Archive for October, 2008
Spread The Wealth
Thursday, October 16th, 2008 | Poker Articles, Poker Strategy | 1 Comment
This article is a part of the Poker Strategy series.
One of the great aspects of online poker is the ability to play at multiple tables simultaneously. If you don’t believe me, try hopping from table to table on your next trip to your local casino or cardroom! In fact, many online pros credit multi-tabling as a key to their success, especially in no-limit and pot-limit cash games.
For the sake of illustration, let us assume that you can choose between two scenarios when you sit down to play no-limit hold’em online cash games:
Scenario 1: One table, $5 small blind, $10 big blind, $500 (50 big blinds) buy-in
Scenario 2: Five tables, $1 small blind, $2 big blind, $100 (50 big blinds) buy-in at each table
At first glance these numbers appear to balance out. What makes playing five simultaneous tables the better option?
More Hands Per Hour. If an average online table deals sixty hands per hour, you’ll see sixty hands each hour at your single $5/$10 table. When you play the five $1/$2 tables, you could see three hundred hands per hour – possibly more! With a hand being dealt to you every twelve seconds, even players with the shortest attention spans shouldn’t get bored!
Also, with so many hands and so little time to make the correct decision, this high-speed brand of poker encourages players to limit their starting hand selection to the very best available options. Most of these choices should be limited to Sklansky Group 1 Hands (AA, KK, QQ, JJ, A-Ks) and Group 2 Hands (TT, A-Qs, A-Js, K-Qs, A-Ko). Due to the speed and frequency of new deals, you simply won’t have time to play your “lucky” J-To out of position or emulate the crazy bluff you saw on TV last week. In this format, you’ll stick to tried-and-true ‘ABC’ poker.
Less Session Variance. In Scenario 1, you make your ace-high flush on the turn and move all-in with your $500. Your opponent calls with three queens and has you covered. The board pairs sixes on the river, giving your opponent queens full of sixes and killing your flush. If your $500 was a significant portion of your bankroll, you now face the difficult decision of either buying back in for another $500 or leaving a game you know you can beat.
In Scenario 2, a $100 loss on such a bad beat doesn’t cut nearly as deep. In many cases, you will have made enough from your plays at the other four tables to soothe such a loss. In statistical terms, these ups and downs are known as variance. Any single-table setting will produce wild swings from session to session (and even within a session) depending on the quality of your play, the quality of your opponents and whether the cards fall for you or against you. The multi-table approach smoothes out these bumps in the road so that the highs aren’t stratospherically high and the lows aren’t catastrophically low.
Same Players at Multiple Tables. When you play multiple tables at lower stakes, you may often encounter the same opponents at several tables. If you can track their tendencies over the course of several hands, you can loosen up your starting hand requirements to take advantage of their patterns. Again, by watching many more hands in a much shorter time that you could in a single-table game, you can gather data and learn your opponents’ betting patterns at an accelerated rate and use these patterns against them immediately!
Shorter Play Sessions. One side effect of seeing so many hands per hour is a form of ‘poker fatigue’. With table screens popping up on your monitor like pesky popcorn kernels, you may lose track of your status at each table. You may accidentally fold your AA and push all in with 32o when you meant to do the opposite. Before you make such a costly mistake, take a moment to assess your chip stack, position and starting cards as well as any calls, raises, reraises or check-raises on the table. If you start to feel tired or overwhelmed by the barrage of hands crying out for your attention, sit out a few hands or leave the tables entirely. Remember, you’ll see the same number of hands in one hour that a typical online players sees in five hours and a typical live player sees in six to eight hours. If single-table sessions are marathons, multi-table sessions are drag races!
If you like your poker fun, fast and furious, try to play multiple tables at lower stakes. You may want to try two or three tables at first just to get a feel for the speed of the game. Many online pros play eight, ten or more tables simultaneously, but new players shouldn’t overdo it right away. Once you get used to the faster pace and rapid rhythms of multiple tables, you’ll be ready to ditch the slow-paced single-table play for the rocket ride of your poker life!
If you’ve enjoyed reading about my strategy tips, you can also read about my views on the news, people and places in poker at my new poker blog, www.pokerinfopage.com.
If you’d like to play with me (Houston Slim) on Full Tilt Poker, you can join me here.
You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here.
SNG tips_the re-steal
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 | Poker Articles, Poker Strategy, Poker Tournament | 4 Comments
Submitted by Steve, this article is a part of the Poker Tournament series.
Single Table Tournament Tips
If you’re an online poker player who’s ever started a bankroll from scratch, you know that the best way to pamper a sorry excuse for a bankroll to life is through single table tournaments also know as sit and goes or simply SNGs. SNGs offer great odds to individual players, and when somebody’s goal is rather not to lose than to win a lot, they’ll do the job wonderfully.
This is exactly why it is extremely important that you whip your SNG skills into shape, because the road to becoming a long term winner in online poker leads through these SNGs.
Basic STT strategy is not difficult to master and you’ll find useful recommendations to that end in just about any free poker article available online to everyone. Most such articles however, fail to cover the more
advanced aspects of the issue, like that of re-stealing. Let’s first make it clear what re-stealing is.
In every SNG, there comes a critical moment when the proportionality between the blinds and the average stacks reaches a value that makes blind-stealing attempts a must for everyone who wants to survive at the table. According to Sklansky, the bigger the blinds are in relation to the average pot, the looser one can tackle the problem, because of the favorable pot odds that he gets. Playing with a rakeback deal will improve your pot odds a little on every hand that you commit money on. The smaller the blinds are in relation to pot sizes, (and why not, to the average chip stack at the table) the tighter one should play. This theory is exactly what’s behind the necessity to steal some blinds once that point in play comes about.
What this theory also means though (and what most experts recommend players to do in this situation), is that players will attempt steals on hands they’d normally be reluctant to commit that many chips on. A player who attempts a steal (only a reasonably good player though who uses that grey matter in his/her skull for thinking and anticipation) will always be haunted by the possibility that the targeted person may happen upon a monster just when he makes his move. That’s why he will always expose him-herself to a nasty re-steal when attempting a whack at someone’s blind.
Being able to make a few successful re-steals coupled with some blinds-stealing of your own could mean the difference between making it to the money (or why not to 1st place) and busting out without any compensation. The danger of being blinded out is a real one in SNGs and avoiding it takes some serious skills.
While the concept of re-stealing sounds extremely simple, in reality the situation is much more complicated. For your re-steal to work, you need to pick your opponents carefully. This is one of the moves that work much better against good players than against clueless rookies. One of the basic pre-requisites of successful SNG play is that you keep a keen eye on your opponents. Try to spot the fish and try to spot solid players as well. Do not let stack sizes confuse you. In Texas Holdem, a fish can always get
lucky and outdraw some good player on rags thus building up a stack that is not likely to last.
A good player is one who raises often from the cut off or the button, who is not married to his cards when in the BB and who generally makes good moves. You’ll be able to tell all that from his/her betting patterns.
The problem with attempting a re-steal against a fish is that while he may well be aware of the usefulness in stealing blinds, he may not think twice about committing a large percentage of his stack on a marginal situation.
Make sure your table image is one that will aid you in your re-stealing (people view you as a solid player who only commits on strong hands) and be prepared to let go of the deal if you run into a stubborn opponent. There is a possibility that the person trying to steal your blind does indeed have a hand, in which case you’re making a mistake trying to confront him. Don’t let your mistakes build up.
Best regards,
Steve
You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here.
Poker freeroll October 14th
Monday, October 13th, 2008 | Poker Freeroll | 2 Comments
Yet again the Poker Bankroll Blog and PokerBRB give all readers and forum members a freeroll. This time we have arranged the freeroll at Mermaid Poker, which is connected to the Boss Media Network.
The prize pool is EURO 50, and kicks off at 19:00 GMT.
To participate in this freeroll you must post a message in the poker freeroll post or on our poker forum.
Hope to see you at the tables!
Terms and Conditions
Sunday, October 12th, 2008 | Poker News | No Comments
These are the Terms and Conditions for submission of articles to the Poker Bankroll Blog.
General Rules
You can only submit original articles which you have written yourself. It is fine if you resubmit an article that you have already posted on your web page as long as you can prove you wrote the article.
Your article must have proper English with regards to spelling and sentence structure. If this is not your strong side we strongly suggest that you have it read through by someone who is proficient in English before submitting your articles to us. We reserve the right to dismiss articles with too many mistakes.
The article content should match the title. If you title is “My poker project” the article should be about your poker project and not a review of say a special poker bonus, poker room, poker tool etc.
The article should have real content. We want to hear you own views and thought on the topics we have listed. Simply rewriting a sales pitch for a poker tool or other commercial poker documents without including your own thoughts is not sufficient.
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Ficus Bonsai_update 1
Saturday, October 11th, 2008 | Poker and Life | No Comments
This is the second article in my series about my Ficus Bonsai tree:
The enormous response I received from my first article about my Ficus Bonsai tree has left me feeling obligated to write an update on how my tree is doing. When I left you last time on August 8th I had great hopes for my Ficus Bonsai. It was shooting new leaves all over due to my special treatment:
- Buy a proper saucer and fill it with LECA (light expanded clay aggregate) pellets to ensure effective drainage and thus prevent a waterlogged pot which causes root rot
- Spray the Ficus Bonsai with water twice a day using a regular water vaporizer (FYI this gizmo is also used to water orchids)
Here’s what my Ficus Bonsai looked like on August 8th:
See all the new leaves…pretty sweet huh?
Well no point in dragging out the suspense, this is what my Ficus Bonsai looks like now:
Gasp! It is a terrible sight, I know. My tree has experienced a massive loss of leaves reminiscent of jungle trees in Vietnam sprayed with Agent Orange. Despite doing everything humanly possibly my tree has repaid my dedication by more or less dying. If you look carefully you can still spot a few leaves but I think it is only a matter of time before they also fall off.
I think I know what I did wrong. I planted my Ficus Bonsai in too big a pot which did not allow the water to draw from the bottom all the way to the top, watering all the roots. So what has happened is that 80% of the root ball has in effect dried out and died causing the massive loss of leaves.
Since I spent a lot of money on my Ficus Bonsai tree I have decided to keep it even though it is dead. Today I bought some Ivy, planted them in the pot and gave the whole thing a shitload of water. The plan is that the Ivy should replace the leaves and make the tree look alive again.
I will keep you updated with pictures along the way.
On a more poker related note I just got busted out of a 10000$ tourney with A10. I raised preflop and did not hit the flop. My opponent checked and I made a continuation all in bet. He called of course having hit the flop…..sneaky bugger.
List of Poker Rooms
Friday, October 10th, 2008 | Poker Network, Poker Room | No Comments
This article is a part of the poker room series.
When looking for an online poker site the problem is not at all where to find a site but more which site to choose? WOSB.com has made a complete list of online poker sites. The list contains over 350 poker rooms and information is available about:
Traffic rank: the estimated amount of traffic to the poker site homepage.
Poker Network: which poker network the site is connected to.
Jurisdiction: where the poker site has obtained a poker license.
Poker rakeback: Whether it is possible to receive rakeback at this site. The rakeback list is not complete as it only contains the rakeback deals offered by PokerBRB.
It is possible to choose all poker sites connected to a certain poker network. This gives an very good overview of the options you have as a customer. The traffic rank furthermore provides an indication of the popularity of each poker room. Mind you, this is only an indication.
If you really want to be sure whether the poker room you choose is owned by a solid company you should have a look at the list of all egaming companies listed on the stock exchange.
You might ask which poker room I would choose? I have personally tried most poker networks out there and in the process realized that it can have a very positive effect to change poker room once in a while. For some reason you tend to be more focused when you change to a new poker room which ensures that you are playing your A-game. Changing poker room can also give some extra cash through poker sign up bonuses.
Enjoy!
WOSB.com gives objective bookmaker review and general information about the e-gaming business. See the full poker list at WOSB.
/Michael
How to submit an article
Friday, October 10th, 2008 | Poker News | 8 Comments
Step 1.
Write an article (Terms and Conditions apply). Don’t worry if we don’t have a suitable category for your post. Any poker related article is welcome. If you have suggestions for new categories you think would fit better with your article, please let us know.
Step 2.
Send us a link to the article or the whole article in Microsoft Word format to support@pokerbrb.com.
Step 3
We will send you a reply regarding your article as soon as possible. We will inform you on the publishing date and if there are any adjustments or suggestions to your article from our side.
See Poker Mathematics for a typical example of a submitted article
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Poker Mathematics
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 | Poker Mathematics | 2 Comments
This article is a part of the Poker Mathematics series.
Being a good enough poker player to generate money playing online is about mastering several aspects of the game. The rules of Texas Holdem (or even Omaha) are deceitfully simple. From learning how to play the game to becoming a pro there’s a lifetime’s learning of a distance though.
In order to master the game, a player needs to be in complete control of its mathematical aspect, as well as its psychology and strategy sides. Mathematics is a very important part of being successful in poker and it does give beginners a pretty good guidance regarding the quintessential question in poker: should I call, should I fold or should I raise?
As soon as you sit down to the table and you realize where you are in relation to the dealer button, mathematics floats into the picture.
The mathematical odds that you get for your starting hands are deeply influenced by your position at the table. If you are under the gun or in a different early position, you should tighten your starting hand selection because the odds that you get for a K, J for instance are not the same as the ones you get for the same hand on the button or in the cut-off.
Starting hand selection is about math as well. Not all starting hands were created equal as some stand a higher mathematical chance to win than others. Correct starting hand assessment takes position into account, but pot odds need to be considered too.
Aggressive preflop play is about mathematics as well. Its aim is to drive out as many players as possible or to make them call and fold on the flop, thus leaving dead money in the pot.
The fewer players there are in a hand (the more you manage to chase away through aggressive preflop betting), the better the odds will be for every single hand that remains in the game. Players who leave dead money in the pot alter the pot odds, and thus they act to increase the odds for those who remain in the game.
Making the correct call has a very clearly defined mathematical side to it. In order to find out whether or not one needs to call a raise, to fold a hand or even re-raise, all he/she needs to do is to compare the odds of making a potentially victorious hand, and the pot odds. The pot odds are easy to calculate.
All our player needs to do is to compare the number of chips in the pot with the number of chips it takes to make the call. If there are $50 in the pot and the bet he’s facing is a $10 one, the odds are 5-1.
He needs to calculate the odds of making his hand (let’s say he has a 4-card flush on the flop). Taking all the cards already on the table into account, as well as the remaining outs, the odds of hitting a flush on the turn are 4.22-1 against. Since this number is smaller than the pot odds themselves, it will make sense for our player to make this call, but not a re-raise, since that would ruin the pot odds for him.
Mathematics can give you a clue or two about what calls you need to make, however, a large part of poker is about psychology and about putting opponents on hand-ranges based on their behavior and betting patterns. That’s where the mathematical element blends into the inexact science of psychology and behavior assessment.
Another wonderful example of how mathematics works in poker is rakeback. In real money play, you pay a rake on every single hand to the poker room. That is how the latter makes its revenue.
Rakeback gives you a certain percentage of that rake back.
Using simple mathematics one can easily prove that sign-up and other such limited-validity bonuses are in fact the equivalent of a rakeback deal, only they carry the rather overwhelming disadvantage that they expire over time.
Rakeback never expires, and if you really want to you can use mathematics to prove how it affects the pot odds you get on every single real money hand you ever play.
Post By Steve.
You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here.
Poker Writers Wanted
Sunday, October 5th, 2008 | Poker News | 10 Comments
The Poker Bankroll Blog is searching for Poker writers.
On the Poker Bankroll Blog it is possible to post your own poker articles. These articles may contain any topics related to poker. At the moment our focus is on the following topics (listed alphabetically):
- Poker and Life
- Poker Bankroll Building
- Poker Bankroll Management
- Poker Mathematics
- Poker Network
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- Poker Player
- Poker Projects
- Poker Room
- Poker Rules
- Poker Strategy
- Poker Tools
- Poker Tournament
So as you can see there are plenty of topics to choose from.
What is in it for you?
You will have the possiblitity of publishing your work to the audience of an already established website dedicated to poker.
You will be able to promote your own blog or website through your own articles, and in addition post your own affiliation links. (Terms and Conditions apply)
You will have a dedicated team working on the promotion of your work.
We will only publish one article per day so your work will have a very good exposure to visitors. Furthermore you will be able to promote your articles and yourself on our forum.
What is in it for us?
Our vision is to build up the largest collection of poker related articles. As much as we would like to write the content ourselves, we are limited by time. The articles would furthermore be limited to our own angle on different topics. This is why we want you to contribute.
Please send a mail to support@pokerbrb.com with your articles (Terms & Conditions apply) if you have an article you want posted or have any questions what so ever.
Read more about how to submit an article here.
Pokerbrb Freeroll October 5th
Saturday, October 4th, 2008 | Poker Freeroll | 1 Comment
Hi All!
Hope you like to look of our new blog design. It is not complete yet, so it will be even better!
Anyway, we have a $50 freeroll tomorrow (October 5th) at Poker Nordica. The whole PokerBRB will be playing so hope to see you at the table!!
If you want to join the freeroll post a reply on the freeroll thread at PokerBRB or add pokerbrb@live.com to your messenger.
Enjoy and good luck at the tables!
/Michael
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