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www.vcpoker.com – This is the most powerful weapon in any poker players armoury, and can be the most lethal, for you, or for the person calling. Generally speaking I would ideally be happy if I went a whole tournament without having to make this move, because it often means that all your chips are on the line, but the powerful effect it has cannot be underestimated.

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We should firstly consider the fact that such a move takes all options of playing back at you and reraising, away from your opponent. Having said this, the moment you make that bet, you also take all the options away from yourself too. If an opponent quickly calls your all in and turns over pocket Aces, it’s too late for you to do anything about it, other than to get lucky. Smaller raises and reraises always have the added bonus of leaving you the option to get away from the hand, and often give you a lot of information about what your opponet has. For this reason, I would normally say to use the all in bet rarely, but sometimes your situation means that you don’t have a lot of choice.

When you become short stacked in a tournament, you need to make raises that will have an impact upon your opponents, and this means commiting most, or all of your chip stack. For this reason, I try to never let myself get in a position where I would need to double up twice to get anywhere near the tournament average, you are better off gambling with a hand before your chips get that low.

www.pokerstars.com – I chose to write about this subject, partly because I saw a player at my tournament last week play his hand in what most players would call, a foolish way. This particular player was very inexperienced at the game, but had come along anyway to give it a try. Later on in the tournament, one of the very experienced players at the table raised 1,500 preflop, which was a sizeable bet with the blinds as they were. Our inexperienced player took a look at his cards, and called.

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The flop came down (10,7,10) and our inexperienced player picked up his chips and made a very big raise of 5,000 chips. After thinking for quite a while the opposing player pushed his last few chips in, and once called, showed pocket kings. But the raiser, and inexperienced player, of course showed (K,10). By pretty much going entirely against the grain in terms of how you should play the position he was in, this player had won a very big pot. The very fact that he shoved a huge amount of chips into the middle, made his opponent think his pocket kings must be good. Because how many players flop trips and lead out with a bet almost the size of their opponents stack? It was so unorthodox that it made his opponent misread the situation.

Granted, it was very lucky to catch a flop of two tens, and he shouldn’t really have even called preflop in the first place, but once he made the huge bet, he actually convinced his opponent he did not have a ten. I would not recommend playing poker like this personally, but it just goes to show, that being unpredictable in the way you play can reap great benefits sometimes.

www.betfairpoker.co.uk - We have all been there before, dejected after taking a huge hit to our chipstack, we sadly count whats left, and shove it in the next time we see an Ace in our hole cards. But however bad you might feel after you lose a big pot, if you have enough chips to cover the big blind at least, then there is still a chance, however small. Ideally, you want to have enough chips left to hurt a few stacks at the table, at least this way you might be against one or two players when you push in, rather than five.

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Despite that, this demonstrates my point about there being a small chance, no matter how small your stack is. If you have a small stack and get your all in called by five players, you only have to win, to pick up a reasonable pot. This brings my next point, being that when you are short stacked, in my opinion, the worst thing you can do is push all in with a small Ace. The amount of times I do that, and get called by a bigger ace, it simply isn’t worth looking at anything lower than (A,7) in my opinion.

Strange as it sounds, I would much rather have middle to low suited connectors. In the case of you being very short and called by 5 players, you do not want to turn over (A,5) only to find one opponent has a pair of sevens and another has (A,10) or something similar. With suited connectors, you have a good chance of two live cards, with straight and flush draw possibilities as could as you can hope for.

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www.pkr.com – Strange plays, are most often made by amateur players who play hands in a way which most players would describe as wrong, I feel. Regardless of this, new players can find success when playing their hand in a strange way. The reason for this I think, is that players who are always serious about their game, will have possible conclusions mentally ready as to why an opponent has made a certain play.

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Of course this will be based on experiences of playing with skilled players, and will be skillfully narrowed down, as they extract more information from their opponent during the hand. The difficulty is, that we always base these judgements on our own skilled understandings of the game, and so sometimes we get caught out by players making plays for obscure reasons. In many ways, I feel this is why we should strive to play our hands in different ways as long as we stay close to the parameters of what is profitable.
One circumstance of a strange play working was in my local game when a player made a huge bet on a flop of (10,8,10).

He got called by a player with (K,K) who assumed no one in their right mind would bet so large if they had a 10. He did of course have the 10, and his inexperience had won him a big pot. Personally, I like to make a raise preflop sometimes with a weaker hand, or even limp in from late position with monster hands, because it always keeps opponents off balance. Strange plays that do not cost you much in chips, will often have the effect of players never feeling sure where they are when they’re involved in a hand with you, which has to be a good thing.

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www.pkr.com – The way online poker has grown in recent years has been remarkable. These days we see thousands of players from across the world all playing at varying times of the day or night in numerous different poker rooms.

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Casinos and real life games have never seen this kind of influx of players to my knowledge, but it is easy to see what makes online play different. The ease with which players can sit dow and play for any stakes, large or small, or even play money, gives people the chance to learn the game with out much financial risk. These same people probably would never have usually walked into a casino to play before really understanding the game.

This could in turn, be having a positive effect on live games everywhere, as players who have learnt the ropes online, wish for a taste of the game in it’s live format. For a great length of time online poker seemed to be comparitively slow in it’s development, perhaps pleased enough with the interest players were already taking in the online game, but recently I feel things have improved even further.

Innovative new types of special tournaments such as bounties, satellites, and all manner of games with strange payout structures have been developed, and all give players a chance to try something a little different. Frequent player points, online stores, and vastly improved graphics have been developed too, adding greater enjoyment to the online game. For the most part, I feel online player numbers will continue to grow, and provided the online game never replaces the real live game of poker, that is a good thing for the game.

www.vcpoker.com – Tilting is a term which you may hear when players talk about poker, and it certainly is not a positive or profitable thing to be ‘on tilt’. Some players are more susceptible to ’tilting’ than others of course, and temprament is largely a factor in whether players are likely to experience this in their game.

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The meaning of going on tilt, is effectively that a bad beat, or heavy loss, has had an emotional effect on you which has manifested itself in erratic play. In short, you are slowly seeing everything start to go wrong in your poker game and you are reacting to it by playing differently to how you would in normal circumstances. Personally, I do not feel I am terribly vulnerable to this as I try to see things objectively, and try and use logic to work out the best way forward no matter what position I am in. I only let myself get frustrated with the things that have gone wrong, after the game has ended.

Although everyone has different personalities and some are affected by things more than others, I think you can train yourself to a degree in terms of keeping your frustration from boiling over into reckless play. If you have had it happen to you many times before, then that experience will help you to accept it and move on quickly too.

If it is possible for you to, I suggest that you attempt to always try and set any feelings aside after a bad beat, immediately concentrate on how many chips you have left, and your best way to double them up. It’s easier said than done of course, but there will be plenty of time to grieve over the loss of a big stack after the game is done.

There are many good value tournaments on offer at www.vcpoker.com at the moment. There are satellites going on to the European Championship of Online Poker here too, as well as the ‘Prague Poker Palooza’. Bounty tournaments can also be found at this poker room, along with jackpot ‘Sit n Go’s’ which offer the opportunity of an excellent win, with enough skill, and of course, a lot of luck.

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There is a V.I.P loyalty scheme in place at vcpoker.com too, with players having the opportunity to get cash back and gain access to freerolls with very decent prize pools. Along with this, the action points earned by playing real money poker can be used in the sites online store to purchase merchandise.

Bad beat and Royal Flush jackpots are also in operation here along with big guaranteed tournaments, all of which gives the chance of a big win to the smaller bankrolled players.

Refer a friend bonuses are also on offer here to complete an excellent package of bonuses at VC.
Help and support is also reputed to be knowledgeable and quick at this site, and graphically, I feel the site looks very good. Player traffic at VC is very good too, with tables being well populated at most hours of the day.

There is also a poker school section onsite which helps new players to understand the games on offer and the way tournaments work.

All in all, I feel www.vcpoker.com is an under rated site, as it has all the aspects you would hope for in a poker site, with very few flaws.

partypokercom has long been established amongst the best poker rooms online now, and for good reason.

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There have been recent updates and improvements made to the site, which I feel were a little overdue, but they have improved further on what is already a good poker playing experience. The visual impact made by this partypoker.com has been bettered, numerous tweaks to other aspects of the site that were below par, have also been made.

The Party Gaming companyhas been around a long time and so you can have the utmost confidence that your transactions will be looked after as well as you are. There are lots of interesting promos here, along with many tournaments to keep players happy, and at the tables.

Sit n Go tournaments at www.partypoker.com over an amount $200 to buy in, will have their fee capped at $10 which is a generous offer albeit only one which will affect the bigger players.

The first time deposit bonus at Party Poker stands at 100%, and bad beat jackpots are in operation for the unluckiest players.

Refer a friend bonuses are on offer here too and equate to $100 for you and $50 for your friend each time a new player is referred There is a lot to like about Party Poker these days I feel, and if they continue to look for new ways to improve, they could reclaim their place as one of the best poker rooms online, which I feel they have slipped back from in recent years.

Knowing when to make a very good fold is one of the most important skills you can learn in poker I feel, and can make so much difference to the eventual outcome of a tournament.

As players, there is not usually any joy to be had from making a good fold, mainly because we have already invested chips in a pot and have to watch them being taken by someone else, and partly I suppose, because we often do not get to see the opposing hand to know for certain that we made the right choice.

Despite this, take heart from the fact that we have the ability to get away from a hand when we think it is beat, as many players who aren’t as skilled may not have the faith in their reads of a situation to do so.

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Several weeks ago I made probably the best fold I have ever made, and it would have been on my mind for a long time afterwards, had my opponent not shown their hand after to confirm it was the correct fold. With (Q,Q) in the hole, and a flop of (3,3,3) I ended up walking away from the hand with about 40% of my chips still intact, even though no overcard to a queen fell on the turn or river.

Having come to the conclusion that my opponent had four threes I had to put them on (A,3) for them to have called a preflop raise from the small blind, and they indeed showed that hand after I had folded.

I managed to last a while longer in that tournament and pick up an extra coule of points in the league, and that may be important at a later time. The important thing about making great folds, is in my opinion, that you detach yourself from the fact that you have invested chips into the pot already, and use logic to answer the question of whether you are beaten.

If you feel strongly enough that you are beaten, there is almost no hand which is unfoldable.

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This week has been a good one for me as a poker player, with live tournaments on both Wednesday, and Saturday proving successful. On Wednesday I feel I was partiularly focused, laying down an (A,K) early on with a flop of (A,J,7) after I was heavily reraised. My opponent had (7,7) in the hole, and it proved a good decision. Overall, I could almost say that I didn’t make any real errors of jugement at all, even though I finished 3rd place.

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The final hand was certainly one which will stay with me for some time. With the blinds growing larger and with three players remaining, I found myself in the small blind wih (A,K) of diamonds. I flat called in the hope the big blind would try and take the pot there and then, and he promptly raised it 5,000. I immediately reraised all in for another 35,000 and he called. I had his (Ah,10s) dominated, and left feeling distraught after seeing him hit a flush with four hearts on the board.

This is the nature of poker though, and with a 3rd place that night, and another 3rd place finish tonight too, I can’t be overly displeased. Perhaps I was previously rusty on live tournament play when my results were fairly poor a few weeks ago, but for the moment at least, I feel good about my play. I was in need of the extra points in the league we have running too, and hopefully, the good results will continue on the coming Wednesday.

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