it and it’s happened to us many times, do not allow yourself to lose to the fish! Play conservative and at the same time build up your table image as a solid / tight player who plays premium hands aggressively.

Middle Play

In this stage you’ll want to open up your game as the blinds are significant enough to help your chip stack. Because you’ve been playing tight, you should have respect from the players and be able to take down a few pots / blinds without having to show your hand. In terms of requirement, open up the range of hands play a style you would play in a normal game basing it on seat position, players in the hand, chip stacks, etc… The goal of this phase is to build your chip stack up and have it over the tournament average.

Bubble Play

This is where you are close to being in the money, usually around 10 – 15 spots left. You’ll want to open up you game here even more trying to press the players you see as tightening up trying to make the money. Think about it, they’ve invested a lot of time and effort to get them in that position, why risk it all now? You do it because you have hopes of doing better than just being in the money. This is a stage where you have the opportunity to position yourself to make the final table. Once you actually get into the money, go back to playing your regular game. You should be in good shape to make the final table.

Final Table

So you’ve made it to the final table, now what? Well, you should have a good understanding of how a typical final table gets played out. Basically you will have a few types of players at the final table. The few short stack who barely made it and are looking to double up, the mid range player (probably where you are) who has a good chance of making good money, and the chip leaders who got extremely lucky at the right times (there are a few of them in every tournament). Our advice / strategy to playing is as the blind are high, you’ll want to play a wider range of hands. But you’ll only want to play them against 1 or 2 other players max, a short stack, or any player to can pick on that seems to be playing to survive. It’s a touchy situation but with a few final tables you’ll get the hang of what and how to manoeuvre through to winning it all. When that happens, please let us know. We like to hear of success stories from player who used one of our guides for success.

Sit And Go Tournament Strategy (SNG / STT)

noreply@blogger.com (Sport7.co.uk) — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:02:00 +0000

One of the most popular forms of online poker is sit and go tournaments, also referred to as sng’s, stt’s and single table tournaments. This is basically a tournament structure but limited to 10, 9, 6 or 5 players with 10 players being the most popular. Each player starts out with anywhere from 800 – 1500 chips, and the top 3 finishers get the money. Typically the payout structure is 50% for 1st, 30% for 2nd and 20% for 3rd. After you have read this guide, make sure to also read winning 180 man sit-n-go strategy.

Our sit and go strategy guide assumes you are playing in tournaments with buyins of $30 or less, and at a full table of 10 or 9 players. The reason for this is that the strategy changes in the other formats, higher limits takes a more skilled approach. We want to stick with the most popular sng that is currently played.

Our strategy breaks down a tournament into 3 parts; early stage, bubble stage, and in the money stage. Each has different strategy used to position you to winning the tournament.

Early Stage

This stage is refers to the 1st 3 or 4 rounds in a sit and go tournament where blinds are less than 50 / 100 chips. There is only one thing you need to do in this stage and that is play tight. In every tournament there are usually 3 -4 really bad players, you want to allow them to knock themselves out playing poor / marginal hands. You only want to play premium hands such as AA, KK, QQ, or AK. If and when you get one of these hands, you want to play them very aggressively from the outset usually raising or re-raising if there was action before you. In some instances someone may go over the top of you and put you allin, if this happens we recommend calling. Statistics are on your side and although you won’t win them all, over the long run you’ll win big. By sticking to this strategy, you’ll easily make it to the next stage of the tournament known as the bubble.

Bubble Stage

The bubble stage occurs when the blinds are a minimum of 50 / 100 or there are 5 players or less remaining. This is the stage where the players have invested a reasonable amount of time in the tourney and want to make the money finishing in the top 3 positions. Now is the time to open up your game and get aggressive against the players who seem to be playing tight in attempts to make the money. The range of starting hands expands to include A-anything, any pocket pair, KJ, KQ, and any suited Kx. You want to be aggressive anytime you get one of these cards and you are opening the pot. Many times with this strategy, you will be able to win the pot without having to show your hand. This is a result of the tight play shown in the early stages, players view you as being tight and don’t want to compete with you for a pot. On another note, when being aggressive in this stage, you are not required to bet large amounts. Usually a bet between 2 � and 3 times the big blind is enough to make them fold. Also pay attention to your seat position, you’ll want to be able to have position as much as possible give you the control. With proper play, you’ll soon be down to 3 players and in the money with a reasonable stack (usually 1st or 2nd).

In The Money Stage

Congrats, you are now in the money. This is where your solid play, timely aggression and observation will pay off. At this stage there is usually 2 types of players left. One who is just happy to be in the money and/or those with a chip stack high enough that they think they should be rewarded with first place. Here is where you have to observe and label the players. In general, you’ll want to go after the person with the higher chip stack. The are likely to be more cautious of the hands they play allowing you to continue to accumulate chips. If you are up against a short stack and he has less than 30% of your remaining chips, don’t be afraid to take it to him as well. Worse case scenario is that you still have 70% of your chips remaining should you lose. Also try not to be predictable changing up your bets and playing styles often.

Conclusion

With the above strategy you should enjoy a good percentage of being in the money and in turn your profits / bankroll should steadily increase. We’ve sourced much of the information and applied it to our own game to increase our bankrolls. We can tell you from experience that it works and with a little effort you to can do the same. Good luck at the tables!

Omaha Poker Strategy

noreply@blogger.com (Sport7.co.uk) — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:00:00 +0000

Omaha Poker Strategy

Omaha Poker is very different to Texas Holdem, the strategies are no where near the same. Much of the strategy needed to win at Omaha poker involves re-conditioning the mind from Texas Holdem strategy. Because of their similarities in terms of community cards, people tend to try and play the same as if it were regular Holdem. The following is a list of things to consider when playing online Omaha poker.

Starting Hands

This part is probably the single most important element of Omaha strategy. You need to be very selective in the hands you wish to play. Over the years, we’ve experimented with several starting hands strategies. We recommend use participate with one of the following hands:

A-A-K-K, A-A-J-T, A-A-Q-Q, A-A-J-J, A-A-T-T, A-A-9-9, A-A-x-x, J-T-9-8, K-K-Q-Q, K-K-J-J, K-Q-J-T, K-K-T-T, K-K-A-Q, K-K-A-J, K-K-Q-J, K-K-Q-T, K-K-J-T, Q-Q-J-J, Q-Q-T-T, Q-Q-A-K

Study The Table

Pay special attention to the players at the table and their tendencies. Look for those who play weak starting hands, bet on small draws, and who bets with weak hands. There are the players you will want to go after when playing a hand. For those you view as solid players, be sure to play against them with caution.

Know When To Foldem

One of the mistake Omaha players make is becoming too attached to net flush and 8 way straight draws. Although they are decent hands, they are deceptive as some of the outs do not make for a strong hand. In holdem a nut flush draw also have the possibility of pairing the aces making for a good hand. This is not the case as paired aces don’t necessarily mean a good hand in Omaha poker.

Watch Out For Your Aces

That’s right, if you get pocket aces and they are not suited, you have very little chance of bettering your hand on the flop. If you don’t get that ace on the flop, you are probably behind in the hand with little chance of improving. If you play them, be ready to fold them if you don’t hit after the flop.

Multi Player Action

When in a position of having multiple players in a hand, be sure that if you are drawing to a flush or a straight, it’s the nut’s. Drawing to lower straights or flushes is dangerous and statistically not a great / recommended play. If you must, take your chances sparingly and don’t go on tilt when someone beats you with the nuts.

Summary

Omaha poker is a game that with patience, and solid play, you can become a profitable player rather easily. There is a big difference between new players and those to take the time to research and study the game. Many believe that the most money can be won online playing Omaha poker at low limits where all the fish / loose players play.

7 Card Stud Strategy

noreply@blogger.com (Sport7.co.uk) — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 14:57:00 +0000

7 Card Stud Strategy

7 Card Stud has long been a favourite among poker players. Good play involves a few techniques that rewards the players who do them well. The 3 techniques are observation, understanding player tendencies, and memorization. Every online poker room offers 7 card stud at most limits. Follow these suggested strategy tips, and you make become a profitable 7 card stud player in no time.

Starting Hands

The biggest cause of players losing at 7 card stud is playing way too many hands. This is a result of not setting minimum starting requirements and playing pretty much every hand they are dealt. The main reason this happens is that in 7 card stud, players are required to put an ante in every hand to be dealt cards. We suggest the following starting hands:

3 of a kind
A pair of 10’s or better
3 cards to a flush
3 cards to an outside straight

Occasionally you may want to play lesser / tier 2 hands, these include gut shot straights (7-8-10), 2 card high flushes, or smaller pairs. When playing these hands be ready to fold if you don’t better your hand on 4th street. We suggest mixing up playing these types of hands on a 60%-40% basis, playing the hands 60% of the time.

Observation

This element requires concentration, you have to try and remember all the cards are your opponents are dealt. This is important in figuring out whether you should stay in a hand. Perhaps 2 other players are dealt the very cards you need to improve your hand, or their shown cards are actually better than what your best hand is. The point is to keep track of the cards and base your decision on the information provided.

Player Tendencies

The players at your table often provide the information you need to become a winning player. Over the course of the poker game pay attention to the starting hands your opponents play. Takes notes classifying those who play solid and those who play loose, then use this information in deciding whether to bet raise or call the hands you play.

Memorizing

Having a good memory in 7 card stud has its advantages. Understanding your odds of catching your hand is good to know from the top of your head, you should memorize the odds or have a chart ready for you to reference. The other reason is just knowing what card have been dealt to players that were in hand and folded. Some players think they can catch cards by remaining in a hands, not remembering that the card was folded by another player.

Summary

The seasoned poker player finds that 7 card stud online poker rooms are filled with fish and make money implementing the very strategies mentioned above. The component the differs online form offline poker is patience. The reality is less than 20% of the online poker players have the patience to consistently make money. Use the strategies mentioned above, have patience with your starting hands, and you’ll be on your way to becoming a successful online 7 card stud poker player.

Texas Holdem Advanced Strategy

noreply@blogger.com (Sport7.co.uk) — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 14:54:00 +0000

Texas Holdem Advanced Strategy

Advanced Texas Holdem strategy involves dealing with the complexity of the game. Yes, on a surface level the game is pretty straight forward and actually quite simple to learn and play. But the following factors are what makes the difference between amateurs and the pros.

Pot Odds

In Texas Holdem, your decision to play a hand or fold should factor in pot odds. Basically pot odds are the cost to stay in the hand in relation to the size of the pot.

Example:

There are 4 people in the hand and the other 3 have bet and called $100. There is $300 in the pot and it costs you $100 to remain in the hand. Your pot odds in this case is 3 to 1, you can win $300 if you put $100 into the pot.

The other factor to consider is the odds of you bettering your hand if you make the bet.

Example:

The turn card is shown and you have 4 spades, that means there a 9 spades remaining in the deck of 46 cards (52 – your 2 hole cards – 4 community cards). So 9 cards help make you flush and 37 cards don’t.

Your odds of getting the flush are: 37 to 9 or to simplify 4.1 to 1.

Good poker involves calling a particular bet only if the pot odds are greater than your odds of bettering your hand.

Seat Position

Our basic strategy involves playing only premium / strong hands. Advanced Texas Holdem strategy is about loosening up your play by playing a wider range of starting hands. To decide which hands to play, seat position plays and important role. In general terms, the closer you are to the button (last person to act during a hand), the looser starting hand requirements become.

Table Image

Your table image when playing poker has a direct effect on your ability to win / lose a given hand. There are several types of playing styles that define your image; these include tight, loose, aggressive, passive, maniac, bluffer, and solid characteristics. Understanding your image at a table and the image you have of others allows you to make certain plays that deviate from basic Texas Holdem strategy.

Bluffs & Tells

Your ability to spot bluffs & tells puts you in whole other class of poker player. With this information, you can then make plays that specifically counter what the bluff and/or tell suggested.

Summary

Understanding the intricacies of the above elements will help you better your game. By implementing them, you’ll be in the territory of advanced / pro players. We suggest that you read all the information you can and practice the concepts in low limit environments.

Texas Holdem Basic Strategy

noreply@blogger.com (Sport7.co.uk) — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 14:52:00 +0000

Texas Holdem Basic Strategy

Texas Holdem is considered the most popular online poker game. With the recent explosion of televised events, poker has grown enormously over the past 2 years. With this growth comes a wave of new and beginner players alike. With the strategy tips provided on this web site, you’ll be well on your way to beating the game. Our Texas Holdem strategy guide is designed to give you the basic tools to playing good poker.

The following are some of the basic Texas Holdem strategies to implement when playing poker online:

Starting Hands

As a beginner player, you’ll only want to play premium or strong hands. This ensures a high probability that you’ll be leading after the flop.

Premium Hands: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK suited.
Strong Hands: AQ – A10 suited, AK off suit, KQ suited, 1010

When entering the pot, you should raise and if necessary re-raise, this will make the players with marginal hands fold and leave you with only those with good hands. As a beginner, the less amount of players in a hand, the better.

After The Flop

Because you only play premium / strong hands, your after the flop play should be straight forward. Once the flop is shown, you should ask yourself a series of questions:

Did my hand get better with that flop?

Is it possible my opponents hand got better?

Are their cards that can better other premium / strong hands?

With this information you’ll know if you should continue to be in the hand. If the answer is no, simply check when it is your turn or fold if someone else makes a bet before you. If you are remaining in the hand, you’ll want to be aggressive by raising if possible.

After The Turn

The turn (or 4th street) is a crucial part of a Texas Holdem hand. You should know where you stand in the hand as either leading, or possibly behind. At this point there are 2 specific things to look for that is often missed by novice players:

Is there any possible Straight or Flush draws on the board?

Did the board pair giving someone a 3 of a kind / full house possibility?

If the answer is yes to any of the above questions, then you’ll really want to slow down, not betting high amounts or simply calling. If on the other hand the above does not exist and you have a strong hand, then a raise is a good bet. If the player before you makes a bet, calling it is also a good play.

After The River

With the river card (5th street) shown, there is all the information available that you need to know. Simply approach the betting decision similar to turn strategy looki9ng to see if the river could of helped your opponents hand.

NOTE: in a no-limit game you can bet ALL your chips at any time during a hand. For beginner players, we don’t suggest doing is unless you are absolutely sure you have the best possible hand (the nuts) or very close to it. The reason, always leave open the possibility that your are beat. There is a common phrase in poker “always leave yourself with outs”