Understanding Texas Holdem Poker

Despite of all the interest that Texas hold-em poker creates on the table, it’s very easy to learn. And perhaps that’s the reason of its lofty popularity. The game starts with the dealer giving 2 faces down cards to each player on the table. After that, the community are cards are dealt faced up, which are 5 in number. The motive of the game is to make the best hand by using the 7 cards, 2 with the player and 5 on the table.

Rounds of betting come at all stages of the game, players can call or rise whenever they feel like it. Now let’s look at the stages of the game step by step. The first round starts with dealing of 2 faces down cards to the players. These are also called pocket cards. Then 3 community cards are dealt on the table. Using the five cards that the players have, they try to make their hands stronger. At this point, players can bet.

The next round comes with the dealing of the forth community card called the turn card. Betting can be made at this point too. The next round comes with the dealing of the 5th and final community card, popularly known as the river card. At this point, players can either bet, check, raise or fold.

Players are categorized according to their position in relation to the dealer. Players sitting immediately left of the dealer are called small blind and the players sitting at positions farthest from the dealer are called big blind. New players, looking to make an entry into the game, may call the big blind to stay in the game, other wise they have to fold.

The player who ends up making the best hand is the winner. The winner gets the prize which is which is a sum of the money bet on the table and is called the pot. The pot may also be split into two in case of a tie.

Texas hold-em poker is further categorised into variants according to the types of betting involved. The first variety is the limit hold em. In this, the amount that a player can bet or raise will be limited to a pre-decided amount. The bets are raised over the course of the game in specified increments, for instance 4 dollar increments. Betting is more expensive in the later parts, namely turn and river, of the game.

Next is the spread limit poker. In this variant the bets are limited, but the raising of bets can be increased within a certain range, which is referred to as the spread. Next and the most popular variant of poker is the pot limit hold-em. In this variant, the size of the bet that a player can make is limited by the size of the pot. Another form of the Texas hold em is the no limit. Here, there are no limits to the bets made and to also to the raise. As there are no limits, most players don’t feel comfortable with this version and so, it is not very popular.

Well, this is all about the basics of poker. There are numerous skills, strategies and practices to learn in this game but I think that this article may have given you an introduction for understanding Texas Hold-em poker.

Playing Loose In Online Poker

Playing loose in Holdem isn’t easy. But if you do it right, you can make lots of money from it. Loose players can often control the game, tilt the table, and have every player follow them. The pots will also be much bigger since the players pay they respect to the hand you make.

There are various ways to play loose in online poker. The initial step should be loosening up your game and incorporate these tricks gradually. In time, you will figure out which of the tips work best for you.

Your Hand is Irrelevant if Nobody Makes a Call

Most hands do not usually reach the showdown. Usually, an online poker player would know his stand during the River. A showdown – therefore – isn’t necessary to find out how your hand was. If your rival does not hold strong hands and you haven’t made a combination, you can simply represent a much better hand by wagering like you would in a strong card combination.

Be Familiar with Your Opponents

It often takes a lot more effort to play loose than to play tight. You need to keep an eye on all of your rivals so you would know who is capable of calling you down or playing back at you. You will also know who is waiting to mark a great flop if you keep a close watch on other online poker players.

Expand the Pot

Instead of calling, try to raise and bet more often in Holdem. When your opponents get scared to play against you without a quality hand, you can easily put them on hand. You have to force your opponents to make hasty decisions so you can acquire information about the cards they’re holding.

Semi-Bluffing and Drawing

A great way to open up your hand compilation would be through suited connecters. If you are on a draw, you know the cards you need to hit to come up with the best hand. If you do not have the chance, simply lay down your cards.

Through semi-bluffing, you can get your rivals to lay down much better hands. Just be sure that you’re doing the bluff correctly to convince the online poker player.

Realizing a Beat

You are going to hit up more marginal hands if you open up your hand selection.

The Bankroll

An average bankroll has to be kept for aggressive plays. You will definitely need extra padding to save you since the swings are much larger. You also have to protect yourself emotionally and financially. A great way to implement this would be organizing a bankroll that’s made solely for playing online poker.

Although discipline takes much time to develop, you will surely benefit from this in the end. Holdem requires every player to have full control over their finances. If you fail to do so, this can result to various consequences.

Playing Loose is Sometimes Wrong

Loose is not always the right decision to make when playing online poker. You have to mix up your style depending on the players and the table you are in. If you get stuck at one approach, you can easily become exploitable to other Holdem players.

Are Women Taking Over the World of Poker?

Poker was once considered a game for men, but this is no longer the case. Even though men continue to dominate this game, women are definitely making quick inroads onto professional levels. It may be true that women have never won in main no-limit events of Texas Hold’em; however, Annie Duke was able to beat her brother and several other legends of poker to win two million dollars at the Tournament of Champions in World Series Poker in 2005.

Considered as one of the best professional women players in poker tournaments, Jennifer Harman from Las Vegas is an animalistic and widely-feared high-stakes competitor. As a matter of fact, Daniel Negreanu, one of the top players, has once stated that Jennifer Harman was considered as one of the best players in the world by her peers. “She is deadly,” Daniel said. “A real pit bull within the body of a Chihuahua.”

For the very first time within the 35 years that the Poker World Series has been around, some women have become recognized as completely equal competitors with top male players. Jennifer Tilly, the actress who was nominated for an Academy Award for her “Bullets over Broadway” performance – the comedy by Woody Allen, surprised everybody with her cool determination and skills in playing high-stakes. Jennifer recently won the event of Ladies No-limit Hold’em event, bagging the prize money worth $158,625. There is also Cathy Liebert, who is an expert at completely confusing her opponents with quizzical expressions. Cathy also happens to be the very first woman to win a million dollars in competitions of poker tournaments. People also need to look out for a woman named Cyndy Violette. She oftentimes wins some good money, like when she came in second among more than a thousand players within a $2,000 showdown of No-limit Hold’em, winning her $295,970.

The main event of the Poker World Series in 2005 required a buy-in of $10,000 and had 2,576 entrees in total; 130 of these were female. Within this tournament, the person that ranked as number 21 in the entire field was female, as well: Suzanne Carpenter.

One great example of the speed that women are now taking to high-stakes poker tournaments is unprecedented. 600 women took part at the event of Ladies No-limit Texas Hold’em event in 2006, where Jennifer Tilly won. This is almost thrice as many women compared to the amount that played within the exact same tournament two years before that.

Women are entering high-stakes poker tournaments in amounts that are quickly increasing, showing tenacity and skills that have thrown several veteran male poker players, a lot of which believed that female players are easy to intimidate and disrupt with their strategies. At the same time, a lot of women played far too aggressively against men as their defense mechanism. Men and women are still learning how to respect each other as equals, while a lot of male high profile players start to appreciate and even publicly praise the playing skills that top women competitors have exhibited so far.

Pitbull Poker Shuts Down Strangely

For a long time now, there have been rumours circulating around the internet regarding the impending demise of Flash Poker Network site Pitbull Poker. Now, those rumours have been confirmed straight from the horse’s mouth.

Players attempting to log into their Pitbull Poker accounts will receive a message on their browser screen stating that Pitbull Poker has shut down. They will also receive instructions that cashing out can be done by sending an e-mail to support@pitbullpoker.com.

In a strange twist however, it appears as though Pitbull Poker has become an affiliate of several other online gaming sites. There are affiliate banners appearing for Poker Stars, Cake Poker and several other online gaming institutions. These affiliate banners presumably net Pitbull Poker money, especially since they will be seen by many people trying to get their money out of the insolvent Pitbull Poker website.

Why these banners are present is unknown at the moment, although there has been speculation that Pitbull Poker is attempting to use these affiliate links in order to get commissions that will allow them to pay out all of the requests for cashing out that they are likely to receive over the short term. However, some have suggested more sinister motives such as a desire for personal enrichment through this particular ploy. Either way, analysts agree that we must wait and see in order to understand exactly what Pitbull Poker is doing in terms of this strange type of affiliate marketing.

Pitbull Poker’s shutdown could have ramifications beyond the Pitbull Poker operation however. Their shutdown comes at a particularly bad time for the Flash Poker Network, the parent server for traffic for Pitbull Poker. The departure of this site leaves the network empty of any kind of recognizable and reputable sites. The problem has gotten so bad that Poker Scout, the leading online source of poker traffic information, has removed the Flash Poker Network from their list of online poker networks. Presumably, this was due to a lack of accurate reporting on the traffic numbers from the Flash Poker Network.

The upcoming days should be very interesting indeed as analysts follow the future of the Flash Poker Network and the affiliate marketing efforts of the remains of the Pitbull Poker operation.

Party Poker Brings Back Million Dollar Hand

Party Poker announcing return of an exciting promotion Million Dollar Hand promotion.
It began running and will continue through October 30. You might wondering how it works, well players have to collect cards. For example every 15 party poker points you earn, you will get 1 playing card. You can easily view your cards by looking your account information. However, once you get 5 cards, they will tell if you have won or lost. Cash prize will be awarded by simply making a pair, and each day play can reveal 2 separate 5 cards hands. Total you can earn up to 52 five cards during the month.

If you be fortunate enough to have made a royal flush, you will win the grand prize of a cool million dollars.

Party Poker Million Dollar Hand prizes:

Straight flush pays $10,000 Four of a kind pays $1,000 Full house pays $150 Flush pays $100 Straight pays $50 Three of a kind pays $20 Two pair pays $10 One pair pays $3.

Poker Stars Giving Away A Porsche

If you ever dream to drive a Porsche or Want to win a Porsche Then go to Poker Stars, because they are giving away a Porsche Car to a lucky player. You can be the lucky player if you living in USA or Canada, they going to have a Porsche Freeroll Tournament, and its free to enter.

How can you get in the freeroll? All you have to do is Deposit into pokerStars real money account or make a reload deposit between October 1 to October 17. Once you deposit and reload your account, Pokerstars will give you a seat in the Porsche tournament which will take place on Sunday, October 18 at 1PM EST.

When you make a deposit make sure you put the promotional code to reserve a seat for you. If you are first time deposit then put code NEWCAR. If you are reloaded your account then put code WINCAR.

If you are first time Depositors then 100% deposit bonus up to $600 still will work for you. you can use marketing code PSP5924 for $600 bonus.