The Poker Blog

The Betting Directory are pleased to announce that they have added Playboy Poker to their directory of Poker Rooms.

PlayboyPoker.com is the only poker room online which offers you the chance to “live the Playboy lifestyle”.

Players will not only experience fantastic game play but will have the chance to earn “Bunny Money”.

This can be traded for “money can’t buy” experiences which make up the PlayboyGaming.com Rewards Club.

Rewards include Playboy TV subscriptions, lunch with the Playmates and partying with Hef at the Mansion!

PlayboyGaming.com also offers:

• Up to $2300 / £1180 free to players every year
• Players can earn My Poker Points to buy their way into MPP tournaments
• Collect “Bunny Money” on game play to play their way to the Playboy Mansion
• Running on the CryptoLogic platform, players will have access to all the current tournaments which are available to other CryptoLogic licencee’s
• Exclusive PlayboyGaming.com tournaments
• Free upgrades, which are spy-ware free
• 24/7 free technical and customer support.

helping online poker players make educated decisions, quicker.
With the increase in popularity of online gambling, a new contender in the online poker industry has appeared on the scene: strategy software.

Strategy software has actually been around for ages, but has recently made new advancements to help poker players with their online playing abilities. The latest advancement in strategy software is a development that actually reads your cards as you play and helps you develop a winning strategy by providing logical and mathematical advice set to your playing style.

The main purpose of this type of strategy software is helping online poker players make educated decisions, quicker. These programs have been designed to be used in conjunction with online casino software, in a separate window running side-by-side with the actual playing table. The software programs use packet sniffing to virtually load every card you see at the poker table into the software. Almost all features about these programs are automated these days. You no longer have to manually select your hole card and board cards; the software does it all on the fly. The software will then display odds and offer advice and recommendations on each hand, depending upon the type of playing style you have set the software to use.

Using this type of software can benefit many different types of players in many different ways.

For newer players, these programs are very good tools to help you better understand pot odds, betting patterns, pot commitment, playing styles, and much more. Using these programs is almost like having a professional playing alongside you; you can easily advance your knowledge of the game in a short amount of time while gaining quality playing time experience.

If you’re a veteran or a more experienced player, you can still find great ways to use strategy software. Playing online can often require extremely quick thinking before timing out at a table. If you find yourself not having enough time to calculate pot odds and make logical decisions, these programs will help you tremendously. No matter how talented a player might be, this type of software can be beneficial

With the increasing popularity of packet sniffing programs like these, the common question of cheating arises. In no way is using any of these programs a method for cheating at online poker. The existence of online poker cheating software is a myth that has been around ever since online poker first made its appearance on the scene years and years ago. You will not get in trouble at any online casino for using this type of software. In fact, lots of casinos promote strategy software themselves as a tool to help their players to learn and win.

When it comes to choosing a particular type of software, there are a large variety of choices. The most popular strategy software for online Texas Hold’em cash games that incorporate packet sniffing and virtual card loading include Texas Calculatem, Calculatem Pro, and Genius. If you’re looking for software that is more focused on tournament play, you might want to consider Sit & Go Shark.

No matter which product you choose, these software programs can help increase your knowledge of the game significantly and can assist in making you a long-term wining poker player.

Colin T. Fagras
WagerWeb.com Contributing Writer

By Tony Guerrera

The results of today’s top online multitable tournament players are pretty much equivalent to getting involved in a bunch of double up situations in which you have an edge of at least 60%. Taking well-timed, calculated risks is the name of the game.

Winner-take-all satellites fall into the same category as tournaments with top-heavy cash payouts. To succeed, you need to accumulate chips from the beginning. Play scared, and you’ll play without winning a seat. When it’s winner-take-all, you need to play to win.

As the percentage of poker players that win seats increases, your strategy will change. Suppose you’re in a 20-player tournament in which the top 5 players get the same exact prize…

Fifth = Fourth = Third = Second = First

In such a tournament, realize that it doesn’t matter whether you get fifth, fourth, third, second, or first. To win a 20-player tournament outright requires about 4.32 double-ups. To get to the heads-up match even with your foe requires about 3.32 double-ups. To get into the top 5 with the same number of chips as everyone else only requires 2 double-ups!!

Of course, you’ll be losing money to the blinds every round, so you’ll need to poke your head in here and there and play some quality small pot poker to stay afloat. And if you play some really good small pot poker hands, you can accumulate chips without even having to worry about risking your tournament life.

But if you’re stuck in a tournament where your opponents won’t allow you to play tons of smallball, realize that you only need to win two big confrontations, meaning that you can wait for a much bigger edge in those confrontations than you would wait for in a tournament with a top-heavy payout structure. It’s entirely reasonable to wait for opportunities in which you are close to a 70% favorite when the chips go in because you have more than enough time to wait for such opportunities.

The Flatter The Payout, The More You Can Wait

Between the typical top heavy and flat payout tournaments are tournaments with linear payouts. An example of a tournament with a linear payout structure would be something like a 30-player $30+$3 sit-n-go that pays $225 for first, $195 for second, $165 for third, $135 for fourth, $105 for fifth, and $75 for sixth. In these tournaments, you should be willing to risk your tournament life with something around a 65% edge. Survival is somewhat important in these tournaments, but it isn’t quite as valuable as survival in flat payout tournaments.

The moral of it all: if you play a tournament without considering the payout structure, you won’t be playing the tournament optimally.

Tony Guerrera is the author of Killer Poker By The Numbers. Visit him online at http://www.killerpokerbythenumbers.com

Join Full Tilt Poker for FTOPS VI starting on Wednesday, November 7th where they’ll be offering more than $9 million in guaranteed prize money spread out over 15 events - each hosted by a Full Tilt Pro. This series features a wide selection of exciting tournaments, including:

• Their massive $2 million guarantee Main Event
• The $2,500 Two-Day tournament
• Their Satellite Challenge, giving you multiple chances to win entry into tournaments and cash
  

Stay on top of the FTOPS VI action: check out the FTOPS leaderboards and read Michael Craig’s updates in the Full Tilt Poker Blog.

FTOPS VI Prizes

• Players who finish in the money in any FTOPS VI tournament will receive a limited-edition FTOPS baseball cap
• Players who reach the final table in any FTOPS VI tournament will receive a baseball cap and a limited-edition FTOPS jacket
  
• Players who win an FTOPS VI tournament will receive the baseball cap and jacket, along with a gold FTOPS jersey and a gold jersey avatar for use on Full Tilt Poker

“Bouncebackability” Freeroll

You can’t keep a good poker player down. Here’s your chance to prove that you’ve got the ability to bounce back from a tough blow and keep on going.

Finishing on the bubble can hurt a lot, especially when it comes to an FTOPS event. But starting with FTOPS VI, Full Tilt are introducing the “Bouncebackability” Freeroll. Be the last player eliminated before the money in any FTOPS event and win an entry to this exclusive freeroll, where a buy-in to the FTOPS VI Main Event will be up for grabs. The “Bouncebackability” Freeroll will take place on November 25th at 16:30 ET.

No one likes to play the role of bubble boy. Now, you can bounce back higher than ever before!

If you’re ready to play for your share of more than $9 million in guaranteed prize money this November, register for the FTOPS tournaments of your choice, and be sure to join Full Tilt at 18:00 ET (6PM ET) on Sunday, November 18th, for the FTOPS VI Main Event featuring a guaranteed $2 Million prize pool.

By Tony Guerrera

Suppose you’re playing six-handed $100 buy-in no-limit hold’em. You’re dealt AH KS under the gun. You raise to $3. The button and the blinds call, making the pot $12 going into the flop. The flop is AD JS 3S. The blinds check to you, you bet pot, the button calls, and the blinds fold. The pot is $36, and the turn is the 9H.. You bet pot, and the button calls. The pot is $108. The river is the 2S. You go all-in for $49, and your opponent calls. Did you win this hand?

Probably not. Many players underestimate their opponents and assume they will call large, pot-sized bets with top pair and a weak kicker – or even a lesser pair. However, making large pot-sized pots is generally not the way to get value from top pair/top kicker (TPTK) against most opponents. If you have TPTK or an overpair, pot-sized bets generally constrain your opponents’ calling distributions to hands that all have you beaten.

Every Made Poker Hand Is Not a Double Up

If you make a bet that constrains your opponents’ calling distributions to hands that are all better than yours, then you will lose money in the long run when playing top pair or overpairs. And if you’re losing money with these hands, you’re a losing player. The key to getting value from your good (but vulnerable) hands is realizing that your goal isn’t to double up every time you’re in a pot.

Instead of making large pot-sized bets that constrain your opponents’ calling distributions and possibly leave you pot-committed, make bets that are smaller. Make bets that increase your opponents’ calling ranges substantially, so that the hands you’re trying to get value from are actually ahead of your opponents’ calling ranges. Also make bets that don’t leave you pot-committed when your opponents have you crushed.

You won’t double-up nearly as often, but you also won’t be getting stacked with TPTK and overpairs against players you’ve misjudged. And realize that you will be winning pots that are larger than average. Instead of making lots of large, discontinuous jumps, your stack will be something more like a tank that moves slowly (but surely) towards its destination.

When To Go For The Kill

Of course, it’s still important to seek opportunities to go for the kill. When you face opponents who will call pot-sized bets with very marginal holdings, recognize and capitalize appropriately. Also recognize situations when your opponents have very good hands that they will call substantially larger bets with. When you have your opponents beaten in these situations, make them pay – possibly by overbetting the pot.

Piece by piece will be your general mentality. But as always, keep your mind open!

Tony Guerrera is the author of Killer Poker By The Numbers. Visit him online at http://www.killerpokerbythenumbers.com

By Tony Guerrera

Only reraise with QQ+, and your opponents will put you on AA, KK+, or QQ+ when you reraise. By effectively playing your huge hands face up, you offer your opponents huge implied odds and allow them to fold easily if they don’t improve to two-pair or better - not exactly a good poker strategy formula for profitably playing bit pocket pairs.

Generally, overpairs in today’s deeply stacked no-limit hold’em cash games don’t win in giant pots. They are either crushed by two-pair or better or facing something like a 12-outer (against which they are 56% to win). The equity of overpairs in giant pots is horrible – especially when your opponents know you have one.

Even when your opponents don’t know what you have, you can’t expect to win giant pots with your overpairs. But at least you can position yourself to win pots that are larger than average. Your two options towards this end are:

1.) Never Reraise
2.) Reraise More

Never reraising disguises your poker hand strength, but it can lead to tricky multiway pots. Never reraising isn’t necessarily bad. Just know what you’re getting yourself into.
Reraising more is the other option. Here’s my big secret regarding reraising:

Reraise With QQ+, and Toss In Random Reraise Bluffs With Random Hands

When increasing their reraising distributions, many players introduce hands like AK, AQ, JJ, and TT. When they really start turning up the heat, they toss in AJ, 99, and 88. These are excellent reraising hands against aggressive opponents in tournaments when you’re shortstacked. But in deeply stacked cash games, reraising with these same hands can put you into some troublesome situations. Often, you’ll extract more value with these hands by playing them somewhat passively against a preflop raiser.

If you’re losing value by reraising with hands slightly worse then QQ, the real goal of your reraises is to win pots without having to see a flop. Therefore, reraising with bad cards is okay. Not only is it okay, but it’s also optimal. Play your very good hands passively to extract maximal value, and play your bad hands aggressively to increase your reraising frequency.

I’m willing to reraise with random cards in random situations. But usually, I reraise with low-medium suited connectors and one-gaps when I’ll have position postflop. That way, I have some backup plans if my reraises are called. And after awhile, you can begin reraising with hands like AK and JJ for value. At this point, your opponents should be sufficiently off balance, and the profits should start rolling in.

Tony Guerrera is the author of Killer Poker By The Numbers. Visit him online at http://www.killerpokerbythenumbers.com

By Tony Guerrera

Traditional poker theory describes two tournament-playing philosophies: chip accumulation and chip preservation. To reach a coveted final table and eventually win a tournament, you need to accumulate chips. However, you can’t win a tournament if you don’t survive, and it’s sometimes best to preserve chips in search of a better opportunity. Both these ideas are important, but I firmly believe that the chip preservationists overestimate the impact that their perceived skill edges have – especially late in tournaments when the average stack size is on the order of 10-15 big blinds.

Learning From The Best

If you’re getting 1:1 on your chips, you should be willing risk your tournament life any time your chances of winning are greater than about 60%. And if you’re getting more than 1:1 on your chips, then your chances of winning can be lower. I get this 60% from modeling tournaments as a series of double-ups, using typical payout structures, and looking at the effective winning percentage of the best online tournament players, whose ROIs tend to be on the order of 100-200%.

In practice, top tournament players won’t risk their tournament lives unless they have bigger edges early in tournaments (when blinds are small and fields are weak) and smaller edges later in tournaments (when blinds are high and the riff-raff has been weeded out).

Watch the best tournament players both live and online, and you’ll see that they aren’t afraid of mixing it up and taking risks. From my own experience, I can say that I use to focus almost exclusively on chip preservation. Since adopting a less fearful stance, my results in multitable tournaments have been much stronger poker hand.

Accumulation and Preservation Don’t Have to be Opposites

Focusing on chip accumulation means that you shouldn’t be scared of putting your tournament life on the line. Today’s tournament poker’s top players show no fear, but you’ll notice that they don’t seem to face elimination very often.

This happens because of pot-size control. Sometimes, poker’s best tournament players elect to call in situations where aggressive play would be the norm in order to keep pots small in questionable situations.

The world’s best tournament players embrace the fact the hold’em is a game that happens across four betting rounds; they aren’t afraid of having to make tough decisions, and they don’t make large, questionable overbets all-in simply to avoid having to make decisions. Instead of going all-in, they make raises that leave them with some chips.

Have no qualms about juicing up poker pots in which you have a big edge. But when you’re in marginal situations, adopt measured lines of play, and you’ll find that you can accumulate chips without constantly risking your tournament life.

Tony Guerrera is the author of Killer Poker By The Numbers. Visit him online at http://www.killerpokerbythenumbers.com

By Tony Guerrera

Suppose you’re the best shorthanded no-limit hold’em player in the world for online poker. You sit at a $500-$1,000 blind shorthanded no-limit hold’em game with five other world-class shorthanded no-limit hold’em players. Meanwhile, at the same time, there’s a $100-$200 blind shorthanded no-limit hold’em game featuring three world-class players and two relatively weak players. If your goal is to make the most money per hour, which table would you prefer to site at?

Though the $100-$200 blind game is smaller, it may very well be the case that your expected win rate at that game will be higher than your expected win rate in the $500-$1,000 blind game. It only takes one or two relatively weak players to affect your expected bottom line substantially – especially in a shorthanded game, where fewer opponents can run interference. And remember that your hourly win-rate is a function of both stakes and competition.

If table selection is important for world-class players, imagine how important it is for you!

The Ideal Games

Many authors write about wanting to play in cash games that are loose and passive. This basically means that people like to stay in hands, and that they typically do so by calling. Another keyword I’d like to ascribe to these games is straightforward. The most profitable games for you will be ones where your opponents employ very little trickery. Against straightforward, passive opponents, you can 1.) value bet your marginal hands to death 2.) know when your good hands are beaten and 3.) pick up lots of free cards.

If you’re a tournament player, your goal should be to find tournaments with overlays, good blind structures, favorable payout structures, and typically weak fields. Play around at different venues to find the tournaments that are best for you, and once you find those tournaments, play them religiously.

Discipline is Key

Sometimes you’ll be lucky and stumble upon a really good game. However, you usually need to go out and find it. If you’re in a casino, walk around and observe all the games before sitting. If there’s a board, and you have no choice regarding where you first sit, request a table change if you’re seated at a tough table. If you’re playing online, table hop until you find a game with the playing conditions you’re looking for.

And regardless of how you’ve been doing at a table, don’t grow roots at your table. Games change over time, so if a once easy game has become tough, change tables. Be disciplined, keep your ego out of things, and you’ll be rewarded with a rapidly growing bankroll.

Tony Guerrera is the author of Killer Poker By The Numbers. Visit him online at http://www.killerpokerbythenumbers.com

By Tony Guerrera

Famous player X says that he never calls all-in preflop with AA in a tournament if two other players are already all-in and have him covered. Famous player Y stresses the importance of avoiding marginal confrontations early in tournaments.

Every well-known player has given some trinket of poker advice. You need to ask yourself whether those trinkets were properly worded when they were, most likely, given on the spot. You also need to ask yourself if those trinkets apply to the particular situation you’re in.

Tournament Variables

It’s tempting to think that tournament poker is just about the poker hands. However, it’s about much more. Driving forces behind your tournament decisions will also be the following:

• Blind Structure
• Stack Sizes
• Field Size
• Payout Structure

Whenever a famous tournament player is asked for an on-the-spot tip, you need to remember that those tips are “on-the-spot” and that they, most likely, are most applicable to the types of tournaments that the famous player typically plays in. If you’re playing $5+$1 turbo tournaments online, the advice that someone gives regarding playing the first hour of the WSOP main event might not hold water.

Forsaking Present Edges for Bigger Edges in the Future

A lot of tournament advice involves avoiding marginal confrontations in the present because losing those confrontations will prevent you from realizing greater edges in the future. Understanding this concept is important, but many players take this advice too far because they overestimate the impact that their skill will have in future hands.

Suppose you have AA, and you have 10 big blinds left in a large multitable tournament with a top-heavy payout structure. You’re on the bubble, and the average stack in the tournament is 14BB. You’re in the big blind, and two players that have you covered go all-in before you. Against two opponents, your probability of winning the hand is probably around 65%. A 65% chance of tripling up in a tournament featuring a top-heavy payout schedule is huge. You can’t pass it up. You’ll be eliminated 35% of the time, but how much skill can you honestly employ with a ten big blind stack? Not much.

Generally, deep stacks are needed to even consider forsaking marginal edges. However, even in those cases, players overestimate how much of a favorite they need to be in order to risk all their chips. Look at many of today’s top players, and you may be surprised to see that they are quite aggressive in accumulating chips; they are constantly involved.

Summary

Listening to successful people is important towards becoming successful ourselves. However, whenever listening, be active, and always think of context; as we all know, poker is highly situational. Deciding between preservation and accumulation is your call; make sure you make the right one!

Tony Guerrera is the author of Killer Poker By The Numbers. Visit him online at http://www.killerpokerbythenumbers.com

Miami, FL (PRWeb) September 14, 2007 Absolute Poker today reaffirmed its commitment to the US market by announcing that it intends to further enhance the online poker experience for US players.

“Theres never been a more exciting time for US players at Absolute Poker,” stated David Clainer, Senior Vice President for Absolute Poker ” Bad Beat Jackpot and the Absolute Dream Package continue to attract Texas Holdem fans in droves and our players can look forward to some exciting, new initiatives launching in the coming weeks.”

The popular online poker website is offering all US-based first time depositors a lucrative 100% Deposit Bonus up to $500.Full details on the limited-time bonus are available at www.absolutepoker.com.

Absolute Poker and the Absolute Poker website are solely owned and operated by Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG, Route 138, Kahnawake, Quebec J0L 1B0. Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG is owned by a Mohawk of Kahnawake and is operated from the sovereign nation of the Mohawks of Kahnawake, located near Montreal Quebec. The Mohawks of Kahnawake have an aboriginal right to conduct online gaming that is recognized and protected by the Canadian Constitution.

Absolute Poker is licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission that enforces regulations designed to ensure, amongst other goals, that: (1) only suitable persons/entities operate within Kahnawake; (2) all games offered are fair to the player; and (3) all winners are paid.

About Absolute Poker
Team Absolute is dedicated to providing players from around the world with the best online poker game experience that is second to none. Players worldwide can access Absolute Poker online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from any PC or Mac and experience the best multi-player game online poker has to offer. Absolute Poker is committed to remaining the most trusted and best online poker experience, created by poker players for poker players.