Nice to see you again! It is time to list more terms that should come up as you work to beat the games on money poker sites. I have to say that I am really liking this alphabetical theme a lot. At the very least it prevents me from sitting here for minutes on end trying to decide between all the poker terms in the dictionary.
The first term I will define is ICM, which is an acronym for Independent Chip Model. If you play SnGs on a Full Tilt Poker download, ICM is incredibly important. It basically gives tournament chips a cash value so that you can make the right decision when someone is all-in.
There are not a lot of J terms, so I will just quickly define “jam”. If you find some free poker training and the instructor says that a jam is optimal, it is equivalent to saying that going all-in is optimal. You can use it in place of “shove” or “push”.
The next word I will mention is “kill”. If you decide not to download Roulette in favor of poker at the local brick-and-mortar, there is often a kill game going on. If someone wins two consecutive hands, they will be required to put in a special blind preflop. A full kill is twice the size of the big blind while a half kill is 1.5 times the big blind. Those that shy away from aggro tables on poker flash sites will probably prefer kill tables because they have the ability to prevent people from playing too aggressively.
When someone makes a move “light”, they are representing a much stronger hand than the one they actually have. Say you are on Tiger Gaming and you have T3 in the blinds. A player that opens frequently in late position raises on the cut-off, and you make a raise it up since you assume he is weak a large percentage of the time. He is probably raising light in his position, and you are reraising light from your position. These spots are common when playing poker.
Well that was my last term for this entry. In a few weeks I will get started again with the letter M. To keep yourself busy, be sure to play lots of poker.
01/11/2011
Important Terms You Need to Know 4
12/10/2010
Key Terms Part Three
Today I am going to continue with poker terms you might want to know when you download money poker sites. Last time I left off at the letter E.
Whether you prefer tourneys or cash games on Ultimate Bet for Mac, “effective stacks” is a word that comes into play very often. If two players are heads up, they can only wager up to the amount that the shorter stack has. The shorter stack is the effective stack. For example, if Player A has 2,000 chips but Player B only has 1,500, the effective stack is 1,500.
For the F term, let’s talk about the word “flip”, an idea you might encounter while playing with friends on a Lucky Ace Poker download. If you decide to participate in a flip, you must push your entire stack in with any two cards that you are dealt. You might be thinking to yourself that this does not coincide with the definition of flip you heard the other day. Well a flip can also describe a situation in which you have 50% equity. For instance, if you sit at a cash table and you have JJ vs AQ all-in preflop, this is referred to as a flip since your equity in the hand is around 50%.
For the letter G, I chose the phrase “gutshot”. When you have a gutshot straight draw, you are basically hoping for one of 4 outs to complete your straight. For instance, if you take a break from Craps online and get dealt 78 in a ring game, you might feel frisky and decide to play it. You open limp on the button and you get A46 on the flop. You have a gutshot because you only have a straight when a particular card comes, which is four outs. This is also known as an inside straight draw.
“Hero fold” is my H phrase. It is a hero fold when you reluctantly lay down a strong hand. Perhaps you are playing on your Everest Poker download and you are against a passive player that never raises. You get dealt 22 and flop bottom set on an uncoordinated board, but instead of just calling your bet, your passive opponent raises. Folding this hand following a single raise is a clear case of a hero fold. An amateur player will find these hands difficult, but unlike many other games, poker requires a lot of discipline and sometimes big laydowns are needed.
I’m going to stop there, but I will be sure to continue on when I write another entry in a few weeks. Between now and then, hopefully you play a ton of hands. Give PokerStars a try if you have not already done so. Un millón de dólares garantizados, todos los domingos. Más de 100,000 jugadores conectados. Los mejores jugadores profesionales de póquer. No esperes más para descargar PokerStars.
10/30/2010
Key Poker Terms 2
A while back I listed a few common poker terms that you might want to know as you are working towards beating money poker sites. For the next few months, I would like to go over a few new poker dictionary entries. To make it fun (for myself), I will go in order through the alphabet and explain one dictionary entry for each letter. Hopefully these next few entries help you out.
To start off, let’s take a look at the term “ante”. If you would like to play tournaments on a PartyPoker bonus code, this is a very important term to know. If there is an ante present, all players must pay a predetermined amount before the cards are dealt. The ante is usually around 10% of the big blind, although the amount varies.
Here’s a word for which you probably already know the definition: “bluff”. When someone bluffs, they are representing a stronger hand than the one they actually hold in order to make better hands fold. If you want to see a bluff in action, you probably just need to watch high stakes poker after you download Full Tilt Poker (since it is a key way to take down pots).
For C, my favorite letter, let’s look at “chip dumping”, something that your poker site should be looking out for if it is one of the best online poker sites. Chip dumping is defined as losing chips to someone else on purpose. People will do this to share chips in a tournament, for example, and it can even be a way to launder money for those into illegal activities. Now you know why US poker sites always have a security team paying attention to suspicious betting patterns on the tables.
When you are taking advantage of free poker training, you will probably read about “dirty outs” every so often. You have a situation of dirty outs when cards that improve your hand improve an opponent’s hand even more. For example, pretend you are at a cash table on Tiger Gaming and have an open ended straight draw on a board with a couple hearts. If the turn brings a third heart but also makes you a straight at the same time, this out could be dirty because someone that had a flush draw has a hand that beats your new straight.
I am going to stop here, but I will be back to continue on in a month. In the meantime, perhaps you should try a Bwin Poker download. Good luck at the tables!
09/30/2010
Become a SnG Grinder
My next entry is going to describe a training site that specializes in Sit-N-Go (SNG) tourneys on money poker sites. SNGs are tournaments that start with a predetermined number of people rather than at a predetermined time. For example, players can elect to enter a 9 player SNG, and the tournament will start once a total of nine people register. SNGs can be as small as two people and as large as a couple hundred people. The room you frequent the most should offer SNGs, even if it is a smaller European or Mac poker site.
SitnGoGrinders.com focuses on SNG play. Since the payout structure of a SNG is known from the start, there are specific tactics that can be employed to ensure higher profits. You’ll learn some important tips on SitnGo Grinders from their articles and videos, and all their instructors have proven themselves as winners in poker. This is not a free poker training site, but it won’t cost you an arm and a leg to join the site, either. They have chosen to avoid registration fees, and a month of video access works out to around $20. If you sign up for a year at once, it’s just $129 for 12 months and then $10/month after that.
SitnGo Grinders is one of the newer training sites out there, so they don’t have as many videos as some of the best online poker training sites. They release a new video daily, so the video selection should keep growing at a decent pace. The selection will still keep you busy for several hours the way it is, though. 6 max and multi-table SNGs played on top Texas Holdem sites have hundreds of videos to their name. There are close to a hundred videos for full ring and heads-up games, which is less than the other categories but actually not bad if you think about it.
Many of the video makers make their videos on a PokerStars download, the room that advertises Daniels Room poker. These players likely chose PokerStars because of the VIP program as the majority of them are either Supernova or Supernova Elite players. These statuses show that they spend countless hours grinding SNGs, hence the name chosen for the site! This site is an excellent choice for beginner players, but seasoned players will also benefit as there are some videos that have a lot of upper level thinking.
If you’re a cash game player on a Titanpoker download, you will not find anything useful on this site. Multi-table tournament players might want to look elsewhere too, although you might still find the site useful for learning MTT endgame. Even though you can’t learn alternate forms of poker on SitnGoGrinders.com, it is still a great source of information at a very fair price. If you’re a SNG player on US friendly poker sites, it’s safe to say that you’ll greatly benefit from the in depth strategy that they offer.
09/04/2010
Improve at Poker with Poker Pwnage
I have already introduced a couple training sites that concentrate on cash games on money poker sites, so this time I’m going to highlight a site that generates videos for tournaments. Poker Pwnage is one of the newer training sites on the market, and their main goal is to turn out poker videos for tournament players on download free poker sites. If you want to join, you must pay $35 as your membership fee and then monthly it’s $24.99. You’ll recall that this is more expensive than a GrinderSchool membership, but it’s cheaper than a Cardrunners membership.
If you just can’t win any of the tournaments you play on your Bwin Poker download, you might want to seriously consider a Poker Pwnage membership. They have made over 300 online poker videos, and all of them were created by some very talented tournament poker players. In fact, a couple of the instructors did quite well in WSOP 2010. David “GhettoFabolous” Randall won an impressive $270,000 for third in Event 11, and “Chardrian” Dresel-Velasquez took fifth in Event 12 for $43,000.
If you hate MTT poker but love Sit-N-Go’s with your Titanpoker bonus code, you will probably also find something to take out of Poker Pwnage. The videos feature stakes between $10 and $100, and you can find 6 max and heads-up games if you don’t like full ring. There’s a lot of stuff covering basic strategy, but it’s possible to also find some advanced tactics since US friendly poker sites can be tough these days. Even if you’re a fairly seasoned player, you’ll still have something to take away from the videos here.
Do not sign up with this site if you are looking for help with Daniels Room poker. A quick search returns only five videos featuring ring games, and who knows when the next one is coming out. If you play mostly Razz after using some PokerStars marketing codes, this site is also not for you. They feature strictly Hold Em, and it doesn’t look like they plan to change this anytime soon.
Really though, there are so many training sites that feature almost exclusively cash games, so it’s really nice to know that Poker Pwnage has something for the tournament players. When you’re a member, you can be positive that the advice you’ll get will be from a tried and true professional with a solid win rate. After you’ve gone through the video catalogue, hopefully you will not have to make an additional poker deposit on your Everest Poker download for the rest of your poker career!
08/15/2010
Improve at Poker with Cardrunners
Signing up with Cardrunners will give you access to a small amount of free poker training, but you’ll be required to put up some cash in order to view anything worthwhile. You might not like the fees if you still have a small bankroll because first you pay $100 to become a member, and then the monthly charge is $30. Serious players on an Everest Poker download will learn that the membership fees are justified, however. Right now there are over 1800 videos on their site for your viewing pleasure, and every week at least seven more are put out.
Like a lot of the sites out there, the strength of Cardrunners is in their cash game coverage. There exists an excellent selection of short-handed videos on top Texas Hold'em sites due to its popularity, and choices for Full Ring games have improved when compared with a year or two ago. If you’re more into Heads-Up or Limit games, your video selection is also quite good.
If you’re a Sit-N-Go player or if you prefer tournaments on poker flash, Cardrunners might not be the absolute best choice because their specialty is most certainly cash games. You’ll still find plenty of tournament videos, however, and they range from low to nosebleed stakes. If you play a mix of cash and tournaments, Cardrunners is the best choice as they still have several videos for MTTs and SNGs to go with their first class ring game choices.
If you’re into Omaha thanks to the PokerStars bonus code, Cardrunners puts out some of the best videos out of all the training sites out there. This is also the case for other games like Draw and Razz. You might be slightly disappointed with your choices if Omaha is your game of choice, but Cardrunners does a lot better for these games than any of the other sites on the internet right now.
Once you build up your bankroll at free poker no downloads, Cardrunners is a great way to go if you don’t mind putting up money for some really good poker videos. It is definitely the number one choice for ring game enthusiasts, and if you become interested in tournaments, they’ll have something for you, too. When it comes down to it, you can’t go wrong with putting your money into a Cardrunners membership.
08/05/2010
Improve at Poker with GrinderSchool
The first training site I’ll look at is GrinderSchool because it was developed for players with less experience. A subscription starts at $10 per month, and you are allowed access to 600+ online poker videos produced by those that have the profits to demonstrate they are profitable playing the games in US poker sites. GrinderSchool features seven videos each week, and while almost all of them show No Limit Hold Em, usually four each month are videos for other games like Omaha or Razz.
GrinderSchool offers a lot for those that play No Limit Hold Em cash games on sites such as Tiger Gaming. They feature several short-handed and full ring poker videos, and new players will have no trouble finding a few videos at their chosen low buy-in. If you play mainly heads-up or Limit, though, you might not be as happy. The site features a few heads-up and Limit videos, but perhaps not enough to make it worth it for players that play only these types of poker. The same can be said for those that want help with Omaha or other less common poker games like Draw.
Are you as addicted to Rush Poker tournaments on a Fulltiltpoker download as I am? Videos are also abundant for tournament players, and most of them are by some really excellent players. The videos capture buy-ins from $2 to $55, and almost all of them participate in a 3 to 9 part series. Those that have the goal to play outside of their bankrolls can also watch the instructors win some satellites.
If you find MTT events frustrating and prefer single-table tournaments on your PokerStars download, you’ll be very happy with GrinderSchool. You’ll find that a large percentage of the SNG videos were made by the site’s owner, but recently joining the team were a couple new respectable instructors. These videos feature stakes between $1 and $33, and the concepts discussed range from beginner to advanced levels.
Overall, GrinderSchool is an excellent site for new players making their start at the best US poker sites. Because there is no sign up fee, the site is even more attractive to those without a lot of money to spare. If you’re looking for mixed games, you are better off elsewhere, but No Limit Hold Em players will be very happy with their investment when they see the video selection at this training site.
07/25/2010
Key Poker Phrases
Actually the most important terms have earlier entries all to themselves, so read my older articles if you haven’t done so yet. You should pay close attention to the terms “bankroll management” and “variance” because they are essential for understanding and learning about poker. When you’re learning to play on your Bwin Poker download, you might go through a lengthy downswing. You could need this bankroll to kick in at any time because it’s impossible to predict when this might happen.
Since poker is all about money, you should quickly learn about the “rake”. The rake is the money removed from all the pots or prize pools by the site or establishment hosting your poker game. For instance, if you play some no-limit hold em after using a Titanpoker bonus code, each pot you play will be reduced by around 5% and given to the site. Each site or casino has their own rake percentage, and there is usually a maximum amount that can be raked per hand.
Another important term to learn about is “position”. Previously we considered the importance of your cards in the poker hands order entry, but we didn’t mention the importance of position. You are in position if you’re last to act after the flop, and good position is as important for winning pots as the strength of your cards. You should be more willing to play hands in position and less willing to play hands out of position. When you download free casino games, you couldn't care less where you sit in relation to other players. It’s a different situation when you are playing poker versus these people, however.
You should check out the term “outs” in a suitable online poker dictionary. When you play post flop and you suspect you don’t have the best hand, you should determine the cards that could come on later streets that likely would improve your cards to the winner. These cards are called your “outs”.
Look up the phrase “fold equity”. As you play pots in this game, you need to take into account that there is a chance your opponent will fold if you bet. This is what is known as fold equity, and it is very important since it’s another way for you to win more pots and more money. If you ever watch hands being played in Daniels Room poker, you’ll learn that high stakes players use this idea very often.
When reading online poker articles, you’ll likely read about “nits”. Players are described as nits when they play very few hands and are afraid to gamble. He is unlikely to put himself in a spot where he is unlikely to be ahead.
One more term that should be good to know when you download free poker is “all-in”. Especially prevalent in tournament poker, you are betting your entire stack if you go all-in, and to call, your opponents must call the amount in your stack or go all-in themselves. If you receive a call and fail to win the showdown, you are often busto and you need to re-buy (if you can) or stop playing.
At a later date, I will probably list more terms to take a look at. For now you should study the ones in this entry and make sure you fully understand them. Good luck and have fun at the tables!
07/06/2010
Internet Tools
After you learn the poker terms, you should choose a poker forum where you’re able to start threads and obtain help when you have questions. Check to see if your site of choice gives advice regarding Amex compatible casinos since that is an indication that they have articles on everything you’ll ever need. I chose a forum when I was a beginner player and I quickly became better at the game when I began writing posts and asking for advice. In order to post hand histories on a forum, it would be best to use a hand converter first. This increases the chance you’ll receive help because the hand will be easier to read.
Another way to speed up your learning is to obtain some poker videos showing play on top Texas Hold'em sites. There are many expensive and advanced videos on the internet, but they’re a waste of money until you have a bit more experience. For the beginner, the numerous free poker videos out online today are more than enough.
Last but not least, don’t forget about using a poker odds chart right after you download free poker. As you already know, the chart will be essential when you’re in a tough spot and you need to figure out whether your hand is any good.
Just because these tools are free, it doesn’t mean that they’re not absolutely essential for your learning. Many of the players online have no idea about these tools themselves, so use this to your advantage. Study the game with the help of these tools and you could be playing Daniels Room poker in no time!
06/21/2010
Variance
Variance is the leading motivation for having a large bankroll when playing this game. After all, if you're a winning player, why would you ever need to have a bankroll? If you were always a winner on Tiger Gaming, you'd never lose money for as long as you play, right? I wish it were that easy.
The problem is, you'll discover that despite how correctly you play, you will still have negative days when playing poker. Some days the poker hands you're given will be horrible and you'll need to fold all of them to prevent losing an outrageous amount of money. Other times the hands you're dealt will be great, but they never end up the winner because at times the losing cards still come out ahead of you. It's a given that occasionally you'll check out your odds for winning a pot with a poker odds chart, and you'll realize that you actually lost the hand even though you got it in as a 90% favorite. Times like these will cause you to consider playing online slots instead of poker!
If you aspire to make money playing this game, you need to realize that variance causes bad players to keep playing poker in real money poker sites. You need bad players to stick around to make money. Because you won't be able to hope for variance to always be kind to you, you have to figure out how to beat it. This can be done by practicing good bankroll management and being sure to avoid problems with tilt. Discover how to accept unfortunate situations and as long as you have the proper bankroll, your bad luck will turn around in a flash. If that’s too much work for you, I suggest you just download free casino slot games where you won’t need to practice discipline to win.
