Fistle » Internet Fun

Pot Commiting

admin — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:13:20 +0000

Among the many reasons why should be picky about the poker online hands that you play it the danger of committing to a pot that you cannot win at the casino. The further along you get into a hand, the harder it can be to fold. As more cards come out and more money is bet, uyou get more and more committed to your hand, regardless of its chances of winning. Few things are more disconcerting than being too invested in a pot that you know you’re about to lose.

Many times a poker online player will have a mediocre hand and decode to take a chance and see if the flop hits. If you’re certain that you won’t get raised, then there’s nothing wrong with that. However, if you pay $10 to see a blind with an 8-9 unsuited and someone raises you $40, you’re faced with the decision to call and pay for a flop that probably won’t be helping you any or to fold and throw away the $10 that you should have kept in your stack.

If you decide to call and make middle pair or a straight draw, you will most likely have to keep betting in order to see if your hand plays out. Before you know it, you will have committed more chips than you are comfortable with and you could be looking at a dead hand.

Are Odds Calculators a Good Idea?

admin — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:37:14 +0000

Necessity is the mother of invention, or so they say. With the recent flush of poker online software that can calculate the odds for you, however, we must question whether these are actually necessary at the casino online. Do you ever need to know the probability of a hand to three decimal points? Or do you every really need a computer to do your work for you? There is such a high level of serendipity in every game of online poker that detailed mathematic al analysis will never actually catch the spirit of the game.

I should probably specify at this point that the odds software is primarily intended for use at online casinos. These programs, which you can download to your home computer, have the ability to calculate the pot odds, implied odds, and hand odds of your hand with just a click of the button. It takes all the mental strain out of playing Texas Holdem online, but it also takes away the fun. Poker is not, and never will be, a fully predictable game. Downloading software that does all the work for you takes the game from an enjoyable pastime to a mechanized time waster. Ditch the program and use your brain, it will pay out in the long run.

Super Turbo Sit and Go’s

admin — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:27:52 +0000

On full tilt they have these ridiculous poker tournaments that are hard not to take advantage of. The start you with only 300 in chips, and the blinds increase every 3 minutes. It basically cuts to the chase of a sit and go poker tournament. You are forced to play aggressively from a short stack and make profitable all-ins. But what’s key, is that everybody is a short stack. Because of this, your raises are more meaningful. By making any raise preflop, aside from perhaps a min-raise, you are forcing your opponent to make a decision for all of his chips. If he calls and misses, you’re betting 100% of the time, so he loses. Your opponent has to decide if any hand he calls with will be worth it to play until the end. This brings down the value of suited connectors and speculative hands, and jumps the value of any ace and perhaps any king high hand. A massive hand like AA or KK is basically a paycheck. You can limp with these and someone will probably move all in behind you with a hand you have dominated (AK, AQ, AJ, A10, KQ). If nothing else, the blinds fold preflop, you win, adding 10-15% to your stack size, which is super important. If you can chip up to 400 or 500 chips, or perhaps double early by taking out a player, you can coast and wait for premiums. Also, don’t forget that when you have a double stack, you can always put the pressure on short stacks that follow you. If everyone else left to call behind you only has 200 or fewer chips, you can bet their stack size with a huge range of hands and they will; often fold, due to the gap concept (that you need a stronger hand to call a bet than to make one). And if they call, you’re not risking too much of your stack, and your cards are often live. Of course you can push early into a monster and you’re out, but a smart aggressive player can walk away with a lot of money in a very short period of time by multitabling these poker events.