When you play in a cash poker game, you don’t have to play better than every opponent at the poker online table-you just need to be better than one or two of them. In a online poker tournament, you are up against every player in the game, because the higher you place, the more money you get, but in a cash game, there are no set amounts of money that you can win. When you sit down at a cash game, don’t worry about breaking all of your opponents, worry about breaking one of them. Find the weakest player at the game and focus your attention on him, because he’s going to be the one who will pay you the most. If you try to beat the better opponents at a table, you’ll end up working a lot harder and taking bigger risks than if you just focus on the players that you know you can beat. Better players are going to make better reads on you and are more likely to call you out when you bluff and are more likely to fold when you’ve got a winning hand. When you sit at a cash game, take the money from players that are weaker than you, and protect your money from the players that are stronger.

You are going to get sucked out on. You need to learn to face this fact. There will be fish who will call you down to the river with A3 offsuit and catch an ace on that last card to bust your pocket kings. But the questions still remains, how do you deal with these players and still make profit.

The answer is quite simple. You don’t. Instead you let probability take its course. It’s one of the most fundamental aspects of poker that many people tend to forget about when they get sucked out on. It’s all about the variance.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen people at the table berating another person because they made a bad call (and yes, mathematically the call was bad, horrible even). But if we could only remember that what seems impossible is really just improbable.

Play a hand where a poker online player is <5% to win 10 times and the math says that you’ll win 9/10 times. But we tend not to remember those hands we were supposed to win. We just remember those bad beats.

So the next time you feel you’re about to go on tilt, the next time you’re ready to cuss and moan and call your opponent a fish, a donk, or whatever else you come up with at the casino. Just stop, take a deep breat, and thank him for the money he’ll be sending your way later on if he keeps playing that way. yl,Q s-
8UXS:1′> Of course this is just a rough draft, but it is one step in the right direction to getting US players back in the market of playing online and not fearing fund seizure or criminal charges. Let’s just hope Congress will act steadfast in passing this with clarity and consensus.

There comes a time in most any kind of poker online career, be it professional or as an aside, that you have to sit down and reevaluate where you have been and where you are going. Finding yourself in the middle of a losing routing, which in online poker manifests itself usually very clearly in the deficit of your pockets, can be not only disheartening and hard, but financially worrisome to boot. When you’ve hit a bottom, or near the bottom, or even are feeling yourself slipping toward that space, taking a good hard look and finding what elements you need to reset yourself is vital to your survival. Perhaps you’ve been letting yourself play too many poker hands, or for stakes that are above what your bankroll can afford. Perhaps there are other factors involved too, but regardless, it is never too late to let yourself get back to the basics. Stripping down your range of hands to the classical top ten hands is never a bad idea. Though it is fun to play connectors and the like, reverting to basic standards allow you to coast on autopilot and win some hands while you let your brain catch back up to where you are supposed to be.

Online poker games can be subject to manipulation, a top U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation official report claimed last week.

“Technology exists to manipulate online poker games in that it would only take two or three players working in unison to defeat the other players who are not part of the team,” the report said. “The online poker vendors could detect this activity and put in place safeguards to discourage cheating, although it is unclear what the incentive would be for the vendor.

Congressman Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, has introduced legislation to reverse a 2006 law that makes it a crime for financial institutions to process online gambling transactions. On Nov. 27, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury gave U.S. financial companies six more months, until June 1, to comply with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.

WiredSafety, a non-profit education group funded in part by a coalition of online poker players, released a study today rebutting claims that online gambling is unsafe. The report by Malcolm Sparrow, a professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, said a regulated industry would offer better protection than prohibition.

“Online banking is the exact same form of commerce as online gambling,” said John Pappas, executive director of the Washington-based Poker Players Alliance, a coalition that favors legalization and regulation of Internet wagering.

Many of the poker online players these days have learned how to play online poker in casino online websites. If you are like these players, you learned how to play the basic card game among hard core card sharks. Online players are notorious for the fact that they really know the ins and outs of the game. These are the people who really study the game. Online casinos are your place to go if you want a well informed, educated poker game. The problem comes for many of these players when they try to make the transition to live casino games. The issue that you will have to face is that fact that live players did not learn to play in this same high achieving poker culture. Live players have not grown up in the online poker culture, so they do not play the same way you and I do. In a word, their game is much looser. If you try the aggressive style that you learn online, you won’t get anywhere in a live game. You need to loosen up and play to the overall style of a live brick and mortar game if you want to take home the pot. Learn to adapt to the new style, and you will be able to become a master of this kind of poker as well.

Here’s a list of ways to take that big stack you worked so hard accumulating back down into a short stack by trying too hard in online poker, or pushing in spots where you didn’t really need to, etc.

Overplay AK. Sure, we will often wait 50 casino hands to try to pick this one up, and it is often the best hand against any random hand. Pushing hard with this hand preflop when you have a big stack can pay dividends, but when you miss, it’s not always the best idea to keep pushing, even when it seems between the two big cards and the big stack that you should still be able to take things down. Learning to lay down AK when it has not improved against an obviously made hand is a key to not blowing chips that would have done better working their magic behind a better source.

Chasing too many draws for big bets. You definitely want to draw when you have extra chips and can afford it. Taking risks with the leeway of still being able to lose and continue is a luxury, though, and putting too much at risk even when you have a lot can lop of chips you wouldn’t have normally gambled. That, perhaps, is a key: just because you have room to gamble doesn’t mean you should when you play poker online.

There are some competitive sports where emotions are a good, and can spur a player onto to better play. Poker is NOT one of these arenas. Whereas anger can make a football player charge harder and run faster, the same emotion will only interfere with a poker player’s rational decision-making abilities.

In poker, you stand to profit most from minimizing your mistakes and capitalizing on the errors made by other players at the casino. Fear, frustration, nervousness, and even happiness and over-confidence can cause you to take wrong action at the poker table.

You must leave your emotions behind when you sit down to play poker. If you are struggling with some personal problems that are making you upset, then recognize and acknowledge this, but also choose to set these aside for the time being so you can play your best game. If you can’t do this, don’t play poker.

When you take a bad beat or scoop a long-shot monster pot, do not let the emotion of the minute rule your subsequent actions. If need be, take a break from the action, step away from the table, take a deep breath and calm down.

Remove all emotion from your decisions in poker. Do not raise an opponent out of revenge. Do not keep calling just to reinforce a loser mentality. Always base your actions on pot outs and odds, the other players’ styles, your position at the table, the board texture and your cards.

Are you an occasional bowler ready to treat your neighborhood bowling league competitively for the first time. If you accept bowling is the case, this is key time in learning the game as a real student of the game. My “Next Steps” handbook to “Bowling Like a Pro” may take your game to new levels. The guys in a nearby bowling pro shop want you reach their bowling potential. We like to say, roll strikes if can spare ‘em (hehe). I kid. Fine, bowling is a simple game with not-so simple details. Don’t fret, we can have you rolling your way.

You’ll definitely want to buy your own properly-fitted bowling balls, bowling ball bags, and shoes needed to do this right. You’ll notice a difference with your own stuff. I promise, have your favorite ball drilled for custom finger holes, and your game will benefit. A carefully weighted bowling ball can make a substantial improvement in your game. Of course another critical matter is enjoying comfortable bowling shoes that smell fresh, look good and help your foot work.

Since you went ahead and acquired comfortable supplies, listen to the second best bowling tip: aiming the ball. As you wait to roll, don’t actually aim for your actual target, the pins. Aim for the the markings like a sight on a firearm. Ever noticed them? It’s less difficult to aim for a point that is closer. To take full advantage, make sure you begin your approach at the a consistent place on the wood with every roll. If you do it the same every time you can adjust your aim using the arrows in the lane.

Do we have any tips for hooks, to achieve specific action on the pins? That makes our next best piece of bowling advice. The secret is the pricy reactive ball. Most us who were bown to bowl regularly roll two or three bowling balls to pull off aggressive hooks, depending on the lane. But intermediates should work with just one, and steer clear of a ball that is too heavy for you. Many avid bowlers roll bowling balls made for extra expert grip. But these pro bowling balls might make even some well known pros look silly. That’s our first 3 bowling tips. Rest assured you’ll find in the August edition.

–James Hulen

We roll strikes for Team “Pindemonium” comprised of a league for a major bowling ball retailer here in Kansas City. I chime in with tips to professional and amature bowlers at my blog and at the bowling center. Lastly, I must wave hello at my team in the shop. Roll on!

It always stings when you are playing poker with an obvious newbie who doesn’t quite know what he’s doing, and yet no one can seem to beat him a hand. Often poker novices get involved in too many spots, overvalue their moderate holdings, and are incapable of making a big laydown, so that, over a long enough course, they are pretty much destined to lose it all time and time again. But part of the beauty of poker is that anyone, no matter how little they know, can still win. And when you do hit those streaks the wild new guy just can’t seem to be beat, you’ll sometimes get players who can’t help but want to berate the player: though this is one of the last things you could ever want to do, especially if he or she has the possibility to become a regular at your game.

Keeping the sucker at the poker table as long as possible so that in the end he gives back the winnings he ‘lucks’ into, but what happens when the guy gets up to leave when he still has all the money? It can be tempting to want to talk trash, to let the guy know how awful a player he is by berating him, but if you look at it another way, what you’re doing is investing in an ATM. If you can let this go guy thinking that he really owned the table, and that his erratic play is paying off, then he will likely continue to keep coming back for ‘more of your money.’ Which is when, as things tend to deviate to the norm, you get your money back in spades. Hassling the sucker, no matter whether he’s coming or going, is always a bad idea, not to mention poor sportsmanship. In poker, you’ve got to be always thinking of the long haul.

You’re sitting somewhere near last position with QQ, and the guy under the gun bet out with 1000, 10x the big blind. Now, you’ve been observing and you know he’s aggressive, super aggressive actually, so you can feel confident either calling or betting. What do you do?

Well, even if a player is super aggressive, it’s safe to assume they know at least a little about the game, and if they were coming out bluffing they’re likely to fold to a raise. However, if you just call in a situation like this, you’re more likely to get maximum value for your money. It comes down to a choice of win the blinds and his bet, or get him to think you’re hand is just middling and that he has a chance to scare you off. In this case, you can just call and see the flop. It comes 5-6-9 rainbow. Your opponent bets again, this time for 1500, just over half the pot. It’s a continuation bet but it’s not a strong one, and if he were holding two over this flop didn’t help him. Again you’re faced with a decision. Call or bet. You can bet and scare him off his chasing hand, or you can call and make it look like you’re chasing too. Remember he’s a super aggressive poker player, and he’s been known to play with nothing down to the river.

Now some would advocate making a raise here and taking down the pot and gathering more information about the true strength of your opponent’s hand. But at the same time, the trade off is the value you may be able to get from the hand. Either play is sound, but another call makes it easier to put in his chips even if he has nothing, because you’re betting indicates that you have nothing as well. Call. River comes out J hearts. The flush is completed if it’s there, but you’re still holding with top pair unless he’s holding KK or AA, which, judging from his aggressiveness and style, you’re fairly confident he doesn’t. What to do now? He’s made it 6000 to go. Inevitably a raise is not the move at this point. But the pot odds make it impossible for you not to call. You’re still a favorite with QQ with this board and the odds to call are 6000/12000, about 2:1 and you’re favored to win by more than 50%. It’s auto call at this point. You turn over your Queens and he turns over 9-10 spades. Your two pair beats his and you take down the pot. Now against a strong or conservative player this strategy wouldn’t work, but against someone who you know is totally aggressive, it worked magically. You ended up using his bets to make your money, and the maths made your decision for you on the river. Poker Judo my friends.