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Top 5 Errors in Poker

There are many online poker players out there as you all know. In fact, most of them are bad poker players, and you could be one of them. Don’t despair, help is here! This article will discuss some of the most common poker errors made by online gamblers.

Error #1 – Great Starting Hand that Misses the Flop

This has to be one of the most common situations I see online. Poker players get in trouble because they fail to recognize that a great starting hand can be a terrible “ending” hand. Suppose you have A-K. You’ll probably raise pre-flop with a hand like this and if you get a few callers, an interesting pot could develop. What happens when the flop is 4-4-8? Well, you may still have the best hand, but the more opponents you face, the more you’re likely to loose. What you need to do is watch out for indicators of strength or traps. Too many times I have seen players call an all-in bet with their A-K thinking they had the best hand. When the pot is just $300 and someone goes all in for another $1000, it’s just not worth the risk. Learn those fold those hands early on, especially if you are facing many opponents.

Error #2 – Going All-in on a Bluff

Going all-in is probably the most overused poker move in Texas Hold’em. Many players go all-in with nothing in an attempt to steal a nice pot. I’m not saying that you should never go with this play, what I’m saying is that it’s usually the wrong play. As a general rule, you should never need to bet more than the pot to steal it. It makes little sense to bet all of your $1500 chips into a $400 pot. The only reason you attempt to bluff in the first place is because you think opponents are weak and they will fold. If you are correct, a $400 bet in this case would suffice in making that happen. The risk is that if your read is off, you end up loosing. It’s better to loose a portion of your stack and live to fight another day than to commit poker suicide by going all-in.

Error #3 – Too Much Calling

If you’re doing too much calling actions it’s either because you’re involved in too many hands trying to catch cards, or you’re just too tight. The problem with calling someone’s bet is that you can only win by having the best hand. A raise gives you two ways to win: by having the best hand or by making everyone else fold. In the second case, it is of no consequence what your hand was. You win the pot regardless.

Error #4 – Failing to Gamble When Your Time is Running Out

This is only applicable to tournament poker, whether you’re playing Hold’em, Omaha, or any other card game that uses blinds. There comes a point in a poker tournament where the blind levels get steep and it’s expensive to play poker. This is one of the acceptable conditions to go all in on a bluff. The idea is that you need to gather chips and you need to do it fast. When your chip stack is 10 times the value of the big blind, it’s time to make a move. Pick a hand and go all in. In other words, if you’re sitting on a $1000 chip stack and the blinds are $50/$100, now is the time to thinking about moving all in. Pick a hand and go for it! Obviously, the risk factor is much greater, but you just have to gamble and hope someone doubles you up. If you keep folding, the blinds will quickly eat up your remaining chips and you’ll be out of the game regardless.

Error #5 – Going Easy on Card Chasers

When you’re in a situation where the flop offers a flush or a straight potential and you see people checking all around you, make a nice bet. If someone has a draw, you have to make it too expensive for them to call your bet. This is where the concept of pot odds come into play, where you actually calculate the pt odds an opponent could have, and make a bet that is higher than what they should pay. For example, in a $500 pot where an opponent has 6 outs for a flush, then the pot odds for that person are about 24% after the flop. Bet more than 24% of the pot value. A bet of $250 or more (50% of the $500 pot) should discourage that player from chasing cards.  Remember, when you’re betting $250, they have to call $250 in a now $750 pot, making the cost to them 33.33% of the stakes with only 24% chance to win the stakes. Assuming you’re playing with somewhat experienced players, if they do the math they’ll likely fold. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, you need to read an article on pot odds!

Pokerstars Record Breaking Weekend

This past weekend many records were shattered for online poker in general and for Pokerstars.com.  The biggest record of all was Pokerstars set a new record for most people playing in an online poker tournament when their $500k guaranteed tournament reached its capacity of 35,000 people!  A player under the alias stan34powa went on to win the tournament and the $30,000 that was guaranteed for first place.  Not bad for an $11 investment!  This record will go down in the Guinness Book Of Records but you can guarantee that Pokerstars will do their best to shatter it again in no time!

The next big record that was shattered at Pokerstars was the most people ever online at a single poker site.  At approximately 3:30 PM EST yesterday, Pokerstars had a total of 250,540 people on their site playing poker!  This is twice their daily average and a HUGE accomplishment for the site and online poker in general.  I guess the whole “global recession” isn’t slowing down poker players!

Pokerstars also set some personal records with their big Sunday tournaments.  The Sunday warm-up had its biggest field ever with 5,836 players and a prize pool over $1.1 Million Dollars.  Also, the Sunday Millions tournament guarantee was raised from $1.5 Million to $2.5 Million, but this was shattered again when 16,260 people registered bringing the prize pool up to $3,252,000!  In the end, a player from Sweden under the alias lp_SakiSaki took 1st place and $331,378.80 in cash without a chop at the final table!

If you aren’t playing at Pokerstars.com, then you really don’t know what you are missing!

Best PLO Omaha Sites

Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) is one of the fastest growing poker games. There is a ton more action than holdem because you get 4 cards instead of just 2. The hands play out just like Holdem, but from your 4 cards you must use the best 2 in your hand, along with the board to make the best possible 5-card hand.

Anyway, enough of the boring intro, here are some good sites to play PLO online:

3 Best PLO Poker Sites

1) Pokerstars.com – Pokerstars offers the most PLO action on the Internet. There are always games running and they are usually full of really soft competition as you get many holdem players trying this newer game out. They have several tournaments also and the sit n go’s fill up rather quickly.  (For more info about Pokerstars, see our Poker Stars Review)

Here is a screenshot of the Pokerstars Software:

2) Full Tilt Poker – Full Tilt is the 2nd largest site for PLO games. Similar to Pokerstars, the competition is very soft and there are tons of sit n go’s, cash games and Multi-table tournaments (MTTs).  (For more info about Full Tilt, see our Full Tilt Poker Review)

3) Cake Poker – Cake is home to some of the worst Omaha players on the Internet.  The traffic levels aren’t as good as Full Tilt or Poker Stars, but there are still games running at most times.  I managed to run $16 into over $500 playing these games just to show you how soft they are.  (For more information about Cake, read our Cake Poker review)

Omaha is the fastest growing poker game right now, so if you take some time to learn this great game you can make a killing!  Good luck!

Sky Poker Bonus Just Got AMAZING

For the longest time Sky Poker has had one of the worst bonus offers of any poker site. Well, after we bugged them for so long, they have finally addressed this issue and have launched what we consider to be one of the best bonus offers for online poker!

Sky Poker has provided us with a special bonus code that will give players a £250 bonus with no minimum deposit, PLUS the regular 500 sky poker points for free. These points can be used to access over £2400 worth of freerolls when you make your first deposit.

To clear the bonus you need to earn sky poker points. For every 500 points you receive, you will unlock £25 of the bonus.

No promotion code is required to receive this bonus. You just need to click our link below to get to our special landing page at skybet.com which has all the details of this promotion.

For more information about our Sky Poker Promotion visit our special landing page at SkyPoker.com

5 Reasons Most People Don't Win Money Playing Poker Online

A lot of people play poker online everyday for real money, somewhere in the hundred-millions! Strangely enough the harsh reality is that less than 5% of those people are actually making money playing.

This may sound shocking, and completely unbelievable, but it is the truth. Sure, players win here and there all the time, but chances are they are probably losing more than they are winning.

Here are the 5 biggest mistakes people make playing poker online…

1) Bankroll Management – Poker is full of ups and downs, so you should really only be playing games you can afford to play. Utilizing bankroll management allows you to take a few loses, then go back to winning again. You need to know your limits and play within them!

2) Gambling Too Much – Sure, poker is gambling, but you should only be taking risks when you have a good chance of winning. If you are calling down to the river on your gutshot straight draws, chances are you are a losing player. Even chasing a flush draw if it is going to cost you too much money is a bad idea over time. You should only be taking risks if you are getting a good price to stay in the hand and you can make the best possible hand. Take risks only if there is a high percentage of odds that your miracle card will come!

3) Bluffing – Everybody watches poker pros on TV bluffing their way out of huge pots. Sure, bluffing is a part of the game, but this is a skill that should only be attempted when you are consistently winning money without it. Everytime you bluff, chances are that you are risking all your chips and depending on your opponent you may get called on a wide range of hands. Be careful if you are going to bluff!

4) Not Knowing When to Stop – Chasing your losses is one of the dumbest things you can do. You can’t think of money gone as something you NEED to get back. Everyone gets into a rut sometimes, but sometimes a really bad rut can cost you your entire bankroll. If you are having a bad time at a table, maybe you should get up and try another table. Like the classic poker song “The Gambler” goes, you gotta know when to fold’em!

5) Not Studying Basic Poker Strategy – You wouldn’t write a college exam without studying, would you? So why would you play at a poker table with your hard earned money without taking time to learn the game. Even the best poker players are learning, so if there is something you don’t know, why don’t you try asking a pro. You have to know how to play your position, which starting hands to play, how to tell what type of player your opponents are and much more before you should even considering risking your cash!

This is really just a basic list and I am sure I am missing a ton of things, but if you aren’t making money playing poker, look over this list and see where you might be going wrong. Practice makes perfect, and you still can figure out the holes in your game to become a winning poker player. Good luck!

Drunk Tilt Poker

Drinking and poker is one of the topics I like to talk about a lot, because one of the reasons why people lose a lot of money gambling is because they get drunk! Sure, just getting drunk isn’t enough to cause you to lose your money, but if you are a regular gambler and you start drinking, chances are the urge to gamble will get even higher and it will be much harder to turn down.

If you know you are going to go out drinking and get these kind of urges to gamble, HIDE YOUR COMPUTER. Do whatever you have to to make sure that when you stubmble in from the bar later, it is as hard as possible for you to log into your favorite online poker or online casino site. read more…

5 Tips To Help You Transition To Pot Limit Omaha Poker

Omaha Poker has grown massively in popularity over the last few years. There is a high-low split version and several variations in betting available at most online poker sites. Pot-Limit Omaha High is the most popular of all. To those players more used to Texas Holdem the games can seem crazy, with big pots regularly contested between drawing hands. This article gives 5 invaluable tips for those players experienced in Texas Holdem who would like to transition to Pot Limit Omaha Poker.

1) Big Draws Are Often Favorite Over Made Hands

In Texas Holdem a draw is usually an underdog on the flop against a made hand. In Omaha the 4-starting cards mean that a player holding a combination draw can actually be a 2/1 favorite on the flop against an opponent who flopped a set. ‘Wrap around straights’ may have 16+ outs, add to this a flush draw and over-pair – and the drawing hand becomes a firm favorite. Remember that it is vital that you draw to the nuts in Omaha Poker.

2) Aces Are Strong Pre-Flop, But Vulnerable Post-Flop

How much you win and lose with A-A-x-x hands in Omaha can make the difference between a profitable session and a loss. Many players over-value aces after the flop in Pot Limit Omaha and end up losing large pots. The key is that any opponent who calls your bets to the river when you only have an over-pair to the board is almost certain to have you beaten!

3) Coordinated Starting Hands Are Key

With Omaha poker involving 4-hole cards there are a lot more situations in which you will appear to have a playable hand. Since the showdown can only include 2 cards from your hand it can pay to think of starting hands in terms of 2-card ‘combinations’. A single pair has just 1 combination working for it, 4 cards close in value and of 2 suits may well have all 6 potential combinations live – allowing them to hit the flop more often.

4) Position Is Critical In Omaha

Position is a key factor in winning any form of poker. In Pot Limit Omaha Poker it is critical. This is due to two interacting factors. Firstly that starting hands are close in value. Secondly the pot-limit betting means you are less likely to be ‘blown off of a hand’ early – allowing you to benefit from your good position for longer.

5) Balance Your Raises!

A common error for players new to Omaha is to raise only with premium pairs. This tips off observant opponents to your hand while giving excellent odds to play. In fact as you gain experience in this for of the game spotting and stacking an ‘aces-only-raiser’ becomes a profitable strategy in itself. Raising is critical, since allowing random hands to see the flop will make playing difficult. Balancing those raises to include connected medium cards and / or suited high cards in addition to those premium pairs is key.

10 Tips to Better Poker

Some times simple steps will have incredible impact on your poker game, one way or the other. These tips will help both your offline and online poker game.  Included are some of the most popular and yet simple improvements to anyone’s game. This is based on the experience of active players who experience success on a regular basis.

Top 10 Poker Tips

1) Stay Focused – allowing yourself to become unfocused by trying to play to many hands at once, will prevent you from watching the hands you’ve got to play. Keep an eye on every hand take notes as needed. Focus on your opponent’s weak points and betting patterns. By staying focused on the game, you will be able to stay involved with the game, regardless if you are vested in the pot at that moment or not.
2) Learn through Watching – The concept may seem fruitless, however rail birding could be one of the most valuable assets a poker player can have. With any sport, research is vital, watching a player, their patterns, and learning from their mistakes and successes will provide you with the information needed to compete at any table. Remember that when you are out of the game, you will be able to see plays and moves that may not be noticed while you are competing, so if it is at all possible, watch the high stakes tables.
3) Do NOT Drink and Play – Friends don’t let friends loose their bankroll drunk. It is easier to tilt in that state, poor judgment will always result in bankroll loss, so just don’t open yourself to such a poorly played poker game. What a hang over it would be to wake up after a night of drinking and playing poker, to find out you owe the bank money you didn’t have to lose the night before.
4) Don’t Play a game You can’t Afford – If you are searching for your poker game, look for one you have the bankroll for. By using quality Bankroll Management you will avoid playing in a game you can’t afford to lose, or play comfortably. It isn’t a good feeling to bust out, and be broke. Bottom line, don’t play more than you are comfortably able to.
5) Take Active Notes – Even chess players keep a note pad with them to record mistakes, and advantages, and player patterns. If a poker player keeps the notes specific to an opponent, seeing betting patterns, and other points of view will be advantageous, both for learning to better your game, and how to approach a player in the future.
6) The Button – Remember the most powerful position at the table is the button. Maximize your hands when you have it. Relax your typical standards for betting, and be very aggressive. Basically, steal blinds when you have it, or if you have a strong hand drive home your point, and bring in the pot. The button moves to give the advantage to every player, so do not let this go to waste. Let other players believe you are stealing from the button.
7) Play Strategically to avoid trouble – Do not get incredibly involved in the early stages of tournament play in particular, even in Sit n Go’s. The loose players tend to make big moves early on, or attempt to steal blinds with nothing. Let them do it, in the end, the fewer players for you to compete against the better your odds. Obviously if you have a strong hand to start, don’t put it down, just don’t play ones that are not strong. It is not worth leaving the game early.
8) Invest very small amounts in small pairs – Don’t make big pre-flop moves on pairs under 9. Leave the hand if the flop doesn’t bring you 3 of a kind. Constantly playing smaller pocket pairs will eat through your chips quickly. They are only really effective when you play them sparingly and with a lot of callers in the pot, to better your odds. This will help you manage risk in your online poker game.
9) Don’t play favorite hands – This is a game of skill, not luck. As such lucky hands do not exist, so don’t put a stake in them. Favorite hands are nice, but remember there are odds in everything you do, keep them in your favor, not staking your entire bankroll on a 7c 3d because the last time you had it, you were able to run it. If you can catch a lucky break in football, you can get lucky in cards too.
10) Do not play out AK often – This hand, suited or not, is a powerful draw, however against a pair of two’s it won’t stand. Watch your opponents carefully and know when to put it down.

With such simple strategy integrated into your play, you will find your bankroll increase, your tournament play improve, and you will cash more often. Once these adjustments are made, the results will be visible at the first table.

History Of Paypal and Online Poker

Paypal has become the most recognized payment processor for online transactions and many poker player wish they could use this method to fund their online poker sites.  Here is a brief history of Paypal with online poker, and which poker sites will still allow you to make a deposit using your paypal account.

PayPal was founded in late 1998 by American Peter Theil, former securities lawyer and options trader.  Along with several friends from Stanford University they created a company called Confinity.  The company began to grow very quickly as people looked for an alternative to credit cards for buying things online.

Fast forward to 2004, online poker was in its boom.  Everyone was signing up for accounts to play poker online, but they needed a way to get money into their player accounts.  At one point Paypal was widely accepted for use with online poker sites for everywhere in the world from the United States to the United Kingdom.  Unfortunately a few years back Paypal changed this stance and currently paypal can only be used for gambling in a few places accross Europe.

Today, a few sites still accept paypal as a deposit method for online poker.  These can all be seen on our paypal for online poker page.

What is Rakeback?

You have probably seen several poker sites advertising something called RAKEBACK, but have no idea what the heck it is. Well, let me break it down for you so you can understand a little better and answer the burning question: what is rakeback?

Rake = The way the poker sites make money. Basicaly every hand in a cash game they take anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars (depending on the size of the pot) to pay for their operating costs and profits. For players that play a lot of poker (usually multi-tabling), this can add up over time, as they can contribute $1000’s of dollars in rake every month.

Rakeback = Getting a percentage of all the rake you contribute to the site paid back to YOU.

History of Rakeback

Rakeback was originally used as a tool to lure in big players and sponsored pros to poker sites by giving them a percentage of everything the site made off of them, back into their player account. This would keep the players happy and hopefully they would stay with the site for a long time.

Fast forward a bit, smaller sites that had problems competing with big sites like Party Poker and Pokerstars needed a way to attract new players and keep players loyal. They decided to offer rakeback as a marketing tactic to ensure the players would stay with their site, and new players would get something extra for signing up at their site.

Nowadays, around 25% of poker sites offer rakeback to their players and it is a very common tool used to market sites. If you would like to know how much rakeback you would generate check out this rakeback calculator.

Is Rakeback Ever a Bad Idea?

While many would argue that rakeback is always a good idea, there are some potential issues with rakeback. Since you are essentially getting paid to play more, if you are not a really good poker player you might start playing more than you should (in attempt to try and get more rakeback) and will actually lose more money than you would have without the rakeback. So, if you are going to take rakeback it usually helps if you are a WINNING player.

If you are interested in trying rakeback out, check out PKR Rakeback and Bonus page for details.