Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Poker Tournamet Tips
Poker Tournament Tips
Televised poker is based mainly around poker tournaments. All the famous players got that way by playing on the World Poker Tour or in the World Series of Poker. Naturally, many players getting started in poker today want to startwith poker tournaments. If you are ready to foray
into tournament poker, here’s what you need to know.
Take your time in the first few rounds and don’t commit too many chipswithout a very big hand. Use those rounds to feel out your opponents for use in later rounds when the blinds are big and the pots really worth winning.
Televised poker is based mainly around poker tournaments. All the famous players got that way by playing on the World Poker Tour or in the World Series of Poker. Naturally, many players getting started in poker today want to startwith poker tournaments. If you are ready to foray
into tournament poker, here’s what you need to know.
Patience in Tournament Poker
You can’t win the tournament in the first round, but you sure can lose it there. Many players starting out panic and feel they need to amass chips as quickly as possible.
The reality is even if you double up in the first round the number of chips you will gain will only be worth a few rounds of blinds in the eighth or ninth round. On the other hand, if you lose all your chips in the first round, you're done.Take your time in the first few rounds and don’t commit too many chipswithout a very big hand. Use those rounds to feel out your opponents for use in later rounds when the blinds are big and the pots really worth winning.
Strategies in Tournament Poker
There are two basic approaches to tournament poker. There is a hyper aggressive chip grabbing style, willing to risk a lot of chips early in order to gain a lot. There is also the survive and thrive strategy which advocates a steady rise in chip count without taking too many risks until necessary.
Both have their merits and there are different ways to achieve these goals. Just because you are hyper aggressive doesn’t mean you have to call every all-in bet and even if you are trying to survive you shouldn’t be folding aces pre-flop.
Winning in Tournament Poker
While cash game players can expect the majority of their sessions to be winners, even good tournament players can go several tournaments without a cash.
Remember that because the payout odds are bigger, it’s okay to wait longer for a win. As long
as you make sure you have the bankroll for an extended tournament run and you have the skills, you should be fine.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Fantasy Sports Live Daily Contests
Okay, this isn't poker related, except that I found a link to this site on another poker blog and the blogger was calling this "the new poker". The site is called Fantasy Sports Live, and it's basically a place where people who don't have a full season worth of time to play fantasy baseball can play for just a day in a variety of contests. This site is very cool. Basically these fantasy sports contests are like sit-and-go poker tournaments. Even the buy-in prices are similar.
So far I've placed in 2 of 3 contests, and I'm down $2, but since I got $30 as a signup bonus, I'm still up $28 total. If you're someone who likes sports and being in action, then this is something worth checking out.
Use bonus code "COWBOYS" to get free money ($30!) in your account.
Another cool thing about their site - they take PayPal!
So far I've placed in 2 of 3 contests, and I'm down $2, but since I got $30 as a signup bonus, I'm still up $28 total. If you're someone who likes sports and being in action, then this is something worth checking out.
Use bonus code "COWBOYS" to get free money ($30!) in your account.
Another cool thing about their site - they take PayPal!
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Poker Strategy Thoughts and More Random Stuff
I haven't posted in a bit, and this post doesn't contain much but some random poker dribblings frmo my feeble mind. I've got a couple of new poker strategy articles available at my new website here:
Eye on Gambling also published some interesting stuff about Bill Chen being accused of collusion at the WSOP. I think it's nonsensical. Deals like this happen all the time at lots of poker tournaments, and the officials said it was fine. EOG tries to get extra press by being the National Enquirer of the gambling business, which is probably okay if you're into that sort of thing. I'm not, so I'll mention the article here, but I'm not linking to it.
I played in the Full Tilt Poker Fifty Fifty tournament last night. I placed 850th, and I went out with AQ preflop. Got all in against JJ and didn't improve. Probably not the best way to play AQ that early in the tournament, but what the hell. I thought everyone else would fold. (One of the other players had AQ too.)
Shirley Rosario's poker journal made me laugh the other day too, where she said that Steve Badger's "patience for poker and poker players is very thin. He can usually only handle one event before he is ready to go back home."
You would almost think Steve's a bit curmudgeonly.
Poker News is the place to get real time updates from the WSOP, by the way. Check it out.
- How to Play Pocket Aces Preflop in No Limit Texas Holdem
- How to Become a Tight Aggressive Poker Player
- Poker Tournament ROI
Eye on Gambling also published some interesting stuff about Bill Chen being accused of collusion at the WSOP. I think it's nonsensical. Deals like this happen all the time at lots of poker tournaments, and the officials said it was fine. EOG tries to get extra press by being the National Enquirer of the gambling business, which is probably okay if you're into that sort of thing. I'm not, so I'll mention the article here, but I'm not linking to it.
I played in the Full Tilt Poker Fifty Fifty tournament last night. I placed 850th, and I went out with AQ preflop. Got all in against JJ and didn't improve. Probably not the best way to play AQ that early in the tournament, but what the hell. I thought everyone else would fold. (One of the other players had AQ too.)
Shirley Rosario's poker journal made me laugh the other day too, where she said that Steve Badger's "patience for poker and poker players is very thin. He can usually only handle one event before he is ready to go back home."
You would almost think Steve's a bit curmudgeonly.
Poker News is the place to get real time updates from the WSOP, by the way. Check it out.
Poker Strategy Thoughts and More Random Stuff posted by Randy Ray @ Sunday, June 24, 2007 0 comments 
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
A Good No Limit Holdem Session Today
Played for 50 minutes, 2 tables, at Full Tilt Poker at the $0.10/$0.25 no limit holdem tables, six person max. Won $43.45. Definitely running hot lately. Got some great cards dealt to me too.
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Learning to Play Pot Limit Omaha/8 - My Win Rate
I've been learning to play pot limit Omaha/8 over at Full Tilt Poker, and I like the game very much. I spent 2 hours tonight on the six person tables playing $0.10/$0.25 pot limit, and I won a total of $59.15, so my hourly win rate for the evening is approximately $29.60. (And yeah, I know that 2 hours doesn't mean a thing, and that I need a LOT more hours to draw any conclusions about my play.)
But...these do seem to be the kinds of results I'm seeing pretty consistently. Lots of players sitting down short stacked. In fact, I don't think I can recall seeing more than 1 player tonight with a bigger stack than $10. I've been buying in for the full $25. My guess is that at this level these guys are still trying to learn how to play, and so they're not risking much of their bankroll.
I told Steve Badger I was learning to play Omaha/8 tonight, and he seemed amused. (I think he's more amused that I'm wasting my time on that than on building my new poker website than anything else.) Anyway, believe it or not, that was one of the first times I've ever actually discussed poker with Steve; we almost always talk webmastering and SEO when we speak.
But...these do seem to be the kinds of results I'm seeing pretty consistently. Lots of players sitting down short stacked. In fact, I don't think I can recall seeing more than 1 player tonight with a bigger stack than $10. I've been buying in for the full $25. My guess is that at this level these guys are still trying to learn how to play, and so they're not risking much of their bankroll.
I told Steve Badger I was learning to play Omaha/8 tonight, and he seemed amused. (I think he's more amused that I'm wasting my time on that than on building my new poker website than anything else.) Anyway, believe it or not, that was one of the first times I've ever actually discussed poker with Steve; we almost always talk webmastering and SEO when we speak.
Learning to Play Pot Limit Omaha/8 - My Win Rate posted by Randy Ray @ Tuesday, June 05, 2007 0 comments
Monday, June 04, 2007
Mondays at the Hoy and Omaha 8
Iggy invited me to play in the "Mondays at the Hoy" tonight at Full Tilt Poker. It's a $24 + $2 tonight. I placed 16th out of 45 or so, but I don't feel bad, cuz it was a blogger tournament, and those guys know how to play poker better than I do. (For some reason I still don't think of myself as a real poker blogger, even though I've had this blog up for a few years now.)
I've been learning how to play Omaha/8 lately, and I'm really enjoying that, mostly because I'm winning. In fact, I didn't do any work on my new poker site today because I've been so busy actually playing some poker. When I haven't been playing poker, I've been reading Steve Badger's site about Omaha strategy.
I've got a copy of Super/System 2 here, and I've heard that Bobby Baldwin's section about how to play Omaha/8 is pretty good, so I'm going to dig into that a little bit before I go to sleep tonight. I ordered 2 books about Omaha/8 over at Amazon today too. They should be here tomorrow. (The books are Winning Omaha/8 Poker and High-Low-Split Poker, Seven-Card Stud and Omaha Eight-or-better for Advanced Players. That latter book might not be a good one for me, since I'm not what I'd consider an "advanced player", but I'm looking forward to reading it anyway.
The Omaha/8 games are super soft at Full Tilt Poker, IMO, at least at the levels I'm playing. I'm mostly at the no limit and pot limit tables with the lower buy-in's, but I'm way profitable so far.
I've been learning how to play Omaha/8 lately, and I'm really enjoying that, mostly because I'm winning. In fact, I didn't do any work on my new poker site today because I've been so busy actually playing some poker. When I haven't been playing poker, I've been reading Steve Badger's site about Omaha strategy.
I've got a copy of Super/System 2 here, and I've heard that Bobby Baldwin's section about how to play Omaha/8 is pretty good, so I'm going to dig into that a little bit before I go to sleep tonight. I ordered 2 books about Omaha/8 over at Amazon today too. They should be here tomorrow. (The books are Winning Omaha/8 Poker and High-Low-Split Poker, Seven-Card Stud and Omaha Eight-or-better for Advanced Players. That latter book might not be a good one for me, since I'm not what I'd consider an "advanced player", but I'm looking forward to reading it anyway.
The Omaha/8 games are super soft at Full Tilt Poker, IMO, at least at the levels I'm playing. I'm mostly at the no limit and pot limit tables with the lower buy-in's, but I'm way profitable so far.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
I Suck At Poker
I haven't been able to place in a sit-and-go for over a week now.
I suck at poker.
I suck at poker.
