Poker

Playing Weak Aces

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Weak Ace: When one of your pocket cards is an ace, and the other is low and unsuited, it is referred to as a weak ace.

A very common mistake that novice and intermediate players make is that they almost always play weak aces. What is a weak ace? A hand can be defined as such when one of your pocket cards is an ace and the card accompanying it is low and unsuited. A good rule is any ace with a nine or lower is a weak ace.

Beginning players are quite pleased with an ace no matter which card is coming along for the ride. It’s true that all it takes to make a pair of aces is an ace in your hand, but top pair with a weak kicker often ensures you’ll either win a small amount of chips or lose a large pot to strong players.

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The reason for this is the key to No-Limit holdem – Domination. It’s a fact that players are involved in pots more often with an ace than any other card, being the highest card in the deck it rarely gets thrown away. Therefore, your opponent is much more likely to hold an ace and you’re very likely to be dominated since your kicker is on the low end of the spectrum.

Still planning on playing with A7 offsuit? Let’s have a look at the numbers. Pre-flop, you’re at the mercy of fourteen different hands (AA, KK, QQ, JJ, 1010, 99, 88, 77, AK, AQ, AJ, A10, A9 and A8). In all cases your chance to win the hand is below 30% and the majority of the time your odds are drastically lower – less than 25%. Meanwhile only five (playable) hands are significant underdogs to your ace (A2, A3, A4, A5, A6) and you boast merely 2 to 1 odds to win (50%) because of the large occurrence of split pots with these hands.

We see now that statistical evidence supports the danger of weak aces but it doesn’t stop there, even the theory of aggressive poker play is malcontent with this hazardous holding. A weak ace forces you to slow down the action and play more defensively.

I was once playing a home tournament against six opponents and was dealt A5 offsuit. Having already caught a series of ugly looking cards I decided to raise. Everyone folded to the big blind except one player (whom I knew to be a solid player) who decided to re-raise the minimum. Having already committed a good portion of my chips I called…hey at least I had position, right? [Read more…]

How Much to Bet

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If you are playing poker for money, then you may not be sure how much you should be betting. Some games have limits on how much can be bet and things like that, but it is best to start off by giving yourself a daily or weekly budget for betting with.

This is extremely important because if you do not add up how much you are spending, it is very easy to spend a lot of money without noticing. The game can be a lot of fun and you can find yourself playing it a lot. You may find that you keep on adding money in to your players account without really thinking and soon you may spend much more than you can actually afford.

It is best to assume that you will not win any games and so all of the money that you bet will be lost. This may seem very negative, but it will mean that there is no way that you will be able to spend more money than you can actually afford. You will need to just load your players account with the amount of money that you can afford and then once that is all gone then that is it.

playing poker for money

How much you bet per game will depend really on how long you want your game to last. You need to consider that you may use up you money quicker if you bet high stakes but if you do win, you will win more money. It might depend on how much time you spend playing or just how much you are prepared to bet with.

It might seem a bit over the top, but it can be easy to get carried away and spend more money than you intend. Then the game stops being fun any more and you may be tempted just to play it because you want to get back the money you lost, which is not a good way to be at all.

Where to Play Online Poker

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Playing online poker is growing in popularity. This is great thing for anyone who wants to play because there are now a lot of places online that you can choose form. This means that you are bound to find one that you enjoy playing at, but it may mean that it will take some time for you to search through them all.

It can be a good idea to take a look at some reviews of online poker websites to find out what they are like. You will be able to see how people rate the websites and what they feel are good features of them. This can be extremely useful, because it can save you having to try out all of the sites. There are many sites out there, you see and it can be easy to get daunted by the choice and just not know which to choose or which ones to try out. Of course, it is important to remember that what you like, may not be the same as what someone else likes. Therefore it can be a good idea to go to a few sites and see what they are like and then you will get an idea of what you like and dislike about them.

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Some sites have chat rooms, which can be a lot of fun to use, they will enable you to be able to discuss tactics with other players as well as just socialise and have fun. Some will have different versions of the game to others and it can be worth seeing what is available where that is concerned. If you like a particular variation or version of the game, then you should be able to find it because there are so many places that you can try. It should therefore be possible to find what you want and have lots of fun.

Learning How to Play Poker

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If you fancy playing poker online, but do not know how to play or have a good poker strategy, then it is a good idea to learn. There are many great websites which will teach you how to play and there are many sites where you can play online for free. These are great as it means that you can learn the rules and practice, before you start playing for money.

It is a good idea to get an idea of the basic rules and then play a few games. Once you have mastered the basics, then you are in a position where you can start to learn some more complicated techniques. This information can also be found online, there are a good selection of websites which will give you all sorts of tutoring.

How to Play Poker

As you learn new techniques, it is a good idea to have a go at playing and try them out. Once you have practised them, they will come more naturally to you, putting things in to practice is very much better than just reading about them. If you get too much knowledge without trying it out, it can be easy to forget things. You may also find that certain things work better for you than others, so experiment a bit and have fun with it.

Trying out your techniques is best done on a free poker site. Once you start winning some games, then it is sensible to consider playing for money. It can be very disheartening if you keep losing your money and so wait until you can win a bit first and you will find that you enjoy it much more. It will be more exciting, playing for money, but it will also be more enjoyable, if you know a bit more about what you are doing.

Hints and Tips

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It is a good idea to keep on educating yourself about the game of poker. There are always new things that you can learn, whether you are new to the game or have been playing for a long time. It is wise to think about how you can improve your game while you are playing and look for help with that.

You may find that seem to keep losing for a particular reason. It maybe that you do not have a strong enough hand, you do not bluff well enough or you make mistakes when choosing which cards to discard. If this is the case, then you should be able to find help online with this. You should be able to find a website which has information which will help you to be a better player.

game of poker

It may, of course, be that you do not understand why you are not doing that well. If this is the case, then it might be a good idea to revisit the basics and make sure that you are getting those right. Then you could take a look at some more advanced information with regards to tactics to see whether that helps you.

It can also be a good idea to consider playing a different version of the game or playing on a different website. It may be that you are more suited to a different variation or that playing a different set of people might be better for you. You may like the site that you play on, but it is worth considering whether choosing somewhere different could be in your advantage. You can always go and play for free at some of them and see what you think, you have nothing to lose that way. It could make a big difference to your results.

Who to Play Against

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Deciding who to play against in poker can be a big decision. It is best to be able to win all of the time and then you are out of pocket but if you do not have a challenge then you may feel bored by the game. Therefore it is good to make sure that you win and you lose some games, just to keep it exciting.

Obviously, no one wins all of the time anyway, but it is also not fun if you lose all of the time. Therefore it can be a really good idea to make sure that when you are deciding where to play, that you make sure the ability level is set right for you. Try out different places and see where you feel comfortable playing.

Some places will be international and you can play against people form all over the world and some will be limited to the country you live. Which you choose is up to you really, there will be good and bad wherever and you may find that you like having a broad range of other players so that you can learn more about the game from them.

It can even be really good to play against friends and family. Playing face to face can be quite different to playing online, but it can give you an opportunity to discuss tactics with them and things like that, which could really help to improve your game and be fun as well.

Using the chat rooms on the poker websites can be very useful too as the players there might give you some hints. You could even line up games with them so that you can watch how they play and pick up hints. It can in fact, be very useful watching others and so while you are playing, make sure that you are considering what everyone else is doing and why they might be playing in that particular way. This is where playing against good players can be really useful.