Bankroll Management 
helping you at the tables 
2011-01-01
It will be tough to read strategy for casinos for USA players if you do not understand the lingo, so I will keep going through the poker dictionary for you. Last time we left at the letter M.

My next term is "Mexican Bankroll", a stack of cash with $ 100 bills on the top and bottom but only $ 1 bills in between. Knowing this will not help you beat the games on your Bwin Poker download, but it was the M term that stood out the most for me!

Our next definition is for the "nuts". If you have the nuts in a Tiger Gaming tournament, it means that you have the strongest hand possible. One thing to keep in mind is that the nuts on one street might not be the nuts on the next. For instance, QQ is the nuts on a Q45 flop, but if the turn is a 6, it is no longer the nuts.

A basic poker video might teach a new player that they will often lose if they are "outkicked" at show down. For example, when you have a pair, you usually want to have the highest kicker possible so that if someone else has the same pair, you can still win the hand. If you have KQ and the board reads Q72A8, you have a pair of queens with a king kicker.

The phrase I will define for the letter P is "polarized range". If you have a polarized range at any point while playing on the Everest Poker download, it is basically saying that your hand is either very strong or incredibly weak.

I recently used a slot machine download and spent a few hours on the slot machines, but I did not find them nearly as fun as poker. If you have yet to give poker a try, you are definitely missing out! Go through the earlier articles on this site and then come back next month for another update.
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2010-11-11
Hello and thanks for coming by. It is time to list more terms that should matter as you strive to succeed at poker in casinos for USA players. I must admit that I am having fun going in order according to the alphabet. Another good thing is that it prevents me from agonizing over the vast number of choices in the poker dictionary.

I chose ICM for the letter "I", which is short for Independent Chip Model. If your main game is SnGs on Tiger Gaming, it is mandatory that you know ICM. When there are less than 10 players remaining in a tourney, ICM gives your chips a cash value and helps you make optimal decisions.

It%u2019s pretty slim pickings for the letter J, so I will just quickly define "jam". If you get your hands on a helpful poker video and the instructor says he likes a jam, he is saying that he likes going all-in. "Shove" and "push" both have the same meaning.

The next word I will mention is "kill". If you decide to play live poker instead of Craps online one night, one of your options will probably be a kill game. 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. People that do not like the tough games on US poker sites might prefer kill tables because they have the ability to slow aggressive players down a bit.

When someone calls, raises, or bets "light", they are doing it with a hand that is usually second best. Say you are playing on your Bwin Poker download and you have T3 in the blinds. A person that opens frequently in late position raises on the cut-off, and you decide to raise it up because you assume he is usually raising a wide range here. He is likely raising light in late position, and you are reraising light from the blinds. These spots are common on money poker sites.

I think that will wrap it up for today. In a few weeks I will keep going with the alphabet, starting off with the letter M. This gives you plenty of time to practice your game!
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2010-10-11
This article will go on with poker terms you might want to know if you play in casinos for USA players. You will recall that I was going through the alphabet and I had left off at E.

For both cash and MTT poker on the best Euro poker sites, it would be wise to learn about 'effective stacks'. If two people are in a pot together, they can only wager up to the total in the shortest stack (the effective stack). If you have 3,400 chips and your opponent has 2,200, the effective stack is 2,200.

The next term I would like to describe is 'flip', something that can occur when friends get together for friendly games on their Titanpoker download. Basically the players involved in a flip agree to go all-in preflop with whichever cards are dealt to them. The term flip also has another definition: a 'coin flip' is when you have 50/50 odds in a hand. For instance, if you are playing a tournament on Tiger Gaming and you have JJ vs AQ all-in preflop, this could be called a flip since you are around 50% to win the hand.

I wanted to review the term 'gutshot' next. When you have a gutshot straight draw, you are basically hoping for one of 4 outs to complete your straight. Let's say you choose to play poker rather than clear your Bingo bonus and get dealt 78 in late position. You raise and the flop comes 59K. You have a gutshot since you only have a straight when a particular card comes, which is four outs. If you ever hear about an 'inside straight draw', it is the same thing.

The next term we will learn about is 'hero fold'. It is a hero fold when you reluctantly lay down a strong hand. Perhaps you are sitting at tables on the best Mac poker sites and you are playing with someone that you have never seen raise before. You peel 45 and get a 678 flop, but instead of folding or calling, your opponent decides to raise! Folding this hand following a single raise is a clear case of a hero fold. At first these hands will seem unfair, but unlike a free slots download, poker requires a lot of discipline and sometimes big folds are needed.

I'm going to stop there, but I will start off with the letter "I" when I update this blog next month. Between now and then, hopefully you play a ton of hands. If you haven't already made an account at PokerStars, I highly recommend it. ¡Aprende de los profesionales y mejora tus habilidades, todo con solo descargar PokerStars!
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2010-09-12
A few months ago I went over a number of key poker terms that you should know when you are striving to improve your game in US poker rooms. I thought that I would do that again with some new terminology for my next few entries. To entertain myself, I will try to go through all the letters of the alphabet and explain one dictionary entry for each letter. Hopefully these next few entries help you out.

For my very first word, let's take a look at the term 'ante'. You will want to know about this word for sure if you play tournaments on a PokerStars download. If there is an ante present, all players must pay a predetermined amount before the cards are dealt. The amount of an ante varies, but it is usually around 1/10 of the big blind.

If you have already played a bunch of poker hands, you will probably already know what a 'bluff' is. When someone bluffs, they are representing a stronger hand than the one they actually hold in order to make better hands fold. To see some very brave bluffs in action, I encourage you to watch a few Daniels Room poker hands next time you'e on PokerStars!

For C, my favorite letter, here is a something that many of the top Texas Hold'em sites watch out for in their security departments: chip dumping. Chip dumping occurs when someone intentionally loses their chips to someone else. People will do this to share chips in a tournament, for example, but the seriousness of the situation becomes apparent when you consider that chip dumping can also be used for money laundering. Now you know why the best US poker sites want their security team paying attention to suspicious betting patterns on the virtual felt.

When you are studying on free poker training sites, you might come across the term 'dirty outs'. A dirty out is a card that will improve your hand while giving someone else an even better hand at the same time. For example, imagine you are grinding ring games to clear your Titanpoker bonus code and flop a straight draw on a board with two hearts. If you turn your straight with a card that is a heart, 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 be sure to come back next month for another list of poker terms. Before the next time we meet, read some articles about winning on US poker sites. See you next month!
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2010-07-30
Today I%u2019m here to go over a training website that specializes in Sit n Go (SNG) tourneys. SNGs are tournaments that start with a predetermined number of people rather than at a predetermined time. For instance, you can register for a one table SNG, and the tournament will start once a total of nine people register. SNGs can be have anywhere from 2 to 180+ players in them. Whether you play flash or on a Mac, your US poker rooms of choice will have SNG tables.

SitnGoGrinders.com specializes in SNG play. Since SNGs always have a set number of players along with rigid payout structures, they play differently from regular tournaments. SitnGo Grinders has a wealth of SNG information on their site including articles and videos, and the people that make the videos or write the articles have had great success with poker. While you will not find free poker training here, you'll still probably find the membership fee a bargain. Unlike some sites you are not required to pay a one time membership fee, and the cost per month is around $20. If you sign up for a year at once, you%u2019ll pay $ 10.75/month for the first year and then $ 10 for subsequent months.

You won%u2019t find thousands of videos on SitnGo Grinders yet since they are a relatively new training site. They try to feature a new video every day, so the collection is growing quickly. I doubt you'll be disappointed with the selection right off the bat, anyway. 6 max and multi-table SNGs played on money poker sites have hundreds of videos to their name. Full ring and heads-up SNGs combine to around 200 videos, which is less than the other categories but still not too shabby.

Several of the coaches grind on PokerStars, the site that offers Daniels Room poker. These players really took advantage of the PokerStars bonus code and VIP program because almost all of them have earned either Supernova or Supernova Elite status. This shows that they really do grind the heck out of SNGs, which is what you would expect due to 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 Bwin Poker download, I do not recommend this site to you. There aren't any regular multi-table tournament videos either, but you might find that SNGs are useful for learning MTT endgame. While SitnGoGrinders.com is not the first choice for those that like variety, it is still an excellent site given its prices. This site is a must have for any player looking to make SNGs their game of choice.
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2010-06-29
The last two entries have mentioned a couple training sites that favor ring games in US poker rooms, so now I'd like to highlight a site that turns out videos for tournaments. Poker Pwnage is one of the newer training sites on the market, and they came with one intention: to make poker videos for those that play tournaments. For full access, you'll pay a $35 activation fee and then $24.99 per month. Comparing it to the sites from the previous entries, it's cheaper than Cardrunners but more expensive than GrinderSchool.

If you keep having to redeposit due to tournament losses on your Full Tilt Poker download, Poker Pwnage might benefit you a lot. Their catalogue contains 300+ online poker videos, and all of them were created by some very successful tournament poker players. In fact, a couple of the instructors have done quite well in WSOP 2010 so far. Adrian 'Chardrian' Dresel-Velasquez cashed for $43,000 in a Limit event and David 'GhettoFabolous' Randall cashed for $270,000 in a No Limit event.

If you hate MTT poker but love Sit-N-Go's, you will probably also find something to take out of Poker Pwnage. The videos feature buy-ins from $ 10 to over $ 100, and you'll get to choose from standard full ring, short handed, and heads-up. There's a lot of stuff covering basic strategy, but it's possible to also find some advanced tactics. You'll still benefit from these videos even if you've been playing Sit-N-Go's for a number of years now.

Do not even think about signing up for this site if you want cash game strategy. They have a mere 5 cash game videos as of today, and we might be waiting a while before the next one. If you prefer HORSE games after using a PokerStars Bonus Code, you won't be happy with this site, either. 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. As you watch the videos, you can be positive that the education you will receive is capable of turning you into a winning player. After you've gone through the video catalogue, perhaps you will not find yourself making an additional poker deposit on TigerGaming ever again!
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2010-06-14
In the previous article, I discussed GrinderSchool, a training site that makes poker videos for those new to US poker rooms on the internet. Today's article will talk about Cardrunners, probably the most popular and admired training site on the internet these days. The site was brought to life by Taylor Caby and Andrew Wiggins, and in 2008 they formed a partnership with Full Tilt. The site offers a wide variety of online poker videos for low stakes, nosebleed stakes, and everything in between.

When you sign up for Cardrunners, you'll be able to have a small number of free poker videos, but it'll be necessary to pay a membership fee to view anything worthwhile. You might not like the fees if you still have a small bankroll because first there is a $ 100 sign up fee, and then you must pay $30 per month to keep accessing the site. Serious players will learn that these fees are worth it, though. Right now there is an excess of 1800 videos on their site for streaming and download, and every week a minimum of seven new ones are released.

As with GrinderSchool, cash games receive special treatment at Cardrunners. There is an amazing choice of videos for No Limit Holdem 6-max due to popular demand, and their No Limit Holdem Full Ring selection has improved over the past couple of years. If you play Texas Hold Em hands in either Limit or Heads-Up, you will also be pleased with the variety of videos you get to choose from.

If you like Sit-N-Go's or you're a fan of Rush Poker tournaments, Cardrunners won't be the absolute best choice because their claim to fame is, without a doubt, cash games. That's not to say they don't have a lot of tournament videos because they have plenty, and they cover pretty much every buy-in. For people that play tournaments occasionally, Cardrunners is the best choice as they still make a lot of videos for MTTs and SNGs to compliment their high quality cash game selection.

If Rush Poker Omaha has been giving you a hard time, Cardrunners puts out some of the most useful videos out of all the training sites right now. The same can be said for other types of poker like HORSE or Stud. You're obviously not going to find a large selection of videos like you will for Hold Em, but you're not going to find better than Cardrunners for these games right now.

Once you've gotten some good practice with real money poker sites, Cardrunners is a great way to go if you don't mind putting up money for some beneficial training videos. It is most certainly the best option for cash players, and if you decide to play a few tournaments, you'll have a lot to choose from for that, too. All in all, there's something for everyone with a Cardrunners membership.
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2010-06-14
If you remember my older entries, you'll recall that I talked about some important poker tools that have the ability to help you get better at the game. I suggested that you should make use of a hand converter, always use bankroll management, and be sure to have a poker odds table at your desk. I also explained that it's a good idea to find a variety of free poker videos because they're a great way to see how winning players think, plus they come at no cost to you. If you've already taken this advice and found a bunch of free videos, you might be wondering what to do next once you've exhausted the free video market on the internet. Most players will have earned a couple bucks at the table by now, so you should be able to purchase some more advanced videos with your growing bankroll. My next few articles are going give reviews on some of the internet training sites that you can subscribe to so that your addiction to videos can be fulfilled.

I'm going to start with GrinderSchool because it targets low stakes players. The prices start at $ 10 per month, and you get access to over 600 online poker videos by people that have proven they can beat the stakes they play. GrinderSchool features 7 videos per week, and while the bulk of them pertain to No Limit Hold Em, at least four every month feature different games.

Players that focus on No Limit Hold Em ring games have a lot to gain from GrinderSchool. They feature a multitude of 6 max and full ring poker videos, and new players will have no trouble finding a few videos at their chosen low buy-in. Heads-up players and Limit players might need to wait a little bit longer to see more videos catering to their games. There are a few videos for Limit and heads-up, but a long term subscription is probably not worth it for players that sit mainly in those types of games. This is also true for players that prefer strategy tips for Omaha or other less frequently played poker types like Draw.

If you prefer Rush Poker tournaments over cash games, GrinderSchool can still benefit you. Tournament players also have a good selection of videos, and the instructors that made them have some impressive resumes. The videos feature buy-ins from $2 to $55, and most of them participate in a 3 to 9 part series. Those that have been itching to get into a huge buy-in tournament also have the option to view satellite videos.

If you dislike MTT poker but enjoy Sit-N-Go's, you'll be very happy with GrinderSchool. The founder of the site made most of the videos, but you'll also find a couple new top notch instructors. The videos show buy-ins between $ 1 and $33, and while beginner concepts are brought up quite often, there is also a fair amount of more advanced discussion.

GrinderSchool is the top choice for inexperienced players dipping their toes into the action on real money poker sites. There is no sign up fee, and the monthly cost is very low to suit those with small bankrolls. If you play mostly Omaha or Stud, you probably should be looking elsewhere, but players new to No Limit Hold Em will benefit greatly from this training site.
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2010-05-13
I brought up the subject of pot odds in the most recent article, and this time I should continue with a similar theme and talk about implied odds. As we talked about last time, bankroll management is so critical when it comes to the game of poker because there will be times where you'll be forced to call a bet when you're on a draw. You're bound to lose a fair number of these pots, and at times it's tough to avoid these them even if you're using a solid poker hands order. Implied odds will have the same 'put your money in while behind' theme. This time, however, it's to make money on future streets rather than because it's mathematically correct to do it at the time.

Let's go back to the example from the last entry where we were playing a tournament on a Full Tilt Poker download and were in a heads-up pot with a flush draw. We'll make it slightly different though: let's assume that our opponent just raises 600 more rather than all his chips. We saw in the last entry that we can only call raises that are less than 500 chips to have the pot odds to call, so this appears to be a bad deal for us. However, let's say that our opponent has 1,000 chips left in his stack and we are very sure that he will put the rest of his chips in no matter what the turn and river are. To retain the premise that you'll see both the turn and river if you call, let's also assume that he checks the turn 100% of the time. This sets up a situation in which it becomes correct to calculate implied odds rather than pot odds. Because we know that he isn't ever folding, you can put his remaining 1,000 chips into your calculations, making the pot 2,000 chips instead of 1,000. You are approximately 33% to hit your flush, and 600 divided by 2,000 is only 30%, so calling is correct in this situation.

It should be clear that a poker odds chart combined with pot odds and implied odds can be very powerful. A novice player has a lot of potential to lose money at the wrong time with his draws. The first way is he could call a bet without correct pot odds, and we've seen that this yields a negative expectation. The other way he could lose money in the long run is by folding his draw because he doesn't realize he has the correct implied odds to call, and this is also unprofitable. Whether you're playing ring games or MTT poker, it's important that you utilize both pot odds and implied odds to maximize your expectation in all drawing situations.

Before I finish off, I'd just like to advise you to be a bit careful with this new knowledge. Sometimes players will start calling with 100% of their draws when they are taught implied odds because they are overly optimistic regarding their opponent. You must be sure that your opponent will pay you off when you're considering his chips in implied odds calculations. For instance, say you're getting dealt poker hands in a live brick-and-mortar game and you hit a set of sixes on the turn, but you also believe it wasn't the best card because it also gave your opponent a flush. When he raises your bet, you realize that you're going to have to hit a full house on the river in order to win, so you start calculating your implied odds. Because the boat possibility is there on a paired river, you might not be able to count on him calling too many chips with just a flush. Don't forget that it's the future bets that make these calls profitable, and if the future bets don't happen, you cannot call with positive expectation.
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2010-04-30
Let's talk about poker odds, a concept I briefly touched on when I talked about poker hands order. If you're seeing flops with strong hole cards, you're usually going to fare quite well when it comes to post flop action. Occasionally, however, you will flop a draw post flop and you'll need to catch one of your outs in order to win the pot. Remember how we talked about bankroll management a few weeks ago? It's so important to be properly rolled for the games you play because these are examples of situations in which you are sure to lose a fair number of pots. Yes, sometimes it can be correct to call in a losing situation, but when? Being aware of pot odds will make it more clear when it comes to choosing between calling to hit and folding.

Many people imagine that poker is just a gambling game and don%u2019t realize that there is quite a lot of math involved. Don't be afraid of it, however, for it's not like the differential equations you struggled with in post secondary. If you look online, you'll find many tools that handle the math stuff for you. When it comes to poker odds, you're going to want to use a poker odds chart, a tool I introduced in the poker hand order entry. As we saw previously, this chart is going to be necessary when you find yourself in a pot and you're not sure whether or not your hand is better than your opponent's.  

Let me give you another example to remind you how it works. Imagine that you're playing poker hands in a $ 100NL ring game and you are given AQ. You decide to raise it up preflop to $ 4, and a loose aggressive player 3 bets you to $ 14. This isn't the first time he's done this, but you think that he's more likely to put you on a weaker hand if you just go all-in instead of reraise him a smaller amount. You go for it, and to your surprise, he snap calls with 44! Which hand is a favorite to win? The poker odds chart shows us that you're only 46% to win the showdown. You can see that the chart is useful for calculating odds so that we don't have to memorize them all.

Let me now explain pot odds to you. This will be useful when you're in a pot and get into a situation where you need to call a bet, but you're not sure if it's a good idea. For example, imagine you prefer a Full Tilt Poker download and you are competing in a small field multi-table tournament (MTT). You flop a flush draw in a heads-up pot and you bet, but your opponent goes all-in. You think that your opponent's most likely hand is top pair and he is trying to push you off your draw. How do you know whether or not you should call or fold?

If you have a flush draw on the flop and you get to see both the turn and the river, you will hit your flush approximately 1/3 of the time. With these odds, in order for you to make a profit, the pot should be 2 times more than the amount your opponent is forcing you to call. For example, if there are 1,000 chips in the pot, you should be calling less than 500 chips to make a profit. If you must call 425, then a call is correct. If you have to call 525, you will lose money in the long run by making this call.

As you can see, learning about odds is necessary for MTT poker and ring games alike. You are way ahead of the curve if you can work with odds since a large number of players out there don't consider them at all. Anyway, that's it for my article today, I'll be back in a couple weeks to write again. See you next time!
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