Pitfalls of Online Poker

There are more pitfalls to playing online. There are many possible distractions you could have
playing online poker that you would not have in a brick and mortar poker room. These distractions include surfing online, writing or reading emails, watching TV or even reading a book (hey, if you are playing online poker right now as you read this, STOP. Either play the game, or read the book, don’t do both!). If you know the other players well and are confident you know how they play, you may not lose much by focusing your attention elsewhere. However, even if you do know the players well, they may be playing a bit differently in this particular session than they normally do. Maybe one of them is slightly on tilt, having lost a few bad beats in a row. This may mean theyare playing more aggressively on hands that they may normally not play at all. If you know theplayers well, it is still economically beneficial to pay as much attention as possible to the game. These distractions are all-internal functions. It is your own discipline or lack thereof that will determine if you allow distractions to cause you to lose your focus.

It is not something that anyone can tell anyone else to do. It is all up to each player individually. Many brick and mortar poker rooms will allow players to read magazines or newspapers while
sitting at the table. It may seem like one is just as likely to get distracted when playing poker
online as playing poker in a brick and mortar casino if you are allowed to read at the table in both places. There is a big difference between the two however, in that when a major occurrence
happens in a brick and mortar casino, you will often hear the players talking about it. Even if you are reading, you can hear the commotion and you will lift your head up to see what is going on. The online poker rooms do not have this system. The noise level will be the same whether or not there is a major bad beat or any other interesting issue going on.

Convenience Of Online Poker

You can play any time of day
Online poker rooms are 24 hours a day operations. If there are players, there are games. Once an
online poker room reaches a certain critical mass, they will likely have games at all times of day
at all limits. Not every site has this feature as they are not all that successful, but there are a few
sites that have achieved this critical mass. This means players can play any time of day they feel
like. This is great for many people, including morning people, people who work at night and can
only play during the day and people who are nightowls that play in the wee hours of the morning

You can play for a very short time if you prefer
If you make the effort to go to the local poker room, you probably feel you should stay there for while. Nobody likes to drive half an hour just to play a couple of minutes and then drive another
half an hour to get home. This is different with online poker. You could play one round which
may take as little as one minute, you could play for five minutes and decide to leave. This is a
great option for all players, although it does make for a relatively high turnover of players at the online game compared to the brick and mortar game.

There are easier ways to analyze your own play online
Most of the online poker sites have an option where you can see your hand histories. This makes for analyzing your own play much easier than in a brick and mortar casino, where the only way to track your own play is to actually write every single hand down, this is simply not practical for most people, not to mention the tremendous effort it would take. Recently several people have developed software to help players analyze their game.

Holdem Skill Level

If you are a neophyte poker player, don't get into a game in which the boys are old hands. Experience is a big factor and very hard to overcome with mere talent. If you are lucky in a game with such players, you win a little; if unlucky, you lose heavily. Find a game where the players are in your class.

No Friends In Poker

Forget friendship: Upon entering a poker game leave friendship behind. If you hold a "cinch hand" at stud and you allow your friend to see your hole card without putting in the last bet to call your hand, I can assure you that you won't be a winner. If you want to play a good game, you must bet your hand for what it is worth. Top money winners do. Poker is a game for blood.

POKER CONSISTENCY

JV'S KILLER POKER: CONSISTENCY
BY: John Vorhaus
To prove that my high school years were more than a teenage wasteland of nickel-ante poker games and futile assaults on the virtues of various young ladies, I now quote Ralph Waldo Emerson, who I studied extensively (or so I am told) in American literature class, and who had this, among many other (or so I am told) pithy things to say:
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
How, you might ask, does this amorphous aphorism, foisted upon me in Am lit class, apply to poker? And glad I am that you ask, for otherwise this would indeed be a meaningless musing upon virtues and nickels long squandered or lost, and not the erudite Emersonian essay that it will momentarily prove to be.
Okay, here's the deal: To win at poker, you have to play consistently good poker. This we know. All the pundits agree – come with your A game or don't come at all. Ah-ha, yes, but also to win at poker you must occasionally play deceptive poker, which means inconsistent poker, which means not consistently good poker. We have a paradox here, and I heighten its importance immeasurably by setting it off in italics in its own little paragraph:
For the sake of deception, you must sometimes play wrong on purpose.
Suppose you're playing hold 'em, you're first to act and you have 9-8 offsuit. This hand is trash. You know it's trash, I know it's trash, even the mooks you play against know it's trash. The obvious decision here is... fold. That's exactly the choice that "quality poker" mandates. But instead, in the name of seeding your game with a little inconsistency, you contemplate a raise. Of course we Killer Poker players never hate to raise, but in this case this raise is a horrible play, a dreadful one, a stone-dead long-run loser, as I'm sure that you and any self-respecting computer simulation would swiftly and enthusiastically agree (unlike those girls in high school, who never swiftly and enthusiastically agreed to any of my propositions, though that's another story and not one, I'm almost completely certain, appropriate to this time and space.)
Frequently this reckless raise will cost you both your bets, because even if no one reraises you before the flop you'll mostly miss on the flop and have to throw that basura away. (Basura is Spanish for rubbish; did you think that I studied only Emerson in high school?) But here's the thing: On those rare times when you do connect to this holding, none of the foolishly consistent hobgoblins you play against will put you on the hand you have. Plus which, when you show down that ragamuffin hand, you really confound the small minds, so that when you next raise with a monster, you can make A-A look like 9-8 to them. That's when deception and inconsistency – the wrong play made at the right time – turn into winning poker the Killer Poker way.
I love this play. (Love it more than I loved Stephanie Long, who I loved with all my heart and body parts in 11th grade; but, again, different subject.) I love to raise situationally with hands that have to hit the flop in order to work. You can too, if you're shrewd enough and disciplined enough to get away from the hand if it misses, and perceptive enough and aggressive enough to drive it home when it hits. Of course you don't want to make this play against wily opponents, but you generally don't want to play against wily opponents anyway; not if your smart. I know I've made this point before, but I'll make it again and, again, add italics for emphasis:
Don't challenge strong opponents, challenge weak ones; that's what they're there for.
Fortunately for you, weakness and consistency go hand-in-hand. For instance, weak opponents consistently raise with only premium hands. This makes them terribly easy to read, and there's no reason on the planet for a Killer Poker player ever to get trapped in a tangle against them. For another instance, weak opponents frequently make decisions based not on what they think you have, but on what they hope you have, and it is to stimulate this wishful misthinking that we get into the whole thing of consistent inconsistency in the first place.
Suppose your foe has Q-T offsuit, and you raise into him. If you raised consistently with only good cards, he'd know to put you on a quality hand, A-K or a big pair. He probably should fold, and possibly even knows it. But he doesn't want to fold. He wants to play; that's why he's here. And that's why you flavor your play with a little inconsistency. You want to give this weak player every reason to believe that you have the hand he wishes you had instead of the hand you actually do have. Thus he calls when he shouldn't, and thus you crush him with his own delusive thinking.
So, yes, you're throwing off chips when you raise incorrectly. But at the same time you're encouraging your opponents to call incorrectly. And since you play generally better than they do (don't you?) you end up making money on the margin. Can you see the logic of this? I thought you could. If only Stephanie Long had seen the logic of getting busy in the back of – well, never mind.
You know, for all the hours of all the American literature classes that I zombied through in high school, I can't tell you one word Emerson wrote beyond "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." But they always tell you in high school that the things you learn in high school will pay massive dividends later in your life. Mostly I've just said, "yeah, right," and mostly I've been right. Diagramming sentences? Deriving logarithms? I mean, come on, who really needs these skills? The most pertinent thing I ever learned in high school concerned girls and virtue and the logical improbability of parting the latter from the former. But if Emerson's wisdom translates into money won in poker, then that's enough for me, and it should be enough for you, too.
All this talk of high school puts me in mind of homework, so now here's yours: Get out of line! Make a bad raise at a bad time from a bad position and see what kind of dividends it pays in terms of muddying the waters of your play and sowing doubt and confusion among your foes. Because a foolish consistency is the not just the hobgoblin but also the province of little minds, and your mind is much, much bigger than that.

The Importance of Raising

Low Limit No Limit Strategy: The Importance of Raising

BY: Ashley AdamsContact at: (Asha34@aol.com) Author of Winning 7-Card Stud (Order Now on Amazon.com)

I�ve been playing a lot of hours of low limit no limit hold em on line these days. These are the $100 or $200 maximum buy-in games that frequently include many players who really don�t know how to play the game.
There are a few sharks in these waters but many, many clueless or overly timid guppies. There are many things that can be said about these games. But I want you to focus on only one right now. Think about this nugget and it will help your game.
With the blinds so low in absolute dollars, you get many players who will gladly play their hand for just the price of the big blind. Because they are relatively clueless, they will call with just about any cards � as long as it�s just for the bargain price of the big blind.
Make it more and they�ll fold � unless they�ve already called, in which case they�ll call along for a small raise � figuring that they�re already in for a little, what�s a little more.
This has a huge impact on how you play your hand. Take advantage of their predisposition and exploit it.
In a nutshell, if you�re going to play a marginal hand you usually want to play it for a raise. You want to knock out those players with random hands � making sure that if you draw a powerful hand, they�re not going to be sitting there with a freak draw that gives them a higher hand.
Here�s an example.
You hold AhJs in middle position. Two player have folded in front of you. You are tempted to just call. You don�t have a strong hand yet, after all. Might as well see if you can see the flop cheaply. So you call and get five people seeing the flop with you.
The fop is As7s8c. The small blind checks. The big blind bets $10 in this $1/2 blind $200 max buy-in game. Now what do you do?
These situations come up all the time. So what do you do? You didn�t raise. So you have no idea what he has. He could be holding a flush draw and betting on the come. He could be holding 78, and would have folded pre-flop if you raised. Or he could be holding A9 just as easily. You really have no idea.
If you�re confidant that he�s pushing a lower hand, and if you�re therefore tempted to call or raise him, how sure are you that you have the other players beat (whom you let in by not raising)?
OK, you think. That just wasn�t a good flop for you. So let me pick another example � a better flop. Would you have been happier with Jh7h6s? At least you know that you�ve got top kicker with your pair of Jacks. But with five players who might have anything at all, you�re still not in an ideal spot are you? Someone may well have called with a low pair, with 87, or maybe they have a flush or a straight draw that you can�t knock them off of because they don�t understand pot odds, other player don�t understand pot odds, and they call your pot sized bet. A straight or a flush card hits on the turn and you�re likely dead meat.
A different approach is to throw in that pre-flop raise if you�re going to play big cards like AJ, AQ, or KQ. Throw in a raise to knock out the players with completely random or near random hands. That way, if you hit your top pair you�ll have fewer players who are likely to be ahead of you.
There are exceptions � but I�ve found damn few. You probably don�t want to play A-x suited for a raise. If you don�t hit your flush or a flush draw then you don�t want to play that hand at all. And if the right flop comes you�re going to have the top hand. So don�t bother thinning out the field. Similarly with a low pair in late position. If you don�t hit your trips you�re folding. And if you do hit your trips you�re not worried about a bunch of other people in the pot � you�re betting strong anyway.
And of course there are exceptions based on the type of player you are actually up against and where they are sitting. Just because the table as a whole is filled with timid bad players, that doesn�t mean that you might have to watch out for someone who is atypically perceptive and taking countermoves against you when you raise on the come � and who might raise you back as a bluff if he thinks you�re getting too frisky.
But for the most part, in these low limit passive games push those marginal hands with a raise if you decide to play them. The worst thing in the world that can happen is for your passive play, pre-flop, to get you into trouble with someone with some random hand who called along with you, and who hits some unpredictable miracle flop, catches you totally unaware, and strips you of your stack. Much better to push your hand early, even if you must concede to a combination of a bad flop and betting pressure.
One last consideration on this point. Your raise into an unraised pot against typically timid and weak players will frequently buy you the button � that is to say it will knock out all of the players who remain after you up until the small blind. This will get you last action on all subsequent betting rounds. This is enormously beneficial to you � as you will be able to see how other players react, with their betting action, to the flop, the turn and the river. In games like these, where straightforward play tends to be the rule, you will often be able to pick up the pot by making a bet after the flop � with almost any hand. This is not a certainty of course; some players will slowplay and check raise. But the likelihood of that is, generally speaking, slim. This gives you all the more reason to raise with your hand before the flop.

Typing Your Opponents

Baby No Limit:Typing Your Opponents
BY: Ashley AdamsContact at: (Asha34@aol.com) Author of Winning 7-Card Stud (Order Now on Amazon.com)

You've seen the old Western movies haven�t you? The ones which include poker usually have some pivotal scene where the hero, who is a great card player, either carries out an expert bluff, winning everything with nothing or, even more likely, he looks into the soul of his villainous opponent and reads him perfectly, figuring out that he�s bluffing, calling him with his last cent, and winning the pot, the house and the girl. Ah, the movies!
Lest you think this �Hollywoodization� of poker has long since ended, consider recently, in Rounders, in just about all regards the most realistic of movies that feature poker, there�s that scene early on when Matt Damon�s character � recently �reformed� by his girlfriend and no longer playing poker � happens to come upon a game his law school professor is having. Damon�s natural instincts overwhelm him as he takes up the dare of one of the game�s participants and announces, with no seeming difficulty at all, the exact 7-card stud hands that each player has � before they reveal their hole cards. He leaves the otherwise sagacious professors with their jaws on their knees. Ah, the movies.
In real life though, it just isn�t like that. Situations like the ones above are completely unrealistic. Bluffs are rarely if ever obvious, even to the good player. And players are rarely so transparent that even a professional can casually figure out at a glance what they�re holding just by watching one hand.
There are a few reasons for this. The good players and the great players are usually in control of their expressions and behavior enough to conceal the true strength of their hands. The bad players don�t properly understand the value of their hand sufficient for their expressions to necessarily mean anything worthwhile either. And, perhaps even more important than either of those reasons is the fact that in a casino, you�ll often find that you�re against players for only a few hours at a time � not nearly sufficient to see your opponents in action enough of the time to get a close and careful read on their play.
Generally speaking, I discourage you from trying to find that giveaway tell in your opponents. Rather, I encourage you to look for more general characteristics that can help you get a broad read on your opponent�s play.
In Baby No Limit, I find it useful to put players into a few general categories. Rather than revealing precisely what your opponent holds, these categories will help you decide on what betting action you should take in different situations. It won�t be 100% accurate. But insofar as it will be a helpful guide to proper play, it should help your bottom line.
I find that there are roughly four broad categories into which I can put my Baby No Limit opponents. Here they are:
SCARED CLUELESSWILD SOLID
Let�s look at each in turn to get a better handle on how these folks tend to play.
SCARED: I�ve found these players to be the most common type of players at the typical $1/2 $100 maximum buy in game � whether in a casino or in someone�s house. They frequently barely even have the $100 to play. Typically, they are very low limit on line players or relatively new to poker and haven�t built up any kind of a bankroll. Maybe they�re students or they live at home and have a low paying or part time job. They can�t afford to lose this buy-in casually. They play very, very tightly up front � though usually not correctly. They�ve read a book, maybe, so they know the importance of playing big pairs and very high cards. And maybe they understand a thing or two about position � so they�re tighter in early position than late position. But they don�t have very good self control � and they eventually can�t resist a bargain. So they call very small bets with mediocre or bad hands that don�t play well multi-way. And since they really just play their cards without thinking about much else, they frequently find themselves out of position, especially after the flop. Since they�re so afraid of losing their bankroll, they will often give in to pressure � folding hands they should call or raise with. They don�t raise unless they have very, very, very strong hands � and even then their raises are often incorrect � either too small when they have strong but not nut hands or too big when they have the nuts � especially with Aces pre-flop. (I�ve seen more than a few of these guys call with hands like JJ in early position and raise all-in with AA).
CLUELESS: I see these players more in tournaments than in live games. You know them. They really don�t know what they�re doing. They may play with a cheat sheet listing the hands. Your game might literally be the first or second time they have ever played No Limit Hold Em. These folks really are transparent. They may literally show you their cards (though not intentionally). They don�t know how much they can bet. They don�t keep track of the action so they don�t know when it�s their turn to bet. They don�t really have any sense of the money they�re playing with so they don�t respect large bets or small bets. They tend to call if they�re in a hand � and they tend to be in lots of hands.
WILD: They�ve watched too much TV typically and seen the top pros at the final table of a major tournament go all in successfully with 6-5 suited. They figure that this is the way to win. So they throw their money around in a ring game just as they have seen the pros do it. They don�t realize, of course, that they are playing a completely different game. For them, poker is about action. They can raise with the best of them � re-raising an early position raiser because they have a couple of big cards. And they�re not intimidated either. They�ve got heart in spades! They�ve watched those guys on TV so they know that sometimes you can call someone down with a weak hand and win.
SOLID: These guys may not be great players, but they�re pretty darn good. They understand position; they respect raises, they play aggressively when the situation calls for it, and they don�t call with trash. They are selective with the hands they play. But they play aggressively when they�re in a hand. Their raises are usually large enough to manipulate their opponents. And they can call a bet with a drawing hand when their hand, position, and pot odds warrant it. This is the type of player you aspire to be and generally want to avoid.

"Tell'ing Time"

"Tell'ing Time"
By Ed BarrettMy career as a private detective was on hold while the authorities were clearing my name of some problems I'd had in the past. I was spending the idle time playing a lot of poker. It was late Thursday evening and I was driving by the Rusty Nail Inn on my way home from the Indian casino near the Mexican border. I decided to stop in.
"V.O. and water," I plumped down on a padded bar stool. "No ice.
" "That's terribly un-American of you, no ice," he said. I detected a British accent. His name was Malcolm. It said so on his name tag.
"Smooth and warm, just like my women," I said, and instantly regretted having invited Malcolm into my life. I looked toward one of the many empty tables and considered moving to one of them as soon as Malcolm returned with my drink, but he didn't give me a chance. "I take it you had a bad night at the casino."
"Why is that?"
"When you've been in this business as long as I have, you learn to categorize people."
"And I look as though I had a bad night?"
"It's what you said, Mate. 'Smooth and warm' What was that psychiatrist's name? Rorschach?
Rorschach was famous for his ink-blot tests that led him to identify personality types and tendencies by patient's responses to ink-blot arrangements. Malcolm was talking about word association. I didn't correct him.He'd gotten my interest, and I decided to play along with him.
"Word association," I said. "You say something, I respond, and you know that I had a bad night at the casino?"
Malcolm laughed and took a towel from behind the bar and tossed it over his shoulder. "It's very reliable," he said.
"And you are correct. I did have a bad night at the casino. But I don't know how you got all that from what little I've said to you."
Malcolm shrugged his shoulders and turned his attention toward two young ladies who had just come in. They surveyed the near empty tavern, said hello to Malcolm and then left. Other than Malcolm and I, there was a young man methodically knocking balls into the pockets on a pool table away from the bar, and one other customer nodding off on the far side of the bar. I did a quick evaluation of the pool player and decided that I could take whatever money he had from him if I wanted to, but my mind wasn't on pool on this night.
"It's a lot to do with the body movement, too." Malcolm moved his body from one side to the other for emphasis as he watched the two ladies leave.
"You know I had a bad night because of what I said and by my body motions?" "That's it, Mate."
"And the people I play poker against. Maybe they know whether I have a good or bad hand by what I say and how I move. Is that what you're saying?"
Malcolm furrowed his brow. "I think you know that, Mate. It's called tells, I believe."
Indeed. But not me. Texas Hold'em was a new game for me, but I'd been playing stud for over thirty years. Surely I wouldn't be giving off tells.
"Right now...you're thinking that you would never give off tells. But your shoulders slumped just as soon as you started thinking about it."
I straightened up in my chair.
"And your eyes dropped. Not a very positive image. Do you think you might be doing that when you get bad cards?"
I didn't respond.
"And when the cards are favoring you...isn't it interesting that hardly anyone is calling your bets?"
I'd kept thorough records. He was right. My winning hands were paying well below the average for the games I was playing in. But I still think he was only guessing.
"How did you even know I was at the casino tonight?" I finished my drink and pushed my glass forward for a refill.
"You're wearing a Four Star Casino hat, Mate. And your comp card is sticking out of your shirt pocket. Wasn't hard to figure that one out."
I was tiring of being called Mate. "My name is Buck Garrison. I'm a walking tell is what you mean."
"It's not something you can't overcome, Buck." Malcolm reached behind the bar and took out a deck of cards. "Fifty cents and one dollar on the blinds, bets are one and two."
We played forty or fifty hands and I was down $64. I ordered another V.O. and water.
I peeked at my hole cards and stared at them for a few seconds.
"Something like 7-8 suited?" Malcolm was reading me again.
"10-8 of spades," I said. "You were close enough to know what to do if I'd bet."
"K-J off here," Malcolm replied. I would have called if you'd bet and then watched your eyes when the flop hit. Did you know your eyes dart back and forth between the cards and your chips when the hand is favorable to you?
"It's as simple as that? That's why I've been losing lately?"
"No and yes. No, it's not that simple, and yes, it's part of the reason you've been losing."
"I'll start wearing sunglasses," I said.
"The good players will still see your head movement. There's a better way." I waited for Malcolm to continue.
"You have to learn to look at your cards and not look at them at the same time."
I waited for more.
"You pretend to look at your cards. Instead you look at the second hand on your watch."
I was totally confused. It must have shown on my face. Malcolm smiled and leaned forward.
"Look-poker is a game of deception. You assign hand values to the second hand on your watch. If the second hand is between 12 and one, it's a group 1 hand. Between 1 and 2, it's a group 2 hand, and so you go around the clock."
"And I bet my hand according to what my watch tells me?" I was beginning to think that Malcolm was straying a little bit from the path of winning poker. Or maybe he was pulling my leg.
"No, no. Of course not. At least not all the time. When it's your turn to bet, you take a quick second look at your cards, and bet according to what you have.
"Deception?"
"Subterfuge is what we call it in London." Malcolm smiled. "And by the way, I knew it wasn't Rorschach who did word association. I was just testing to see if you knew."
"And?"
"Tells, my good man. I knew that you knew that I was wrong."
I glanced his Malcolm's ring finger and spotted a ring from Cambridge. I didn't know what to make of Malcolm, but I was willing to try his crazy idea with the watch. What could I lose?
I dropped a twenty dollar bill on the bar and left while Malcolm tended to the customer on the far side of the bar, who had slid to the floor.
It was a cold Saturday morning. The slashing rain pelted my aging Lincoln Town Car all the way to the Four Star Casino in Eagle Pass. I'd stopped by Eddie's Taco Hut in Castroville for breakfast and filled the gas tank up at the Texaco station. If my calculations were right, I should be able to make the 300 mile round trip without stopping again.
The poker room was empty except for seven players draped around a 10-20 hold'em table. Ricardo greeted me, and had a rack of red ready for me as I approached. I took seat seven directly across from Big Ray Saddlebrook, my chief antagonist over the past few months. I'd bought a new Timex with big numbers and a clearly marked second hand. The first hand was dealt. I motioned as though looking at my cards, but glanced at the second hand instead. It was between 4 and 5. A group 5 hand. This is crazy, I thought, but I played along with Malcolm's idea. I was in middle position and waited until it was my turn to bet. . Big Ray had raised from under the gun and it was folded around to me. I took a second peek at two red kings. I raised. Big Ray had a funny smile on his face as he called, and then check-called my bets on the turn and river. I raked in a small but pleasurable pot and gave Big Red a smile.
By early evening I was up over two racks of red and had run Big Ray and a few others off. I'd had enough for one day.
I drove out of Eagle Pass onto Highway 57 feeling a lot better than I had on my previous trip My destination was the Rusty Nail Inn and a visit with my new mentor Malcolm.
The front parking lot was full when I arrived. I pulled around to the rear and found a single empty parking space. I tapped my horn lightly to disrupt a young couple standing in the middle of my space in a warm embrace. The young man started to make an obscene gesture, but thought better of it when he caught a glimpse of my 6' 5" figure looming behind the windshield.
Malcolm was busy arguing with a customer when I walked in, but he gave me a smile. "I see you did well today!"
Was he guessing? I thought not. I sat at a table away from the bar and read a poker magazine I'd picked up at the casino while I waited for Malcolm to take a break. It was close to midnight when he approached my table..
"Judging from the look on your face, I'd say you were up around two racks of red." "Two and a half...$1,250."
"And my cut is?"
I stifled a smile. "My undying gratitude. And my future business and pleasant conversation."
"And perhaps in return you'll want some advice on how you can get rid of the crutch."
I wasn't sure I knew what he meant.
"The watch thing." He looked at my cheap watch. "At least you didn't invest a lot of money in the project." Malcolm smiled broadly.
I didn't respond.
"Look, Buck. They'll catch on to it the next time you visit the casino. Don't you think the players you took the money from are thinking about the change in your play right now?"
"So...it was just a joke."
"Joke? Not really. More like an upper...a kick in the pants. You needed to get rid of the negative attitude. Don't you know it's your attitude that was beating you?"
"Attitude equals tells?"
"Of course. And it's the negative attitude that's easiest to read. You get so caught up in your bad luck that you don't notice anything that's going on around you. And you don't notice that the other players are noticing you not noticing what's going on.
" I unraveled his tongue-twister and sighed. "I'm to go back to my normal way of playing?"
"Your shoulders slumped when you said that, Buck. No. You imprint the attitude on your mind that you had when you came in here tonight. Think happy, Mate. Positive thinking. And don't forget about the rest of your problem."
He had me stumped again.
"You've been rattling two quarters in your right hand and throwing them into your left hand since I came over here. Craps?"
He was right again. I'd given up gambling except for poker, but the urge was still there. My counselor at Gambler's Helper didn't like the idea, but I had convinced him that I could handle the poker playing.
Malcolm put his forefinger to his temple as he got up and returned to work. I left a nice tip for the young lady who had kept my glass full.
A month had passed since I'd visited The Rusty Nail. I was too busy making a living at the casino. But reality set in when my detective license was approved. I stopped by to tell Malcolm of my good fortune. One day at a time, he said. And he was right. I'd start setting up my new office tomorrow. Just after my visit to Gambler's Helper in Lytle, Texas.

Basics of Gameplay

Basics of GameplayThere are usually 7-10 people at each table, with one player acting as the dealer. Traditional poker rankings apply where a Straight Flush is the highest possible hand and high card is the lowest. In a casino, all hands are dealt by a casino dealer. A dealer "button" (a small plastic disc) is used to represent the dealer and is rotated clockwise after each hand is dealt. Games are usually labeled by their betting structure. In a $5-$10 fixed limit game, the first two betting rounds are $5 (the lower fixed bet) and the last 2 betting rounds are $10 (the higher fixed limit bet). When a player has less than the betting amount left, the player has the option of going "all-in" and can only collect up to the amount of the all-in bet from each player that remains in the hand.Antes/BlindsMost Hold’em games use 2 blind bets in lieu of antes. The person sitting to the left of the dealer is the small blind and puts in about 1/2 the lower fixed bet (in a $5/$10 game it would be between $2 and $3). The big blind, the person to the left of the small blind, puts in the full lower fixed bet amount (i.e. $5). After the initial 2 cards are dealt, betting then begins to the left of the big blind. When the betting gets back to the small blind, the player has the option to call the remainder of the bet (the remaining 1/2 bet) along with any raises, raise or fold. The big blind will have the option of checking (if the pot wasn't raised) or raising.BettingMost games are fixed limit, so there are 2 betting amounts. The early fixed bet is one amount (i.e. in a $5/$10 game, the early fixed bet is $5) for the first two rounds (initial deal of cards and after the first 3 community cards are dealt). Then for the last 2 betting rounds, the amount goes higher (usually double, i.e. in a $5/$10 game, the later fixed bet is $10). During a betting round, you can only Check, Bet (the fixed amount), Call, or Raise (the fixed amount). Most games have a 3 raise limit per round (bet, raise, raise, raise).GameplayAfter the blinds have posted their bets (in a $5/$10 game there would be about $8 in the pot) each player is dealt 2 cards (face down). Then a round of betting begins to the left of the big blind. 3 community cards are then dealt. This is knows as the Flop. Another betting round occurs starting to the left of the dealer. Then a fourth community card (the Turn) is dealt and a betting round occurs with the higher fixed limit. And finally a fifth and final community card (the River) is dealt, and the last betting round occurs.ShowdownAfter the 5 community cards are dealt, the players remaining make the best 5 card hand they can with either both, one or none of their down cards along with the 5 community cards. Basic StrategyYou want to make sure that your first two cards are capable of being the best at the end of the hand. Because there are usually 10 people at a table and you are only required to post your blind bets once a rotation, you can go 10 hands and only have to pay 1 and a half bets (the two blinds) if you fold every time.The basic premise behind starting hands is they should either be a high pair or have a flush, a straight or both possible. So suited cards (both of the same suit) and connecting cards (sequential cards, sequential with 1-3 gaps) are desirable in addition to pairs. Most people will fold unless their first two cards are worth being played or to avoid being viewed as a tight player (only plays the best hands). In early position (close to the dealer), you want to play stronger hands since you don't know if someone will later raise you and force you to place 2 bets. In later position (further from the dealer), you can play weaker hands if no one has raised since there are few or no players left behind you to raise (and force you to place more bets).

Pot odds and Risk

No matter how you slice it, poker always revolves around this primary relationship: Does the pot offer enough money - or promise to offer enough money once all the betting rounds are concluded - to overcome the odds against making your hand? You can't escape it. The relationship between the pot and the chances of making the winning hand threads its way through every form of poker you play. It even winds its way through real life, too. The phrase, "Is the prize worth the game," encapsulates the essence of decision-making. In real life, the answer always "depends," since everyone's personal equation for relating the cost of something to its personal value differs. But poker metrics are less subjective, and one has the advantage of being able to count the pot and calculate the odds against making a hand, and then decide whether to fold, bet, call, or raise.
That's the very reason poker is a game you can beat. If you're shooting dice, each and every bet - from the bad ones like "hard ways" and the "Yo" to better wagers, like making a pass-line wager and taking the odds - carries a negative expectation. No system yet devised enables you to package a group of individual bets with negative expectations and rewrap them into a magic parcel of wagers that will pay off in the long run.
Poker is beatable, in part, because the odds are not immutable; they shift and change as each card is dealt off the deck. In some games, like seven-card stud, figuring the precise odds against making your hand can be difficult, especially in the heat of battle, because the calculations change with every betting round. You may start out with three hearts in your hand and not see another heart in of any of your opponents' exposed upcards. But on the next round of betting, four of your opponents might be dealt a heart, and that dramatically changes your hand's risk-reward ratio. After all, there are only 13 cards of each suit in a deck. You have three and need two more to complete your flush. Each heart dealt to one of your opponents is one that will never find it's way into your hand. You don't need to know much about poker or probability to realize that you stand a much better chance of receiving a heart when 10 of them remain in the deck instead of six - and you still need two of them.
It's a bit easier to figure the odds in hold'em, because there are only so many situations to be accounted for, and far fewer exposed cards to consider. If you work out the relationships in advance by memorizing the odds against making particular hands in commonly encountered situations - like flopping four to a flush or four to a straight - half of your work is already done. All that remains is counting the pot.
Michael Wiesenberg, in The Official Dictionary of Poker, defines pot odds as: "The ratio of the size of the pot to the size of the bet a player must call to continue in the pot." For example, if the pot contains $20 and you must call a $4 bet, you are getting pot odds of 5-to-1.
If there are no more cards to come, and no players remain to act after you, all you need do is consider the pot odds. If your chances of winning are better than the odds the pot is offering you, it pays to call. Otherwise, you should fold - unless you think a raise will cause your opponent to release his hand, in which case that's the preferred action. But let's ignore the impact of bluffing for a moment, and focus our attention on the relationship between pot odds and the chances of making your hand. If you figure to win once in three times when the pot is offering you 5-to-1odds, it pays to call, regardless of whether you win that particular hand or not. It's the long run that matters in poker, not the outcome of any given hand.
But on earlier betting rounds, when there are still more cards to be dealt, more players to act, and more betting rounds, it's difficult to know with any degree of precision how much it will cost to try to make your hand, since you can never be sure how the betting will proceed or how many opponents will stick around and pay you off if you make the winning hand.
That's where implied odds come into play. The Official Dictionary of Poker defines implied odds as: "The ratio of what you should win (including money likely to be bet in subsequent rounds) on a particular hand to what the current bet costs." Calculating implied odds is imprecise, and is really a form of reckoning at best, since one never knows how many opponents will remain in the hunt, or how much money will be wagered on subsequent betting rounds.
The more betting rounds there are in a particular game - all else being equal - the bigger the role played by implied odds. In games like draw poker or lowball, with only two rounds of betting, implied odds are not as significant as they are in hold'em, which has four betting rounds, or seven-card stud, which has five.
Implied odds are affected by a number of factors. Implied odds are better whenever your hand is hidden, because your opponents might not realize what you're holding and pay you off when they have inferior hands. If you're playing seven-card stud, you might have four unsuited, unrelated cards exposed on your board, and have a full house or even four of a kind. A hidden hand begets much higher implied odds than a hand that shouts out its strength for the entire world to see.
Suppose you're showing four jacks in your seven-card stud hand. Your implied odds are pretty much zilch, zero, nada, nil, and nothing at that point. Unless your opponent can beat four jacks, he's going to take his hand and toss it away. He can't beat you, he can't bluff you, and he won't pay you off, either.
Betting structures affect implied odds, too. When betting limits double on later rounds, implied odds increase. Since your opponent may call a bet on later rounds because of pot size alone, that extra bet increases the implied odds. Your opponents, just by virtue of their playing style, can increase or reduce implied odds. Players who seldom bet or raise but call to the bitter end increase implied odds, because you can draw to your hand cheaply, knowing all the while you'll get paid off if you make your hand.
If you're last to act, you can take advantage of what your opponents have done to increase your implied odds. But players who have the ability to discern what kind of hand you're holding even if they don't have the advantage of seeing exposed cards will reduce your pot odds as long as they have the discipline to release their hand once they know they are beaten.
Acting first doesn't help your implied odds, either. Whenever you act first, it's a guessing game of sorts. You never really know whether a wager will cause opponents to fold or if they'll play back at you by raising. When you're forced to act before your opponents, their actions can reduce the odds you're getting to draw for your hand.
There's another concept that comes into play, too, and that's the amount of money already in the pot. That money is the reason you might want to continue to play a hand even though you are not the favorite. Here's an example: If you flop a four-flush when playing hold'em, the odds are 1.86-to-1 against completing your hand. In addition, there's always the chance that you might make your flush but lose to a bigger hand. Even though you are not favored to win the hand, you are still a "money favorite." In other words, even though you might win the pot just once every three times you find yourself in that situation, it pays to draw as long as the pot promises to return $2 or more for each dollar you have to pay to draw to your flush.
Here's another example, and as absurd as it may seem, it makes it easy to illustrate the point about being a money favorite while not an outright favorite to win the pot. Suppose a wealthy eccentric is running around your favorite cardroom randomly tossing $5,000 chips into pots. Let's assume you have flopped a flush draw in a $20-$40 hold'em game against only one opponent, and you know with absolute certainty your opponent has flopped a set of kings. Normally, the relationship between the pot odds and the odds against making your hand would suggest that you fold, but with an additional $5,000 in the pot, you'll play - of course you will - calling all bets until the bitter end. After all, with three rounds of betting to go, you can lose a maximum of $20, $40, and $40 on each betting round - and you don't even have to call that last bet on the river if you fail to make your hand, since you know your opponent has you beaten unless you make your flush and the board fails to pair. Since you stand to win substantially more than the cost of a couple of bets, this is not the time to save a buck by folding. While I've never played a hand of poker in which the relationship between the pot odds and the odds against making my hand were this good, the fact remains that the amount of money currently in the pot is the third force to be reckoned with when considering pot odds and implied odds.
While there are always caveats that might cause you to deviate from these suggestions, here are three rules of thumb to think about when you're considering the pot odds/implied odds relationship.
• If you are a money favorite on new money - forget, for a second, about the money that's already in the pot - you should bet or raise to build the pot. If you've flopped a flush draw and are last to act, and four players have already called, go ahead and raise. You are getting a big enough price on this betting round alone to justify your action. Since the odds against completing your hand when flopping a four-flush are only 1.86-to-1 against you, but you're getting 4-to-1 on new money entering the pot - never mind whatever money is already in the pot - get some more money into the pot, and do it now.• If you are a money favorite because of the size of the pot or the implied odds you think you'll get if you make your hand, calling is usually the best option. If you ignore the fact that raising may allow you to win the pot by causing your opponents to fold, raising in these situations only reduces your implied odds. Now is the time to make your hand inexpensively - even if some wealthy lunatic just sauntered by and dropped a few $5,000 chips in the pot.
• If you have neither pot odds nor implied odds, and are not a money favorite, fold and save your money.
When Oscar Wilde wrote, "The truth is rarely pure, and never simple," he was probably not thinking about a poker game, but his words hold true, nonetheless. These three rules of thumb are not the entire answer, of course, and while it's easy to come up with a raft of reasons to deviate from them on occasion, the fact remains that the relationship between pot odds, implied odds, the odds against making your hand, and the money that's already in the pot will go a long way toward answering that age-old poker conundrum: Shall I fold, bet, call, or raise?

Exploiting The Tilt

Whenever someone in your game goes on tilt, your expected value (EV) should go up. By definition, such people are playing poorly for emotional reasons, and their mistakes should put money into your pocket. Let's look at ways to get the most profit from their emotional imbalance.
Which Type of Tilt?
An earlier column described two main types of tilt, becoming wildly loose-aggressive and playing scared. Since scared players are less profitable, and risky, I'll just briefly discuss ways to exploit them.
Respect their bets and especially their raises. They won't bet without a good hand or raise without an excellent one.
Bluff and semibluff much more frequently. They will frequently fold when they should call.
Steal their blinds or antes. They will rarely call and almost never play back at you. If they reraise, you know they have very good cards. If they just call your raise, they probably won't bet out or check-raise later, giving you free cards to draw out and win legitimately.
Don't make thin value bets, especially ones based on position. Checking does not necessarily mean they are weak. They will often check good hands.
Don't check-raise. If you check, they will probably check behind you unless they have you beat. If they do bet, you may not want to raise or even call.
Now, let's look at the more visible, exciting, profitable, and dangerous form of tilt, wild aggression.
Monitor Yourself and Everyone Else
As I said in my last column, this form of tilt is contagious; others often become infected by the "let's gamble" virus. You therefore must constantly look for signs that anyone is on tilt or getting close to it. Of course, the most important person to watch is yourself.
When trash hands win huge pots, and your aces get cracked by 7-3 offsuit, you can easily lose your balance. You may think, "Since I can't beat them, I'll join them." Or, you may not make a conscious decision, but suddenly find yourself taking crazy chances. If you see this happening, take a break or go home.
You also must look for changes in everyone. Solid players will become wild, and others will start playing scared. A few will make the sorts of intelligent adjustments that you should make. You must recognize, understand, and adjust to the changes nearly every player makes. Don't assume that people are playing their normal game.
Keep the Party Going
Don't say or do anything that will cause the player(s) on tilt to regain control or leave the game. Do everything you can to spread the "let's gamble" virus. You want the party to last as long and be as wild as possible.
It is extremely foolish to criticize players who are on tilt, but it happens all the time. People get so frustrated when trash and stupidity beat their good hands that they attack viciously, call a player names, or even insist, "If you keep playing like that, you'll go broke." They may embarrass the people on tilt into playing rationally or quitting the game.
Since tilt is contagious, some of the apparently rational players may be getting close to losing control. It's probably easy to push them over the brink. Don't be nasty or do anything that would destroy the "wild party" atmosphere. Instead, buy them drinks, encourage them to keep playing, and point out that Harry just won a hand with a two-outer and Barb won an earlier hand with 7-2 offsuit. And say it with a smile: "It is sure exciting to see hands like that win big pots." Encourage everybody to gamble foolishly while you play solid poker.
Pick the Best Seat
When people are on tilt, position becomes very important. You generally want unpredictable players on your right, and predictable ones on your left. Since players who are on tilt are extremely erratic, you usually want them to your right. Let most of the action and surprises occur ahead of you.
However, some players on tilt, especially drunks, become quite predictable. They either bet or raise almost every hand, or they telegraph their moves by picking up chips, staring disgustedly at their cards and getting ready to throw away them away, or even acting out of turn. If you know what someone is going to do, sit to his immediate right. You will be in a near-perfect position, almost the "permanent button." You can fold your marginal hands and slow-play or check-raise your good ones.
Adjust Your Strategy
Some of my recommended adjustments are similar to those I suggested in "It's a New Era" (Oct. 10, 2003), because all loose-aggressive games require similar strategic changes. However, because people are acting emotionally, you must make some subtle variations.
Make sure you have enough chips. Don't play in a wild game with a short stack. You could play scared and get run over.
Avoid fancy plays. Emotional people are too oblivious and volatile for them to work. Play straightforward, solid poker.
Tighten up, especially before the flop or on third street. Because you will see trash hands win huge pots, you may want to loosen up - but don't do it. First, since the initial round of betting will often be quite expensive, you should not get involved without good cards. Second, once you get involved, the pot odds may become so large that you'll be tempted to chase and may even be justified to do it. Third, you must constantly resist that "let's gamble" virus. If you loosen up just a few times, you could easily find yourself on tilt.
Check-raise more often. If the player on tilt is to your left and you want lots of action, you should check-raise, especially if he has telegraphed that he will bet.
Slow-play big hands more often. Let the player on tilt do the betting and raising. He will get lots more action than you would. And if the game has become really wild, others may also jack it up. Sometimes you will flop the nuts and have others cap the pot for you.
Bet into the player on tilt to thin the field. If the player on tilt is on your left, the field is large, and your hand is vulnerable (such as top pair, poor kicker), bet into him so that his raise will force out dangerous hands. If you have A-6 in the big blind, bet, get raised, and A-7 folds, two great things happen. First, you win a pot you could not win any other way. Second, the player with A-7 can easily get upset because he folded the winner, and proceed to go on tilt himself.
Minimize bluffs and semibluffs. Somebody will almost always call you.
Invite them to bluff. Many players on tilt love to bluff. They want excitement, and it's much more exciting to bluff than to win with the best hand. So, check your marginal hands, and snap off their bluffs.
Don't fold on the river. This point is related to the last one, but it refers to more than bluffs. Some players on tilt will bet weak hands for value because they are too off balance to evaluate their chances accurately. Others may call with even less. You will often have to make apparently foolish overcalls. So what? If you make a bad overcall, you lose one bet. If you make a bad fold, you lose a whole pot, and perhaps a huge one. Even worse, you may become so upset that you go on tilt.
Final Words
You may think I've overstated the danger of going on tilt, but it is very real, and it is always there. Keeping your own balance is, in fact, your key task. If you keep your head while the others are losing theirs, you will dramatically increase your edge. My next column describes ways to cope when you're losing your balance.

Make A KILLING At Online Poker Tournaments

“The Fastest And Easiest Way To Make A KILLING At Online Poker Tournaments”
Everyone knows the surest way to make money at online poker is by WINNING TOURNAMENTS. The reason is because you can win large multiples of your buy-in... 200%, 500%, 1000%, or even higher.
In this strategy article we'll discuss step-by-step exactly how I consistently make a "killing" at online poker by beating Sit and Go tournaments. Read on to learn this amazingly simple method...
What Is A Sit And Go?
A Sit and Go is an online poker tournament. The name "Sit and Go" comes from the fact that these games are fast-- with a clear beginning and end. Each Sit and Go has a pre-determined number of players... so once the spots are filled, the game starts.
Everyone in a Sit and Go must buy-in for the same amount of money and starts with the same number of chips.The blinds gradually go up in "levels" or "stages" until one player is left standing.
The payouts are determined before the game and are displayed when you buy-in.
How Many Players Are In A Sit And Go?
Sit and Go's can have as many as 50 players or as few as 2. It really just depends on which casino you're playing at and which type YOU CHOOSE.
A majority of Sit and Go's are single table games with 10 players. In a game like this, the top 3 finishers would place "in the money". ("Single Table Tournament" is abbreviated STT.)
For instance, let's say you want to play a $10 Sit and Go. You buy-in for $10 and pay an "entry fee" to the casino-- probably a buck. All 10 players would start with the same number of chips-- let's say 800. The blinds would start low, probably 5-10. As the game progresses, the blinds will keep increasing to force action. The buy-ins on a game like this would total $100. That money would get split between the top three finishers. First place would be $50, second place would get $30, and third place would get $20...
How Long Do Sit And Go's Last?
A 10-player Sit and Go will usually last between 30-60 minutes. Some casinos have "turbo" Sit and Go's where the blinds go up faster. Turbo games finish more quickly.
A 2-player Sit and Go-- which is really just a "heads-up" match-- will often last a FEW MINUTES before ending.
There are also Sit and Go's with 5 players, 8 players, 20 players, 30 players, and so on. (A Sit and Go with more than 10 players will be played on more than one table. These are known as "Multi-Table Tournaments", abbreviated MTT.)
No limit Texas Holdem Sit and Go's are generally faster than limit Sit And Go's... because the ability to move "all-in" gets things moving.
How Do Sit And Go's And Ring Games Differ?
The easiest way to understand the distinction is to understand that Sit and Go's are simply TOURNAMENTS. Ring games are like "cash games". Here are some of the key differences:
* You can buy-in or leave anytime during a ring game, whereas you must enter the beginning of a Sit and Go to play.
* Sit and Go's have a clear start (when everyone is ready) and end (when only one player is left). Ring games are ongoing.
* The blinds go up during Sit and Go's, so in the later stages you're forced to loosen your starting hand selection and take risks. In ring games, the blinds stay the same.
* Winning a Sit and Go requires a completely different set of strategies and techniques than winning a ring game...
Why Sit And Go's Are So Popular
Sit and Go's are HOT right now. I personally love to play Sit and Go's, because I can often make MORE money and have MORE fun than in ring games.
Playing a ring game requires "grinding it out"...
Playing a Sit and Go is an exciting battle with ups and downs-- with a "do or die" feeling to it.
And here's the best part: When you learn how to master the STRATEGIES for Sit and Go's, you can amass a FORTUNE in winnings! You can predictably and consistently log onto your computer and win tournament after tournament after tournament...
Here's why: Since Sit and Go's pay the top finishers, you don't have to place first to always make money. You obviously WANT to win first-- but it's not necessary for making a profit. I've developed a system of tactics where I shoot for first, but "hedge my bets" to settle for 2nd or 3rd as a backup plan...
How To Consistently Beat Sit And Go's
Because of their unique structure, there are SPECIFIC strategies you need to beat Sit and Go's on a consistent basis.
It's taken me YEARS to "crack the code" on this and figure it all out. But now that I have, I can easily log onto my online poker account and make money... just about every time.
It's a great feeling. And I want to share it with you.
That's why I developed Sit And Go Shark.
The concept for Sit And Go Shark is actually very simple. This easy-to-install poker software is like having your very own PERSONAL POKER COACH.
That "coach", of course, is me.
When you use Sit And Go Shark, the program shares several pieces of IMPORTANT ADVICE that you need to be thinking about at the table-- everything from your cards to blinds to positioning to pot odds and more...
The advice-- which took me over 6 MONTHS to write!-- is drawn from a HUGE DATABASE of possible combinations and factors. It runs alongside your table while you play, so it requires ZERO extra work from you.
I should also point out that online casinos don't mind if you use Sit And Go Shark. As you know, some software out there is banned and dangerous to use... and I would never, ever recommend you to any of these software programs. You can feel comfortable using anything I point you to.
Anyway, like I was saying, Sit And Go Shark is like having me sitting on your shoulder... telling you what to do each step of the way... and teaching you how to handle the situation.
You'll get two main benefits from using it:
1. You'll win more (a LOT more) money simply by following the advice.
2. You'll learn more (a LOT more) about the game of Texas Holdem. You'll even do better at offline tournaments and ring games, even though you won't have the tool in front of you.
Pretty cool, huh?
OK, so that's Sit And Go Shark in a nutshell. To get started now and check out the website, just click the link below:
CLICK HERE

Bluffing strategy

"You can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time." - Abraham LincolnOne element of poker is deception. Bluffing is the quintessential trick in poker. Of course, the reasoning for a bluff is to deceive the other players into thinking you have a better hand when you actually do not. For a bluff to work, you need the other players to think you actually have that better hand. Many beginning poker players love this idea of bluffing and often misuse it. The value of the bluff increases under certain general circumstances that often have a lot to do with information you assume about the other players. This vagueness makes it difficult to give definitive reasons or places to bluff. Some less generalized times to bluff and some advice are given below. The bottom of the page gives some more ideas and perspectives on deception in poker.Some typical reasons to bluff...A. When there aren't many other players in a pot.Simply put, it's easier to trick a couple people than a crowd. With fewer hands out there, chances are better that no one has made a reasonable hand. This is fairly common though, so many players won't believe you. Some will stay in the hand just to "keep you honest", so sometimes this needs to be a persistent bluff over a period of two or three betting rounds. That can be costly if they don't fall for it. You need to know the players before you use this type of bluff.B. When you're up against fairly tight players.Those that tend to fold easily are the biggest targets of a bluff. Bets will be put out just as a form of information gathering on this player's hand. If you bluff early (pre-flop, flop) against a very tight player and they don't buckle, you should think twice about trying it again on a future round. They have something. Your job is to determine whether they have a made or drawing hand. Once again, you need to know the players.C. On the river.Especially if apparent drawing hands missed. That's when players react to rule #1 "the moment you know you can't win, throw in your cards". It is often a good idea to bluff with a weak hand, like ace-high or lowest pair with these kinds of bluffs, because some players will stay in just because of pot odds. If you do that, it is actually semi-bluffing (see the bottom of the page).D. You're in late position and everyone else checked.This one you'll have to gauge for yourself. It will most likely force some players out, but not all. This is a pretty common bluff once again, and many players will stay in just because of bet odds, and/or to once again "keep you honest". This is another example of a bluff that needs to be more persistent over a couple betting rounds.E. You bet pre-flop and missed.That's because they don't know you missed! This can be dangerous, and you really have to evaluate to board before you get into this one. Sometimes it's good to bluff when AK misses, sometimes when 99 misses. You have to really feel this one out.F. You have given other players "the fear".It's about how other players perceive you. If you just won a hand through good play, the players who say "nice hand" are the ones who now respect you. They will more likely fold to your bluff if you play it right. The trick is to play the hand exactly the same way you played the other winning hand. Give it the "here we go again" act.G. When the flop isn't so great.Some players will fold automatically if all they have is an overcard. With a rainbow flop of 2, 6, 9, not many players will have much. This is another example of a bluff that can go horribly awry. I wouldn't be too persistent in this case, unless only more low cards pop up. Once again, know your players.H. Pre-flop on the button, and everyone else has folded.This is usually best used with tight players to your left. Its good because it can change from a bluff to a deceptively good hand with luck and the right flop.I. When there is a pair on the board.This is especially useful when the pair is 88 or lower. Chances are that these cards might have been folded or are still in the deck. This is one situation where you want to evaluate the hand very carefully if they do call though. This is a great situation to read the tells of the players who are NOT involved in the game. It's much easier to give away the fact that you HAD a card than if you HAVE it.Keep in mind that these are pretty common reasons to bluff. Many players know these reasons. Most of the time it just won't work. The main thing is always to know your players and to not do it so often that it never works.There's some great books about bluffing out there. We suggest reading as much as you can about it, as it's one of the most misunderstood aspects of poker.Other bluffing topics...