How to win at three card poker

September 18, 2009 by lesley  
Filed under Poker Resources, Poker Strategy

Three Card Poker is a popular poker variant that is easy to learn and fun to play. If you’d like to learn how to win at Three Card Poker, then follow these simple tips which will improve your chances of beating the house at the game.

Learning how to win at three card poker is simple. The game is better for the player than many other poker variations, such as Caribbean Stud Poker, because if you have a good hand, you will be rewarded, even if the dealer does not qualify.

To use this to your advantage, and to help you win at three card poker, just make sure that you fold weak hands, and raise if your hand is a Queen-Six-Four or better.

Watch the Pair Plus amount offered by the table, if it’s fairly low (say only 3 to 1), then the table is tight. If it is better than 3 to 1, then the payout table is probably good, and worth playing at. Obviously, picking a better payout table will help you to come out on top in the long run.

Three Card Poker is popular in a lot of bricks and mortar casinos, but isn’t all that common online yet, although more online casinos are gradually starting to offer it. Now that you know how to win at three card poker, play sensibly, only bet what you can afford to lose, and remember to walk away on top! Use the tips you have learned to beat the house.

How To Read Poker Players

September 18, 2009 by lesley  
Filed under Poker Resources, Poker Strategy

One of the most important skills you can learn as a poker player – second only to learning the values of different poker hands, is learning how to read poker players. While a lot of poker play takes place in the realms of statistical analysis, there will be many occasions when you will need to be able to read your opponents. Beginners, especially, love to bluff, and are easy for a skilled player to read.

It’s hard to teach someone how to read poker players – you can learn a lot about body language and common tells just by reading books, but applying the knowledge will take practice, and is a skill that you will develop as you spend more time at the table.

While you are learning how to read poker players, you should practice being aware of the signals you are sending out yourself. Once you are aware of body language tells, you can train yourself so that you do not send them out during your own play. Practice adopting a relaxed posture, even when you are nervous. Practice speaking calmly at all times, and watch for things like touching your face, or biting your lip – things you may do without even realizing! Think about why you do them, so that you can stop yourself from doing it, and also be more aware of when others do similar things.

It takes a lot of practice to be good at reading poker players. Don’t get too hung up on the skill, however – remember that there are other things, such as basic hand probabilities, that are also important.

How Often Do You Get a KK or an AA in No Limit Hold’em Poker

September 11, 2009 by lesley  
Filed under Poker Resources, Poker Strategy

When you’re just starting out with playing poker, one of the first things you should work on is hand probabilities. You should be able to answer, for example, the question “How often do you get a KK or an AA in No Limit Hold’em Poker”.

In truth, that question is actually rather badly worded – the fact that you’re playing in a No Limit game will not affect the probability of you getting a certain set of cards. What it will alter, however, is how you will behave when you have certain kinds of hands.

Judging the value of a hand and making a decision on how to play it is beyond the scope of a short blog post, but we can take a quick look at some of the more common / interesting hands, and the chances of you getting them.

The chances of you getting an AA (or any other specific pair) as your starting hand is 220:1. If you expand that to AA, KK, or QQ, the probability increases to 72.7:1.

Connected cards – of any rank, which would be suitable for making a flush, are much more likely, at 5.38:1.

You can find starting hand probability tables on most good poker web sites – some online casinos even provide them in their poker academies. Don’t forget to look past the chances of getting the starting hand, though – think about how you can improve that hand, and the chances of it being a winner.

Understanding Bet Sizing

July 28, 2009 by Curtom  
Filed under Poker Resources, Poker Strategy, Pro Tips

Using proper bet sizing allows you to do several things during the course of playing the hand. I honestly believe that more hands are lost playing poker because of poor bet sizing than almost anything else. By sizing your bets correctly you are able to protect your hand against draws and move your opponents off of hands when they miss theirs. You are also able to narrow down your opponents that will be involved in the hand as well.

Pre - Flop bet sizing allows you to limit the number of players that enter the pot. Obviously this applies to No Limit games and particularly Texas Hold’em. Usually with premium hands like Aces, Kings, and Queens you do not want to play them against more than three opponents at the most. The best way to do this is to raise or re-raise an amount that will push others out of the pot. That does not mean that you should be careless either. If you are holding Queens and you raise and then get re-raised you definitely have something to take into consideration. However, with Kings and Aces you want to play those hands heads-up and then optimize your profits as the hand progresses.

By not raising with premium hands pre-flop you lower your win percentages significantly and thus the effectiveness of your hand and potential winnings.

Post - Flop bet sizing is done to take advantage of drawing hands and / or to move your opponent(s) off of drawing hands. This also entails utilizing position as well. Let’s say you are holding [Q][Q] and the flop comes down [Xs][Xs][J]. Making a pot sized bet is certainly reasonable. However, depending on what the blind structure is in relation to your chip count you need to discourage your opponent from drawing at the Spade flush. So, I am going to make a bet that is going to cost him around 25% of their stack. Why? Because you want to make your opponent feel the pain if they miss the turn and then put the pressure on even more on the river. You also want to discourage the draw because any [K] or [A] will get you in trouble as well.

True, some poker players are going to call no matter how much you bet on the flop when they have a draw. This kind of aggressiveness plays in your favor and will net you plenty of chips. However, they will also draw out on you from time to time but that is simply a part of the game. It happens.

Lastly, consider when you have flopped a Set or Straight and their are no flush draws on the board. Bet sizing becomes even more important then. The last thing you want to do is push your opponent out of the pot when you have the stone cold Nutz. Bet sizing allows you to tell a story and when you tell your story well you get paid for the show in the end. There is no greater feeling than a well played hand that gets paid off on the river. That is what the game of poker is all about. So whether you play online poker or live tournament poker and cash games your understanding and execution of bet sizing and position will improve your results even more.

How Good Is Your Starting Hand ? - Pre Flop Odds

March 20, 2007 by ozpoker  
Filed under Poker Strategy

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Oz Poker

Flop Odds For Common Starting Hands

Whether you like it or not much of poker is about odds and probabilities. Here’s the common flop odds for most hands. Obviously the implication is that chasing those elusive hands too often will seriously affect your financial health.

Common odds when holding unpaired hole cards Read more

Calculating Pot Odds - The Rule Of Four

March 20, 2007 by ozpoker  
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Oz Poker

Calculating Pot Odds -The Rule Of 4

The ability to calculate pot odds is a necessary part of any poker players game. Knowing these odds is important because it gives you an idea when you are in a good or bad situation and gives you next move some direction. For every potential action (check, fold, call, raise) at every point in a game of poker, the Read more

The 5P’s Of Playing Better Poker

March 20, 2007 by ozpoker  
Filed under Poker Strategy

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Oz Poker

The 5 P’s of Poker - Basic Poker Strategy

Obviously there is much more to winning at poker than just playing your own hand. That would make the game a pure game of chance and luck, just waiting for big hands to land in your lap. One of the true attractions to poker is that the game is so much more than that, demonstrated by the fact the best players consistently make final tables at major events. Read more

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