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In this scenario at VCPoker.com, we find ourselves dealt (6d,4d,Ah,Qh) in an Omaha tournament. After calling a small preflop raise, the flop comes down (5c,7s,8s) which at first glance, looks very good indeed.

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Let us say that we put out a pot sized bet, and our opponent raises. Part of me would be very concerned at this point, but I feel there is some value in calling and seeing how the turn card looks, although you have to feel that if our opponent has (6,9,x,x) in their hand, we can only get ourselves into more trouble.

Imagine then, that we do call, and the turn card is a (5d). Now, I will be looking to check, then fold to any bet. Some players might still be blinded by the fact that they have a Straight, but let us examine what our opponent could have. If our opponent has reraised on the flop with (x,x,7,8) then we will still be in front for the time being at least, but every other combination our opponent would be reraising with on the flop, such as a set, a two pair containing a (5) or the higher Straight, have us beaten. I would think that if our opponent had a Flush draw, they would have flat called on the flop, but that doesn’t completely negate the possibility that they have one of the hands I have mentioned as well as a Flush draw. In that case a Spade will leave us losing on the river too.

In Omaha poker, you need to do more than simpy think, "a flopped Straight is great for me, so i’m going to play it out and see if it is good enough to win". You have to look carefully at what hands your opponent can potentially have, and with a turn card like that mentioned, how many of those hands now have you beaten. Furthermore, if you call in the faint hope you are in front, you will still have to dodge cards such as a 7,8 or Spade which will cause you further concern on the river.

It is difficult to pinpoint exactly why a site such as Party Poker could be in decline, as it has held it’s place among the top online poker rooms for a long time. I would certainly think that they continue to offer a great poker room to play in, with experienced staff helping to improve the site all the time.

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You could say that due to Party Poker being one of the oldest and most respected poker rooms, they have simply always had a good flow of player traffic regardless of any improvements or lack of them. Following on from this it is perhaps possible that they have sat back and not been striving to be at the top as much as other sites, but that is just speculation.
I can certainly remember the graphics and avatars at the tables remaining the same for a very long time, and it is possible that other aspects followed on the same lines.

it would probably be fairer to say that all poker rooms have suffered slightly due in part to the changes in economic climate, and partly also, due to the vast number of poker rooms that have opened over the years. These two things mean that poker rooms must work much harder than in previous years, if they have any chance of keeping up with big name poker rooms such as Pokerstars and Full Tilt.  But then Party Poker would still be counted as a big poker room in my opinion, so perhaps it is every site that is feeling the downturn, not just Party Poker.

www.pkr.com – Razz is a game which has been around for a number of years and involves a significant amount of assimilation of incomplete information.
Each player begins with two cards face down and one face up. The set up at this point and throughout the hand is similar to Seven Card Stud in many ways, as these three cards are followed by another face up, then another, a further card, before a final one face down. This gives each player seven board cards with four exposed, and three hidden.

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The aim is not actually to make poker hands from our standard rankings, but to make the best unpaired five card low hand with the wheel (A,2,3,4,5) being the nuts.
Betting rounds take place between each player receiving a card after the first three have been dealt. Most Razz events are played in ‘limit’ format meaning that the action can be a little slow in the early stages of the tournament, but the game itself is still very enjoyable to play.
Razz has been scheduled in the WSOP calendar for a long time, although you could easily debate that it isn’t a form of poker at all. The key point though that links the game to other poker games is that you have to read the potential strength of your opponents hand, and relate that to betting patterns to form an opinion of how many cards your opponent has to a low hand and how low it is, and will potentially be if it improves.
Sometimes you can bluff when your opponent is dealt an ugly card that pairs an exposed card or is as high as a King or Queen and your own card is favourable. As ever though, it is not always about what hand you have, but what hands it appears you might have.www.pkr.com

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www.pkr.com – This is a hand I saw recently between Phil Hellmuth and Gabe Kaplan, and involved Phil calling a raise preflop to defend his blind with (Kh,Jh). The flop then falls (9h,6c,Jd) with Phil having already checked in the dark. Gabe with (Ad,9c) raises $2,400 an with around $11,0000 remaining, Phil calls. The turn card is terrible for Phil as it brings the (As) and he checks to Gabe. Gabe bets out $4,300 and after much consideration, Phil calls the bet. The (5d) on the river is no help to Hellmuth, and he checks, with Gabe putting him all in for his last $4,900. Eventually Phil calls partly as he has so much commited already, and he is elminated.

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Phil is a great player in my opinion, but I feel he plays this hand badly. First of all, I think when he makes top pair and Gabe raises, he has to reraise. Gabe mentions to him that if he had a Jack he should have reraised on the flop, and the fact that Phil says he had (K,9) at the end and mucks his hand, hints that perhaps he knows that too.
As soon as he flat calls on the flop, any Ace or Queen is bound to leave him unsure of where his hand is, and if he reraises, he probably takes down the pot on the flop.

If he reraised and was called, he would probably think his opponent might have him outkickered with (A,J) and he can fold to the $4,300 bet when the Ace hits on the turn.

Afterwards, Phil says that he ‘had Gabe trapped’ on the flop. Personally I do not know how you can feel you have someone ‘trapped’ when you only have top pair without top kicker, and this seems a strange way to see things to me.
In my opinion, he should have ended the hand on the flop and never allowed Gabe to see the turn card. pkr.com

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partypoker.com – In the most popular game today (NL Holdem) there is no limit on what amount you can bet at any given time. You can never force an opponent out of the game however by putting in more than they have in front of them. If there are multiple opponents in the pot, any extra goes into a side pot.

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Just because there is no limit to what you can bet though, that doesn’t mean you should always bet it all when you are bluffing, as your bluff has to tie in with what you have done previously. Bear in mind that if you had just hit a big hand as you are trying to tell your opponent that you have, you wouldn’t shove it all in for fear of your opponent folding. that brings me to my next point, and that is betting the right amount when you do have a hand. If you hit the card you are looking for, you should be basing your bet size on a few different factors.

How strong do you think your opponents hand is? If you think they have top pair with a strong kicker, then you can certainly get some chips from them, but you could easily bet too big and convince them to fold too. Secondly, if your opponent already has a lot of chips commited to the pot, you can safely say that a larger bet is less likely to force them out if they have any sort of hand. Finally, as with many aspects of poker, your opponents table image is important. If they are a loose player and do not like to feel they are being bluffed, you have a better chance of extracting more chips with your hand. www.partypoker.com

www.pkr.com – Sometimes we are forced to keep things simple in poker. One such circumstance would be when you have a shortstack in an MTT. One player at my local game last week was very low on chips and was still flat calling the blinds and seeing flops which is not how I like to play in such situations.

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I think when you are shortstacked you have to use what little power you have left to ensure you are in a heads up situation when your chips go in. This maximises your chances of a double up and doesn’t give your opponents the chance to play back at you. Being a short stack generally means you can be pushed around in poker but the moment you switch to playing shove or fold poker, you take this advantage away from your opponent.
Simple plays are not only to be used in short stack situations though, as when you have a strong stack you can still maintain a solid yet simple style of play to preserve chips.

When it comes to playing hands in differing ways there are also some instances where keeping things simple can be to your benefit. Small pocket pairs are usually cards which I play in a simple way. Try and see the flop as cheaply as possible, disregarding the number of players who end up involved in the pot, works well for me. Most of the time you will miss the flop and can fold, but if you flop a set, you can then get involved in a pot which such a hand will often win. pkr.com

Recently, I have found myself a little bit concerned about some of the modern day equipment players are using online. I recently read about a tool being used by players called a sharkscope. With this, players can (to my understanding) look up statistics on any player, whether they have perviously played against them or not.

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Whilst I certainly feel that learning about players you sit down at the table with, and even making notes, is fair enough, this type of technology crosses that line in my opinion. The very nature of poker is reading your opponents play, and formulating your own plays based on what you expect your opponents to do, and this is where the skill lies.
I do not think that this type of tool should be allowed, as it basically gives those who have the software, a chance to help themselves to information they are simply not entitled to. Just as with players talking about cards they have folded whilst a hand is still in play, it is not in keeping with the ethics of the game.

Apart from anything else, you should have a right to keep this information private if you wish it to be.
Also, you wouldn’t want to play a H.O.R.S.E tournament against someone who can quickly access your past tournaments and see which games you are strong at, and which are your weakest.

But above all else, if you need to use information gathering tools other than your brain to desperately try and create an edge for yourself, you are obviously a rather weak poker player. In my opinion this should be classified as both cheating, and a breach of player privacy, and as such, should be outlawed within the online poker community.

www.partypoker.com – With a hand of (7s,8s) in the big blind, you go to a flop with the small blind which comes down (3h,4c,5s). The small blind then makes a minimum raise. It is possible that such a small raise could be made to build a pot without forcing you out, and finding yourself up against a straight or two pair is a distinct possibility. The reason I wouldn’t say three of a kind is very plausible is because that would entail your opponent having a small pocket pair, which would almost certainly warrant a preflop raise.

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It is also possible though, that your opponent is putting in a small raise to try and make you concerned about this very fact. As a naturally aggressive player, I would of course want to reraise here, firstly to find out what I need to hit to win the hand, and preferably, to pick up the pot there and then. It may appear as if we are betting out and relying on making an inside straight if we get called, but in actual fact, a seven or eight would give us top pair and under the circumstances, perhaps put us ahead in the hand.

If we work under the assumption that our opponent does not have a straight or straight draw with a six, then if a two arrives on the turn, this will also be a scare card for our opponent and give us a better chance to force them off the pot.
Always remember that dangerous boards with opportunities for you to improve can give you the safety net you need to pressure your opponent, and find out where you are in the hand. partypoker.com

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www.pkr.com -With a hand of (A,K), we find ourselves in a heads up pot after making a reasonable raise preflop. The flop then comes down ((3,10,J) with no immediate flush danger present. If we are second to act and our opponent raises another average sized bet, there are some points here that need to be considered. First of all, there is every chance our opponent is making a continuation bet in order to try and pick up the pot uncontested, and there is a real chance they may have nothing.

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If they have connected in some way, I feel that a reraise should give you a lot of information about how well. If the response to your reraise is for your opponent to put in another large reraise, we can safely say that we are probably not going to win the pot if an Ace or King falls on the turn. This in itself is an important point, because if your opponent has only a middle pair or something similar, you can count your Ace and King as possible outs, but you must also be aware that if your opponent has a hand such as (A,J) you will get yourself into trouble if an Ace falls.

In an ideal world, you will hit a Queen for a straight, but we cannot pin much hope on this card arriving. Whilst it does give four definitive outs, when we work on the assumption of our reraise being called, the pivotal point is whether we can pair an overcard and be in front in the hand. Despite these possibilities being the key to the hand, we would also be very happy if our opponent simply folded, and with a high incidence of players putting out tester bets on a flop such as this, that is a distinct possibility.
Bear in mind also, that if the flop shows two cards of the same suit, your opponent could be drawing to a flush so be careful if another of that suit appears on the turn, especially if it is an Ace or King of that particular suit.

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www.partypoker.com – Although I do not profess to be the greatest hi/lo player around, I do have a reasonable grasp of the game, and there are some points which become more apparent the more often you play. One of which is that inexperienced players will always love getting involved with any big pair, and although this can sometimes work, I do not have too much interest in a hand such as (Q,Q,6,3).

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The first point to make is that the cards which are Q, and Q, are taking up spaces which could be filled by a 4,5 in our example perhaps giving us a double suited (3,4,5,6). With the pocket pair, the only realistic way you can improve this part of the hand is to hit one of two cards to make a set, which doesn’t happen often. The hand has so much strength in Holdem partly due to the fact that the pair alone often wins, but how often in omaha does a single pair win? Rarely. This is especially so when you have more players wanting to see flops than in Holdem.

Also in hi/lo, many players raise and reraise heavily preflop with premium hands such as (A,2,3,4) and often end up getting all their chips in heads up. But such is the frequency that you will end up chopping the pot in half, that I do not see how you can gain much from this. After all, you can get a huge stack all in heads up, chop the pot in half, and you’ve basically won nothing. I much prefer letting several players go to a flop, and if you make your low hand, it’s going to be a strong low hand, and you will end up splitting 4 or 5 players money, instead of 2.

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