The Poker Mag

There are many poker strategies circling the net as well as in numerous published book. Although some strategies work when you’re having a lucky run, some methods prove to be a waste of times where others do not.

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Fans that play Texas Hold Em will come across many “so-called” winning methods and ways of grabbing the win 90% of the time, and there are some indeed that keep you in the game longer than usual. One is quite a popular method that some Texas Hold Em players swear by, but like all poker methods, concentration and good judge of character is involved.

You may have heard of the term “floater” in the poker world and there are many players that say they come out on top of many poker games by “playing the floater”. Basic maths and good judging skills come into playing the game as a floater, but a lot of it is certainly common sense. So, you’re in a late position. The big blind player bets, the following poker player throws his cards down and folds and now all eyes are on you. The floater would see that the big blind didn’t bet confidently and guesses he probably has a single card with a couple of different suited cards. The floater would also guess that the big blind placed a continuation bet and he had missed the flop. The floater would then call his bet and continue to bet around three quarters of the pot until winning the round, judging the person can vaguely guess the big blind’s cards after viewing his own hands and folded poker hands.

Being a floater is exceptionally touch and go, but the theory is that it doesn’t matter what your cards are as being a floater simply means bluffing your way through the entire game – granted you don’t have an utterly hopeless hand.

Whether you are on the receiving end of aggressive poker plays, or hoping to implement them yourself, you should try to develop a good idea of the reactions you will face, or present to your aggressive opponent.

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The easy answer to defending against aggressive poker plays is to sit tight and wait for a big hand to trap them with. This can work perfectly in many cases, but the flaw with this plan is that blinds and the possibility of no strong hand presenting itself, mean that you don’t always get the chance.If you are short handed with high blinds or are simply too short to wait for a premium poker hand, you have to either carefully pick the best spot you can find with the cards you are dealt, or come out reraising when you sense weakness.

Playing an aggressive poker player at their own game and making an aggressive reraise is by nature, a risky thing to do if you aren’t picking up good cards. You might have to raise with weak poker hands, but usually you only have to succeed once or twice. The key point is that if an aggressive poker player thinks you will start reraising and fighting them for pots, they will start looking for easier targets. As the aggressor at the poker table you will usually find you are faced with the aforementioned trapping poker plays and smooth calls when someone picks up a strong hand. If you know players at the table are aware you are bluffing fairly frequently, be prepared to back off when you get called.

In the process of being faced with such trapping poker tactics, you should be aware that you can often manage to be given free cards when you are drawing to big hands fom position. Players might check to you, waiting for the inevitable raise, only to find you check behind. Suddenly your bottom pair turns into trips or you hit that gutshot Straight, where usually you wouldn’t have been given the chance because poker players wouldn’t be waiting to play back at an anticipated raise.

Making the decision to get involved in a poker pot can be swayed by several factors, with your poker hand strength, position, and tendancies of the poker players in the blinds, all playing their part.

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Another point which can sway your decision is whether you have poker chips already invested in a pot. Often in the case where you have chips invested, you will be more inclined to flat call from the small blind, or call a small raise from the big blind with a marginal poker hand. This can work out perfectly if you catch the flop well of course, but then poker isn’t kind enough for that to happen every other hand.

If you find yourself calling with a weaker poker hand in this situation, you will very often be playing the hand out of position. Being out of position often leaves you in a situation of either having to show your weakness when you miss a flop by checking, or alternatively, bet out with a half hit poker hand, or no hand at all.

That temptation to bluff is always there when you make the decision to not give up that marginal poker hand preflop, and you can be left being faced with either a reraise, or a flat call. The flat call can often be the worst of these options in fact, because the pressure is immediately back on to you to act first on a turn card that will very often have not improved your poker hand.

The best way to avoid these problems are to be very particular about how you play on the flop, not getting aggressive with second pairs, draws, or other marginal poker hands. You always have the option to get creative with a check raise if your opponent chooses to bet, as often they will be betting solely on the merit of the weakness shown by your check.

Casino poker has long been the place where enthusiasts of the game have spent much of their time. Before online poker arrived, casinos would always provide the one place where you were certain to find a game at any time. Whilst it is true that the casinos have to make their money too, the cost incurred from playing in a casino is usually minimal.

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Online poker rooms have a small charge for fees spent too, and so online poker does not really offer anything extra in this regard. What online poker certainly does give you that casinos do not, is ease of playing, and the comfort of playing from your own home. This aspect of online play has made the game far more accessible to potential players, and has been partly responsible for the big increase in pokers popularity in recent years.

Another plus point for online poker play, is the fact that it gives the option of playing numerous tables at once. This means that players who feel they have an edge in a particular area, can expand the profits they gain from that edge by playing more hands in a given time frame.

Casino poker has always provided a much more social side of the game though, bringing in physical tells to the equation too. Besides anything else, playing poker face to face with opponents takes a lot more nerve, and is traditionally where the roots of the game lie. On a grander scale, the WSOP bracelet events are all live games, as are all the WPT games. So whilst you can earn your living playing online poker, you could never be considered one of the greats of poker unless you take to the live tables.

As the past ten years have gone by, online poker has been changing at an alarming rate. The key reasons behind this are fairly obvious, as there have been many poker rooms opening for business online. Where you find a market such as this with many poker rooms offering a place to spend your money, you will quickly see them begin competing to attract more players. This takes place in the form of ingenious promotions, bonuses and tournament types.

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STT’s, Cash Games, and MTT’s, have all been around for a long time, but the different twists and variants of these are a relatively new invention. Jackpot Sit and go’s for instance, are an interesting way to both spur players on to keep playing more tournaments, whilst making more money and offering a big prize too.

Cash games have not really evolved in the way they function, but there are always prmotions linked to cash games that you find online. The bonus for cracked aces or winning a pot with 2,7 in a ring game appear sometimes, and offer players an extra incentive at the poker tables.

Most of the development within online poker tournaments though, is in the shape of MTT’s. There are now a multitude of rebuys, freerolls, guaranteeds, with bounty payout possibilities for some. Added to these are ongoing leaderboards to reward those that are consistently successful.

Satellites to major land based events provide a potential stepping stone to poker glory too, and these can be found on almost any poker room you care to name. Online poker is evolving fast, and it will be interesting to see the new variants of tournaments and promotions that come to the fore over the next few years.