The Quick Summary
Pacific Poker is one of the favorite poker rooms on the net. Texas Hold’em players in particular prefer this poker site because of the frequent promotions offered and the juicy high-action tables available. Pacific Poker is part of the 888 group, the company behind Casino-on-Net, the largest online casino in the world. This poker room has a wide selection of games and the software offers decent graphics and is fast. Special promotions such as money-added tournaments and freerolls are available, though the site does not allow U.S. players.
Popularity: 7 of 10 - Good
Traffic at this poker room is decent for the most popular games. The site offers all variations of Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, Seven Card Stud and Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo, varying between No Limit, Pot Limit, and Fixed Limit. The traffic is heavily concentrated on the Texas Hold’em ring games and tournaments.
Most of the rest of the traffic is on the Omaha Hi/Lo and Seven Card Stud tables. Full-table games, short-handed, and heads-up tables are available. Pacific Poker hosts many tournaments, the buy-ins vary between $1 and hundreds of dollars. The tournaments are usually well-populated and fast; play is relatively loose and juicy at any level. This poker room also runs plenty of freerolls with extremely loose play. At the time of this review, the peak ring-game traffic of this poker site is 2,600 real-money players.
Security: 9 of 10 - Excellent
Security at Pacific Poker is excellent. The 888 group is a well-established company, with years of experience as the mother company of Casino-on-Net and Pacific Poker. The financial reputation of this poker room is solid; the site maintains a safe, fun and fair gaming environment.
Player Competition: 8 of 10 - Excellent
Many of the players for this poker site include casino customers from Casino-on-Net. These less-experienced poker players enjoy gambling and may take a few more riskes than your regular poker player which provides for some loose action. The viewed-flop percentage at the $15/$30 tables can reach 65%-70%! The No Limit and Pot Limit cash games are strongly recommended for players who want to win on a regular basis.
Site Software: 8 of 10 - Excellent
The Pacific Poker software is privately developed; it offers decent graphics and functionality. The table functions are easy to learn and well-oriented on the table. The data and statistics functions allow players to take notes on their opponents during play. Hand histories are available through a replay of hands in a graphic interface; a nice tool for reviewing your play though is not exactly a user-friendly feature.
The lobby supplies all the vital table statistics, including viewed-flop percentage, average pot size, seated-player’s stack size and hands played per hour. This software is well-suited for multi-table play; it supports play up to five tables simultaneously; the tables are fixed size, there is no mini-view or other special multi-table functions. The Pacific Poker software comes in both a Java client and a downloadable version.
Customer Support: 7 of 10 – Good
Support at Pacific Poker is very good and is available via email, live chat and telephone. The support staff is knowledgeable and friendly. They reply in a promptly and accurate manner, the quality of the answers is good.
Company Ethics: 8 of 10 - Excellent
The 888 group is widely respected. Casino-on-Net is the largest online casino in the world and Pacific Poker benefits from this. The outstanding customer support and financial security provided by Pacific Poker is reflected on the loyal player base of the site.
Site Promotions: 8 of 10 - Excellent
This poker site offers great promotions, including a 25% Welcome Bonus up to $100, reload bonuses every month, and a good bonus point program for the loyal players. The sign-up bonus is released when the players wager 20 times the bonus amount.
Overall Review: 7.8 of 10 – Very Good
Pacific Poker is a very good choice for a site to play, especially if you like Texas Hold’em. The tournaments are well-structured and the software facilitates a good playing experience. Support is very good excellent and the game variety is excellent.
lørdag den 6. oktober 2007
Party Poker Review
The Quick Summary
After review, Party Poker is highly recommended by TightPoker.com (overall score of 7.1). They have the most poker players of any of the poker sites out there, large tournaments and also easy competition. It's really hard for any site to compete with Party Poker due to the fact that they are such a big site and can offer so much to their players. The party poker bonus and other sign up promotions make it a great all around site to play at. You won't find many sites that give Party Poker a bad review.
Popularity: 9 of 10 - Excellent
Through the early days of the World Poker Tour, Party Poker was able to advertise on TV and get a head start against all the other poker sites when it came to appealing to the viewers on TV. This helped propel Party Poker overnight into a smash success, putting them as of this month at over 70,000 players playing simultaneously.
Security: 7 of 10 - Good
The biggest factor in any security review, is determining whether or not the site's random number generator has been verified by another company. In English, this means finding out if the site is opening it's doors to verify that the deck is not rigged at the site. Party has gone through and approved their program with iTechLabs, which is good. Their website publicly states they use a high level of encryption (128-bit) to communicate traffic, which means your data is much harder to hack into.
The poker download does install icons into some areas that can be annoying, but the icons are still easily removed if needed. Updates and upgrades to the software happen almost every month as well, so you can be sure that they are constantly putting in new features and security patches.
Collusion and bot detection are both decent, but Party is pretty closed lipped about these things, so it's impossible to tell how advanced their detection schemes are. A number of users who reported collusion and bot detection to customer support get varying responses.
Player Competition: 8 of 10 - Excellent
In the early days, the players at Party Poker were some of the worst poker players on the net, bar none. However, with the popularity of poker on the raise, many of the players have wisened up and Party isn't as 'fishy' as it once was in it's glory days. That said, the competition at Party Poker is still quite beatable as this reviewer easily noticed when playing at the site.
Site Software: 7 of 10 - Good
Reviewing the software for Party Poker, we found that there wasn't anything very special about the features with Party but nothing wrong at the same time. Some other sites add some very neat or unique features, but Party Poker focuses on making a solid program that rarely ever has any reports of crashing or going down. Crashing during your game is disasterous as you can imagine, so we're happy to report that Party has been crash free for as long as we've used it.
Pros: Instant hand history reports, sound options, four-color deck option, avatar on/off option, multi-tabling capabilities, waiting lists and private games.
Cons: Annoying permanent blackjack icon, blocks certain 3rd party poker software tools, is considered malware or adware by some companies.
Customer Support: 5 of 10 - Ok
Unfortunately, Party Poker scores low in our review of their customer support. Most of Party's support is outsourced to India, so phone calls to Party Poker or emails to them will often be answered by support personnel that aren't always fluent in English. This has caused quite a few complaints in Party Poker's past, although most people do get their issues resolved in the end. Our advice is that you be aware what to expect should you contact Party support.
Company Ethics: 6 of 10 - Ok
Ethics is an interesting thing to review, because it requires knowing intimate knowledge of the internal workings of each site. Party Poker is no exception, but TightPoker.com does have some good information on how Party Poker does buesiness. Our feeling is that as a whole, the company does try to treat it's players well, although it's impossible to ignore that Party has been known to step on toes in order to get it's way with players.
Some examples of this, are Party Poker's VIP program, which rewards some of their top players. This program has been highly controversial, as Party has often promised players VIP players certain bonuses for hitting monthly quotas, only to not follow through, change their agreement or other things. Party Poker affiliates (third party promoters) have also had a list of troubles with the company that has been a thorn in their history. As a result of certain acts on Party, we can only give them a 6 of out 10 rating.
Site Promotions: 8 of 10 - Good
A unique offering, is that the company issues Party Poker bonus codes, which can be used by new players to pick and choose between different sign-up bonuses with the site. In addition to these new player promotions, Party also offers quarterly reload bonuses that range from 10% up to 25%.
In our review, the sign up and reload bonuses are the best promotions that Party Poker offers, as these are easy bonuses for you to get. Their other bonuses like Bad Beat Jackpot and VIP programs are more for show and not very good however.
Other promotions: Bad beat jackpot tables, special event promotions and VIP program.
Overall Review - 7.1 of 10 (Good)
Everything considered, you can't go wrong by playing at Party Poker. The software works, the tables are full and the competition is poor. What else can you really ask for? A number of review points for customer and support hurt Party Poker's rankings, but for the most part, this will not affect your experience with the site. If you are looking to play some fun poker and have the best chance of winning money, Party Poker is the spot.
After review, Party Poker is highly recommended by TightPoker.com (overall score of 7.1). They have the most poker players of any of the poker sites out there, large tournaments and also easy competition. It's really hard for any site to compete with Party Poker due to the fact that they are such a big site and can offer so much to their players. The party poker bonus and other sign up promotions make it a great all around site to play at. You won't find many sites that give Party Poker a bad review.
Popularity: 9 of 10 - Excellent
Through the early days of the World Poker Tour, Party Poker was able to advertise on TV and get a head start against all the other poker sites when it came to appealing to the viewers on TV. This helped propel Party Poker overnight into a smash success, putting them as of this month at over 70,000 players playing simultaneously.
Security: 7 of 10 - Good
The biggest factor in any security review, is determining whether or not the site's random number generator has been verified by another company. In English, this means finding out if the site is opening it's doors to verify that the deck is not rigged at the site. Party has gone through and approved their program with iTechLabs, which is good. Their website publicly states they use a high level of encryption (128-bit) to communicate traffic, which means your data is much harder to hack into.
The poker download does install icons into some areas that can be annoying, but the icons are still easily removed if needed. Updates and upgrades to the software happen almost every month as well, so you can be sure that they are constantly putting in new features and security patches.
Collusion and bot detection are both decent, but Party is pretty closed lipped about these things, so it's impossible to tell how advanced their detection schemes are. A number of users who reported collusion and bot detection to customer support get varying responses.
Player Competition: 8 of 10 - Excellent
In the early days, the players at Party Poker were some of the worst poker players on the net, bar none. However, with the popularity of poker on the raise, many of the players have wisened up and Party isn't as 'fishy' as it once was in it's glory days. That said, the competition at Party Poker is still quite beatable as this reviewer easily noticed when playing at the site.
Site Software: 7 of 10 - Good
Reviewing the software for Party Poker, we found that there wasn't anything very special about the features with Party but nothing wrong at the same time. Some other sites add some very neat or unique features, but Party Poker focuses on making a solid program that rarely ever has any reports of crashing or going down. Crashing during your game is disasterous as you can imagine, so we're happy to report that Party has been crash free for as long as we've used it.
Pros: Instant hand history reports, sound options, four-color deck option, avatar on/off option, multi-tabling capabilities, waiting lists and private games.
Cons: Annoying permanent blackjack icon, blocks certain 3rd party poker software tools, is considered malware or adware by some companies.
Customer Support: 5 of 10 - Ok
Unfortunately, Party Poker scores low in our review of their customer support. Most of Party's support is outsourced to India, so phone calls to Party Poker or emails to them will often be answered by support personnel that aren't always fluent in English. This has caused quite a few complaints in Party Poker's past, although most people do get their issues resolved in the end. Our advice is that you be aware what to expect should you contact Party support.
Company Ethics: 6 of 10 - Ok
Ethics is an interesting thing to review, because it requires knowing intimate knowledge of the internal workings of each site. Party Poker is no exception, but TightPoker.com does have some good information on how Party Poker does buesiness. Our feeling is that as a whole, the company does try to treat it's players well, although it's impossible to ignore that Party has been known to step on toes in order to get it's way with players.
Some examples of this, are Party Poker's VIP program, which rewards some of their top players. This program has been highly controversial, as Party has often promised players VIP players certain bonuses for hitting monthly quotas, only to not follow through, change their agreement or other things. Party Poker affiliates (third party promoters) have also had a list of troubles with the company that has been a thorn in their history. As a result of certain acts on Party, we can only give them a 6 of out 10 rating.
Site Promotions: 8 of 10 - Good
A unique offering, is that the company issues Party Poker bonus codes, which can be used by new players to pick and choose between different sign-up bonuses with the site. In addition to these new player promotions, Party also offers quarterly reload bonuses that range from 10% up to 25%.
In our review, the sign up and reload bonuses are the best promotions that Party Poker offers, as these are easy bonuses for you to get. Their other bonuses like Bad Beat Jackpot and VIP programs are more for show and not very good however.
Other promotions: Bad beat jackpot tables, special event promotions and VIP program.
Overall Review - 7.1 of 10 (Good)
Everything considered, you can't go wrong by playing at Party Poker. The software works, the tables are full and the competition is poor. What else can you really ask for? A number of review points for customer and support hurt Party Poker's rankings, but for the most part, this will not affect your experience with the site. If you are looking to play some fun poker and have the best chance of winning money, Party Poker is the spot.
The Minimum Reraise: Classic Tells and Mistakes
I recently read a piece that Phil Gordon wrote for Full Tilt Poker on the subject of raising for the minimum in no-limit cash games. Phil is known for moderate tournament success, his Little Green Book, and hosting the insufferable Celebrity Poker Showdown. While the article was short, it was one of his more poignant essays about a subject that is rarely discussed in classic poker strategy outlets. What exactly are we talking about here? An example would be the following situation: You’re playing in a 9-handed $1/2 no-limit hold’em cash game and you make a standard raise to $8 with A-Q suited from middle position. Everyone folds around to the original limper who makes it $16 to go. This mostly happens in low-limit online cash games where players often misplay big pairs. Almost every time you make a raise and get reraised the minimum amount preflop in one of these cash games, you’re facing a premium hand, namely pocket A-A or K-K. My goal here is to dissuade you from making such a play. Let’s look at 3 fundamental problems with this play and how you can use this knowledge to exploit opponents who don’t know better…1) A minimum reraise preflop all but gives your hand away. While you might think that this play disguises your hand and helps to build a pot, the truth is that you’ve given observant opponents powerful information about your holding. You’re forcing your opponents to think, “I’ve already put in a healthy raise. What cards would he make a minimum reraise with?” Clearly, you aren’t trying to win the pot right now, which probably rules out hands like A-J, J-J, 10-10, or A-Q, in which most sensible opponents are happy to take down a pot without seeing a flop or just smooth call with. You probably aren’t playing a small pocket pair like 8-8 or 4-4, since that would just be silly move. Your goal with these hands is to see a cheap flop and hit a set. If you were on a bluff with rags, you probably would have put in a manlier reraise to intimidate me. This all leaves you with 3 possible premium pocker pairs: Q-Q, K-K, A-A. I don’t know about you, but with pocket Queens I’ll usually either just call to see if the flop brings overcards or reraise healthily to force out the tricksters and mediocre hands. Bingo! You’ve probably got pocket Kings or Aces. Sure, someone could be making a very savvy play and pulling a complete psychological false tell bluff over on you with the minimum raise, but most players are ignorant as to what this tactic means in the first place. It’s probably an ineffective tool in the arsenal of a player who knows a thing or two about the transparent book of plays from the typical online poker player. The fact is that this seemingly advanced play rarely keeps your hole cards a mystery.2) A minimum raise gives your opponents excellent pot odds to draw out on you. Poker players, especially the online variety, love to bemoan about how their opponents sucked out on their pocket Aces. While you’ll find plenty of bad players who will routinely go against the odds to do just that, a player who makes one of these minimum raises has nothing to complain about because he has given his opponent excellent odds to do it. If I’ve got pocket 10-10 and raise to $10 in a $1/2 game and you reraise me from the button to $20 with A-A, you’re giving me over 3 to 1 pot odds on my call (it costs me $10 to play and the pot is already $33). If, say, the big blind calls your $20 raise before play gets back to me, I’m now getting over 5 to 1 pot odds. That doesn’t include the implied odds of getting all your money in the pot on the flop when I spike my third 10. Raise less and it’s even more of a no-brainer for me. I would be more than unobservant if I didn’t call a raise like that with pretty much any hand. You’re simply giving too great of a price if you make the minimum raise play. 3) You miss out on a great amount of value with the minimum raise. When you make such a small raise, you aren’t building much greater of a pot. Since your goal, of course, is to make the most money with your premium hands, you should start before the flop when you definitely have the best hand. As we’ve established above, you’re almost giving away your hand with the minimum raise. If you reraise 3 times the initial raise or perhaps the size of the pot, your opponents will have less of an idea of what you have and you’ll be building a nice pot. Sure, you’re sending the signal that you have a big hand – but that could be something like Q-Q or A-K. Your opponent will be more likely to blow off his chips when he hits a pair of Kings on the flop with Big Slick since he’s already committed a good chunk of his stack. Hopefully we’ve all come to the conclusion that the minimum raise is not the most effective use of the reraise option. You’re giving away valuable information to experienced players (exactly the type of player that you want to fool), offering excellent pot odds to the initial raiser, and you usually won’t make as much money in the hand. If you’re looking to be ultra deceptive, you can try to smooth call a preflop raise with your pocket Aces (please note that I rarely recommend this for online play… or any play for that matter). If you’re going to take a risk, it’s much more effective at hiding the strength of your hand. Regardless, I recommend a sizeable reraise with your premium pocket pair. If everyone folds, you still won the pot and your Aces didn’t get cracked, RIGHT?!
Defending Against Aggressive Players
I recently received an e-mail from a player that I thought was particularly poignant. Let me post a snippet of it here:“I have trouble coping with some of the very aggressive betting in the ring games, and would appreciate any advice on how to deal with it. It seems that in the games I play in, every 2 or 3 hands someone puts in a big raise pre-flop - anything from 5x up to 20 or even 30 x the big blind. There are frequently 3 or 4 players of this type at the tables I play on.
OK, some of the time they've got a premium hand, but a lot of the time they don't, and it's almost impossible to know what they might be holding unless you're prepared to call them (and then again on each subsequent betting round). Even a raise of 5 times the big blind is usually enough for me to fold all but the very best starting hands, and I've lost count of the number of hands I would have won if I'd stayed in against the idiots who raise with A6 offsuit and win with ace high!”This is a great issue to bring up, and certainly can be a frustrating experience if you’re a naturally tight player. While it still is true that you want these types of players at your table, it doesn’t always feel that way when they suck out on you left and right or raise you out of the best hand. I’d like to recommend two main defensive strategies against overly aggressive players in no-limit ring games and tournaments, and they begin with one important piece of advice: continue to be selective with your starting hands.When you see maniacs taking down big pots with trash hands, you might be tempted to sink to their level. Hands like suited connectors and small pocket pairs play great in this situation if you’re getting the proper pot odds to call, but you often won’t be getting the right odds if the rest of the tables tightens up against the lone aggressive player. When you start calling with garbage, you’ll inherently connect very little on the flop. The maniac will most likely continue to hammer you on the flop in which case you’ll probably fold and cost yourself money with a weak hand. A better choice is to:1) Fight back before the flop. Overly aggressive players thrive on taking control of the hand. Hence, they don’t like to be re-raised and lose control of the hand. You know that he can’t have Aces or Kings as often as he portrays, so most of the time you’ll catch him with a mediocre hand at best. If you have position on the raiser and pick up a better-than-average hand, consider throwing in a big re-raise. Most of the time, you’ll pick up the pot right there. I was at a no-limit table last night against this type of player, and I’d raise him 4x his bet every time with any pocket pairs higher than 9-9 or with any two face cards. I never had to see a flop. This type of player doesn’t want a fight – he wants to stay in control and quietly take down lots of pots. Aggressive players usually excel by sensing weakness and capitalizing on it. If you’re going to take on a seemingly wild player, don’t play weakly into his hands; dictate the terms, play your own game, and make him pay before the flop when you have a strong hand. These players will often outplay you on the flop with their sheer aggression, so try to define your hand pre-flop if you have a tendency to fold to pressure.2) Trap aggressive players with your strong hands. Slowplaying your big hands against loose players can be a great tool to extract great profit. Let’s say that you’re on the button with pocket Aces and the resident maniac makes his standard raise from early position of 5x the big blind. If there aren’t any other callers, I might just call in this situation. Since this type of player usually continues his aggression on the flop, I’ll just call him again or if I’m out of position I might check-raise him. If you’re confident that you still have the best hand, just keep value betting or calling and build up a nice pot that will soon be yours.Of course, you always risk being outdrawn here, but you should keep a close eye on the board for possible trouble. If you see an obvious straight or flush draw, you can throw in a raise. However, if the board is seemingly benign, I’ll often save the raise until the river. This allows me to take advantage of his blind aggression and extract more money from 3 additional betting rounds rather than chase him away before the flop. Usually you should reserve this play for your premium pocket pairs, or if you hit a monster on the flop. Let him continue to make mistakes and show him what will happen if he continues to bully you around.Even with your premium hands, bad beats are going to happen – especially against players willing to play anything. That’s simply a part of poker that you’ll have to be able to manage psychologically. It happens to all of us, but what distinguishes winning poker players from losing ones is the ability to pick oneself up, play the best possible game, and mount a comeback. Keep in mind that you don’t have to win it all back the same night. If you’re really going on tilt and you can recognize that you aren’t playing your best game, be strong enough to leave the table and come back tomorrow or the next day. The game will still be there waiting for you – especially online.As I’ve tried to describe here, the worst thing you can do against overly aggressive opponents is play passively. As the player said in his message, you have to be prepared to call their bets on every subsequent betting round. If you know that you’ll be facing another big bet on the flop, don’t make a weak call before the flop. Instead, throw in a big raise to take control of the hand. Unless he is holding premium cards, you’ll at the very least take him out of his game. At the same time, consider slowplaying your Aces or Kings (less often with Kings because of the risk of him holding a weak Ace) and then raising him on the turn or river to get more value out of your hand. Of course, if there are multiple maniacs willing to call big raises with anything pre-flop, you’re better off shoving in your chips and thinning the field. If you win a small pot, that’s okay… YOU WON THE POT, DIDN’T YOU?!
OK, some of the time they've got a premium hand, but a lot of the time they don't, and it's almost impossible to know what they might be holding unless you're prepared to call them (and then again on each subsequent betting round). Even a raise of 5 times the big blind is usually enough for me to fold all but the very best starting hands, and I've lost count of the number of hands I would have won if I'd stayed in against the idiots who raise with A6 offsuit and win with ace high!”This is a great issue to bring up, and certainly can be a frustrating experience if you’re a naturally tight player. While it still is true that you want these types of players at your table, it doesn’t always feel that way when they suck out on you left and right or raise you out of the best hand. I’d like to recommend two main defensive strategies against overly aggressive players in no-limit ring games and tournaments, and they begin with one important piece of advice: continue to be selective with your starting hands.When you see maniacs taking down big pots with trash hands, you might be tempted to sink to their level. Hands like suited connectors and small pocket pairs play great in this situation if you’re getting the proper pot odds to call, but you often won’t be getting the right odds if the rest of the tables tightens up against the lone aggressive player. When you start calling with garbage, you’ll inherently connect very little on the flop. The maniac will most likely continue to hammer you on the flop in which case you’ll probably fold and cost yourself money with a weak hand. A better choice is to:1) Fight back before the flop. Overly aggressive players thrive on taking control of the hand. Hence, they don’t like to be re-raised and lose control of the hand. You know that he can’t have Aces or Kings as often as he portrays, so most of the time you’ll catch him with a mediocre hand at best. If you have position on the raiser and pick up a better-than-average hand, consider throwing in a big re-raise. Most of the time, you’ll pick up the pot right there. I was at a no-limit table last night against this type of player, and I’d raise him 4x his bet every time with any pocket pairs higher than 9-9 or with any two face cards. I never had to see a flop. This type of player doesn’t want a fight – he wants to stay in control and quietly take down lots of pots. Aggressive players usually excel by sensing weakness and capitalizing on it. If you’re going to take on a seemingly wild player, don’t play weakly into his hands; dictate the terms, play your own game, and make him pay before the flop when you have a strong hand. These players will often outplay you on the flop with their sheer aggression, so try to define your hand pre-flop if you have a tendency to fold to pressure.2) Trap aggressive players with your strong hands. Slowplaying your big hands against loose players can be a great tool to extract great profit. Let’s say that you’re on the button with pocket Aces and the resident maniac makes his standard raise from early position of 5x the big blind. If there aren’t any other callers, I might just call in this situation. Since this type of player usually continues his aggression on the flop, I’ll just call him again or if I’m out of position I might check-raise him. If you’re confident that you still have the best hand, just keep value betting or calling and build up a nice pot that will soon be yours.Of course, you always risk being outdrawn here, but you should keep a close eye on the board for possible trouble. If you see an obvious straight or flush draw, you can throw in a raise. However, if the board is seemingly benign, I’ll often save the raise until the river. This allows me to take advantage of his blind aggression and extract more money from 3 additional betting rounds rather than chase him away before the flop. Usually you should reserve this play for your premium pocket pairs, or if you hit a monster on the flop. Let him continue to make mistakes and show him what will happen if he continues to bully you around.Even with your premium hands, bad beats are going to happen – especially against players willing to play anything. That’s simply a part of poker that you’ll have to be able to manage psychologically. It happens to all of us, but what distinguishes winning poker players from losing ones is the ability to pick oneself up, play the best possible game, and mount a comeback. Keep in mind that you don’t have to win it all back the same night. If you’re really going on tilt and you can recognize that you aren’t playing your best game, be strong enough to leave the table and come back tomorrow or the next day. The game will still be there waiting for you – especially online.As I’ve tried to describe here, the worst thing you can do against overly aggressive opponents is play passively. As the player said in his message, you have to be prepared to call their bets on every subsequent betting round. If you know that you’ll be facing another big bet on the flop, don’t make a weak call before the flop. Instead, throw in a big raise to take control of the hand. Unless he is holding premium cards, you’ll at the very least take him out of his game. At the same time, consider slowplaying your Aces or Kings (less often with Kings because of the risk of him holding a weak Ace) and then raising him on the turn or river to get more value out of your hand. Of course, if there are multiple maniacs willing to call big raises with anything pre-flop, you’re better off shoving in your chips and thinning the field. If you win a small pot, that’s okay… YOU WON THE POT, DIDN’T YOU?!
Sit 'n Go Strategy and Tips
Sit ‘n Go tourneys are fast-paced and fun to play in. It’s like playing in a microcosm of a big multi-table tourament. The structure of SnG’s is usually that of a one-table freezeout and the top 2 or 3 places pay out. Since you’re going to be starting out with at least 9 or 10 players at your table, it makes sense to play pretty tight in the early stages of these tournaments. The logic is simple: many of your opponents will be wild and tend to gamble early on. For whatever reason, these folks just don’t feel comfortable unless they get a quick double-up under their belt. This puts you in a great situation if you’re holding a monster hand preflop like pocket Aces or Kings, but you generally want to stay out of the action early on. You get rewarded for just surviving, so let others get knocked out before you take your shots. If there’s enough gamble in your opponents early on, you might not even need to win many pots to get into the money.
Early Rounds
Look at the risk/reward ratio for another reason to play more conservative early on. The blinds start off pretty low in these tourneys, so what do you have to gain by bluffing, or even playing a mediocre hand at all? You’re not going to be picking up much if you win the pot, and you might get raised to the point where you’re paying much more than you’d like to. Especially in early position, I wouldn’t play anything worse than A-Q suited or a pair of Queens. Wait until your table is a few opponents short and the blinds are higher, as you’ll have more to gain by your aggressive play.
Especially at tighter sites, an SnG is a great place for the continuation bet. A continuation bet is making a bet after the flop after you’ve raised the hand preflop. You’ve taken control of the hand, preferably with position, by raising before the flop, so your opponents will usually check to you. At this point, you make a bet anywhere between half the size of the pot and the full size of the pot. Since you raised preflop, your opponents will tend to put you on a big hand, possibly a big pocket pair. When the board comes out with 3 rags, or your opponents only got a piece of the flop, and they’re facing another bet from the preflop raiser, they’ll usually throw their hand away.
For example, let’s you raised 4x the big blind from late position with A-K and 3 callers stay in. When the flop comes out 9-2-5, regardless of the suits, you’re going to bet at least half the pot when your opponents check to you. If one of your opponent calls your bet on the flop, he obviously has something to stay in the hand, even if it’s only a draw. If he checks to you again on the turn and you don’t hit your Ace or King, you’ll have to check behind him. Also, be aware that many opponents like to slowplay or check-raise the preflop raiser. They know that you’re likely to bet or raise again on the flop, so they’ll often wait until you bet and raise you. If you get raised and you didn’t hit the flop in some way, you should just release your hand.
Middle Rounds
As the blinds begin to increase further into the tournament, you’ll need to open up your play a bit. Firstly, you’ll want to start looking for tighter players to steal the blinds from. As the tournament progresses and the blinds become a larger percentage of everyone’s stack, play at the table will generally tighten up. You’ll often find yourself in late position without any players yet to enter the pot. If you have a decent holding (two face cards, an Ace, or any pocket pair), you should consider raising to gain control of the hand and possibly win the blinds preflop. This play works best against tight or timid opponents, who will usually fold unless they have a premium hand. If this type of player calls your raise or reraises you, you should proceed with caution. They’re inherently tight players, so a call or raise means that they’re holding a strong hand. Facing a reraise, I will often throw my hand away. You can still attempt to steal the blinds from aggressive opponents, but tend to have a stronger hand to raise with than you would against tighter opponents in case you get called or reraised. Unless you’re holding an overpair to the board, I don’t recommend a continuation bet against an aggressive. This type of online player will often call you down with middle or bottom pair, and if you can’t beat that you shouldn’t bet.
You’ll also want to loosen up your starting hand requirements. Usually by the time the blinds reach levels of 100-200 or 150-300 or greater, at least a couple or more of your opponents have been knocked out. Since there are less players at the table, the sizeable blinds will hit you more often. While I recommend a tight-aggressive style of play early in the tournament, you simply won’t be able to wait for premium cards with the blinds so large. Even if you’ve managed to increase your chip stack significantly by this point in the tournament, the blinds will still affect you. As I mentioned earlier, your opponents will generally play tighter at this point in the tournament, so playing an aggressive game can be advantageous. Look for opportunities to raise hands like suited connectors or any two face cards from late position. Even if you get called by one or both of the blinds, you’ll be able to analyze the texture of the flop and act last on every future betting round. Position is extremely important in hold ‘em, and anytime you have position in a hand, you have a major advantage.
Heads-Up
So, you’ve followed my advice, played a great tournament, and you’ve managed to make it down to the final two. Good job! What’s next? When you get down to head-up play, you’re either going to be acting or reacting on every hand. There won’t be a pot that you won’t be involved in, and you’ll have to be prepared for fast action. You opened up your play as the blinds increased, and you’ll need to open up your play even further when you’re playing heads-up. Most often, the action will take place before the flop. The small blind gets to make the first move preflop, so if you have any semblance of a hand you should raise and try to take the big blind. If your opponent is timid, you should definitely run over him as often as possible.
The odds are that your opponent doesn’t have a hand, so it will be difficult for him to call without the cards to warrant it, especially being out of position on future betting rounds. Of course, your opponent probably deduces the same logic about your hand, so you can’t allow him to run over you, either. Don’t be afraid to go all-in with any pocket pair, any Ace or King, or even suited connectors. You’ll be putting a lot of pressure on your opponent, and you’ll often pick up the pot with this move. If you do get called, hopefully you have your opponent beaten. If you were aggressive and made a move but got beaten, don’t beat yourself up. Finishing in second is very respectable, you’ll win some money, and it means that you played a great tournament.
Sit ‘n Gos allow for fast action and good practice for multi-tournament play without the investment of hours of your time. Remember to start off playing a tight game, as many opponents will play recklessly early on, and you aren’t highly rewarded for taking chances on borderline calls early on. Try to play a solid game early on, and as the blinds increase you should begin to open up your game by occasionally stealing blinds and raising with more hands from late position. If you make it to the final table, be the aggressor as much as possible and don’t hesitate to go all-in often with pairs and at least one face card. Sit ‘n Gos are becoming more and more popular for their fast tournament style, and many online players profit from playing these games exclusively. By following our advice and, most importantly, putting it in practice, you can reach the point where you are making money in 7 or 8 out of 10 tournaments – a very healthy alternative to consistent cash game wins.
Early Rounds
Look at the risk/reward ratio for another reason to play more conservative early on. The blinds start off pretty low in these tourneys, so what do you have to gain by bluffing, or even playing a mediocre hand at all? You’re not going to be picking up much if you win the pot, and you might get raised to the point where you’re paying much more than you’d like to. Especially in early position, I wouldn’t play anything worse than A-Q suited or a pair of Queens. Wait until your table is a few opponents short and the blinds are higher, as you’ll have more to gain by your aggressive play.
Especially at tighter sites, an SnG is a great place for the continuation bet. A continuation bet is making a bet after the flop after you’ve raised the hand preflop. You’ve taken control of the hand, preferably with position, by raising before the flop, so your opponents will usually check to you. At this point, you make a bet anywhere between half the size of the pot and the full size of the pot. Since you raised preflop, your opponents will tend to put you on a big hand, possibly a big pocket pair. When the board comes out with 3 rags, or your opponents only got a piece of the flop, and they’re facing another bet from the preflop raiser, they’ll usually throw their hand away.
For example, let’s you raised 4x the big blind from late position with A-K and 3 callers stay in. When the flop comes out 9-2-5, regardless of the suits, you’re going to bet at least half the pot when your opponents check to you. If one of your opponent calls your bet on the flop, he obviously has something to stay in the hand, even if it’s only a draw. If he checks to you again on the turn and you don’t hit your Ace or King, you’ll have to check behind him. Also, be aware that many opponents like to slowplay or check-raise the preflop raiser. They know that you’re likely to bet or raise again on the flop, so they’ll often wait until you bet and raise you. If you get raised and you didn’t hit the flop in some way, you should just release your hand.
Middle Rounds
As the blinds begin to increase further into the tournament, you’ll need to open up your play a bit. Firstly, you’ll want to start looking for tighter players to steal the blinds from. As the tournament progresses and the blinds become a larger percentage of everyone’s stack, play at the table will generally tighten up. You’ll often find yourself in late position without any players yet to enter the pot. If you have a decent holding (two face cards, an Ace, or any pocket pair), you should consider raising to gain control of the hand and possibly win the blinds preflop. This play works best against tight or timid opponents, who will usually fold unless they have a premium hand. If this type of player calls your raise or reraises you, you should proceed with caution. They’re inherently tight players, so a call or raise means that they’re holding a strong hand. Facing a reraise, I will often throw my hand away. You can still attempt to steal the blinds from aggressive opponents, but tend to have a stronger hand to raise with than you would against tighter opponents in case you get called or reraised. Unless you’re holding an overpair to the board, I don’t recommend a continuation bet against an aggressive. This type of online player will often call you down with middle or bottom pair, and if you can’t beat that you shouldn’t bet.
You’ll also want to loosen up your starting hand requirements. Usually by the time the blinds reach levels of 100-200 or 150-300 or greater, at least a couple or more of your opponents have been knocked out. Since there are less players at the table, the sizeable blinds will hit you more often. While I recommend a tight-aggressive style of play early in the tournament, you simply won’t be able to wait for premium cards with the blinds so large. Even if you’ve managed to increase your chip stack significantly by this point in the tournament, the blinds will still affect you. As I mentioned earlier, your opponents will generally play tighter at this point in the tournament, so playing an aggressive game can be advantageous. Look for opportunities to raise hands like suited connectors or any two face cards from late position. Even if you get called by one or both of the blinds, you’ll be able to analyze the texture of the flop and act last on every future betting round. Position is extremely important in hold ‘em, and anytime you have position in a hand, you have a major advantage.
Heads-Up
So, you’ve followed my advice, played a great tournament, and you’ve managed to make it down to the final two. Good job! What’s next? When you get down to head-up play, you’re either going to be acting or reacting on every hand. There won’t be a pot that you won’t be involved in, and you’ll have to be prepared for fast action. You opened up your play as the blinds increased, and you’ll need to open up your play even further when you’re playing heads-up. Most often, the action will take place before the flop. The small blind gets to make the first move preflop, so if you have any semblance of a hand you should raise and try to take the big blind. If your opponent is timid, you should definitely run over him as often as possible.
The odds are that your opponent doesn’t have a hand, so it will be difficult for him to call without the cards to warrant it, especially being out of position on future betting rounds. Of course, your opponent probably deduces the same logic about your hand, so you can’t allow him to run over you, either. Don’t be afraid to go all-in with any pocket pair, any Ace or King, or even suited connectors. You’ll be putting a lot of pressure on your opponent, and you’ll often pick up the pot with this move. If you do get called, hopefully you have your opponent beaten. If you were aggressive and made a move but got beaten, don’t beat yourself up. Finishing in second is very respectable, you’ll win some money, and it means that you played a great tournament.
Sit ‘n Gos allow for fast action and good practice for multi-tournament play without the investment of hours of your time. Remember to start off playing a tight game, as many opponents will play recklessly early on, and you aren’t highly rewarded for taking chances on borderline calls early on. Try to play a solid game early on, and as the blinds increase you should begin to open up your game by occasionally stealing blinds and raising with more hands from late position. If you make it to the final table, be the aggressor as much as possible and don’t hesitate to go all-in often with pairs and at least one face card. Sit ‘n Gos are becoming more and more popular for their fast tournament style, and many online players profit from playing these games exclusively. By following our advice and, most importantly, putting it in practice, you can reach the point where you are making money in 7 or 8 out of 10 tournaments – a very healthy alternative to consistent cash game wins.
STRATEGY FOR PLAYING MULTIPLE ONLINE POKER TABLES
While cardroom poker still holds that physical tells thing over us, one of the best features of online poker is the ability to play at multiple tables simultaneously. I find that dashing off back and forth between my tournament table and no-limit cash game at the local cardroom is quite a strain on the legs and the patience of other players at the table, so let’s say that multi-tabling is exclusive to online poker. As I’m sure that you also do, I often play at multiple tables both to keep my attention span curbed and to (hopefully) increase my hourly win rate. Before you rush off to divvy up your poker prowess between multiple tables, here are some helpful tidbits that you may want to consider…1) Set up your screen properly. While this has nothing to do with actual strategy, if you’re going to multi-table, you need to set up your monitor accordingly. Most sites do not have a feature to create a nicely patterned mosaic of online poker tables on your screen. Plus, you might open up more than one site. All those windows are going to take up space on your monitor, and if you don’t have enough space to spread them out you risk them overlapping. Trust me, it is not a good feeling to raise with your 6-2 under the gun because you were trying to fold your 7-2 on the other window in the same spot. Increase your screen resolution to fit more on one screen. If the graphics and/or text become unreadable, consider purchasing a larger monitor.2) Play all tables with a proven and solid strategy. When you’re playing at 3 or 4 tables, you won’t have as much decision time to plan out complex strategies to outplay your opponents. You also won’t have sufficient time to pick up on the playing styles of everyone at the table. The best multi-table strategy is simply to play the right cards from the right position. You shouldn’t get involved with less-than-average starting hands that will only slow you down and force you to make difficult decisions against unknown opponents. Make it easier on yourself and play a solid albeit boring strategy. Most online players are clueless and/or multi-tabling themselves, so they probably won’t crack the code on your game.3) Put your attention where your money is. If you’re playing multiple tables to keep yourself occupied in between hands, you may open up a small-stakes tournament or little side game as a set-aside second window. But what happens when you get down to heads-up play or get pocket Aces in that 5c/10c cash game? Being a naturally competitive poker player, you might get overly engrossed in the inconsequential game and forget that you have several hundred dollars spread out between other tables. To be a successful multi-table player, you need to stay most focused on the most profitable situations. If you become overwhelmed and begin to make poor decisions, you will have to be self-disciplined enough to close a window or two to regain your focus. Don’t worry – it happens to all of us at one time or another.Playing multiple tables can be profitable and a lot of fun at the same time. You get to see more hands, get more action for your time, and if you’re good enough, smart enough, and doggone it, the poker gods smile on you, you can even make a few extra bucks. At the same time, I recommend you follow my 3 simple guidelines above to start you off on the right foot. Many poker authors recommend that you stick to limit Hold’em while multi-tabling since it is the easiest to auto-pilot, but I play mostly no-limit and do just fine. So while I shout over to the dealer across the cardroom to muck my hand, enjoy multi-tabling from the comforts of your big comfy computer chair and a mouse with poker chips sitting next to it ready to riffle. Oops… you guys do that too, right?
Cashing Out / Withdrawing
Cashing Out / Withdrawing
For some reason or another, you may have decided to cash out from a site. Hopefully, you'll find yourself with more money than you deposited - and if so, congratulations and well done. Cashing out, or withdrawing, is usually very straightforward but not often as straightforward as depositing. Perhaps understandably, the sites are very eager to make it easy for you to deposit with them, but may not have gone through all that much trouble making sure it's just as easy to withdraw. Nonetheless, getting your money shouldn't be a major hassle. For the most part, it takes a few days to clear the transaction, before the money appears back in your bank account (if you've deposited using a bank debit card) or in your NETeller account.
Cashing out at PokerStars. Because I deposited using NETeller, the withdrawn amount will automatically return there.
Some sites offer instant NETeller cashouts to the amount that you've deposited, meaning that if I've deposited $500 at FullTiltPoker using NETeller, the first $500 that I cash out will be instantly transferred back to the account it was deposited from. I know PokerStars and Poker.com offer the same service, and likely quite a few more sites. The reason I bring this up isn't to celebrate the fact that they have this feature, but rather to point out that it's limited to the amount of your first deposit, so that it won't come as a surprise to you later on when you try to withdraw more money than you originally deposited. You will still get your excess money, but it won't be instant - you may have to wait a few days.
You should also be certain to look into what the minimum withdrawal amount is, if there is one, and this I know has been a problem to many: They deposit $50 or so, play for a few weeks and lose a bit of the money. They get tired of the site and want to withdraw and move on - only to find out that the minimum cash out is for $50, meaning that they either need to deposit more money (that they later can withdraw) or they have to try to win back enough to withdraw, or they just plain have to leave the money where it is. Always read the terms and conditions if you're not sure what the rules are, and as with depositing, be sure not to hesitate to contact the site's customer service if you have any questions.
A final point is that some sites may want to verify your identity by asking for a photo/scanned copy of an ID (passport/driver's license or so) and a utility bill (thereby seeing that your address matches what you've stated). I've done this at two times myself and didn't worry much about it, but I know others who feel this is an intrusion of privacy in a sense, and aren't comfortable leaving that kind of information to the poker sites. Either way, you should be aware that some poker sites may require you to verify your identity this way, and they most likely will demand this at the time when you try to cash out; this ties in to what I said about it being easy to deposit but sometimes more complicated to
For some reason or another, you may have decided to cash out from a site. Hopefully, you'll find yourself with more money than you deposited - and if so, congratulations and well done. Cashing out, or withdrawing, is usually very straightforward but not often as straightforward as depositing. Perhaps understandably, the sites are very eager to make it easy for you to deposit with them, but may not have gone through all that much trouble making sure it's just as easy to withdraw. Nonetheless, getting your money shouldn't be a major hassle. For the most part, it takes a few days to clear the transaction, before the money appears back in your bank account (if you've deposited using a bank debit card) or in your NETeller account.
Cashing out at PokerStars. Because I deposited using NETeller, the withdrawn amount will automatically return there.
Some sites offer instant NETeller cashouts to the amount that you've deposited, meaning that if I've deposited $500 at FullTiltPoker using NETeller, the first $500 that I cash out will be instantly transferred back to the account it was deposited from. I know PokerStars and Poker.com offer the same service, and likely quite a few more sites. The reason I bring this up isn't to celebrate the fact that they have this feature, but rather to point out that it's limited to the amount of your first deposit, so that it won't come as a surprise to you later on when you try to withdraw more money than you originally deposited. You will still get your excess money, but it won't be instant - you may have to wait a few days.
You should also be certain to look into what the minimum withdrawal amount is, if there is one, and this I know has been a problem to many: They deposit $50 or so, play for a few weeks and lose a bit of the money. They get tired of the site and want to withdraw and move on - only to find out that the minimum cash out is for $50, meaning that they either need to deposit more money (that they later can withdraw) or they have to try to win back enough to withdraw, or they just plain have to leave the money where it is. Always read the terms and conditions if you're not sure what the rules are, and as with depositing, be sure not to hesitate to contact the site's customer service if you have any questions.
A final point is that some sites may want to verify your identity by asking for a photo/scanned copy of an ID (passport/driver's license or so) and a utility bill (thereby seeing that your address matches what you've stated). I've done this at two times myself and didn't worry much about it, but I know others who feel this is an intrusion of privacy in a sense, and aren't comfortable leaving that kind of information to the poker sites. Either way, you should be aware that some poker sites may require you to verify your identity this way, and they most likely will demand this at the time when you try to cash out; this ties in to what I said about it being easy to deposit but sometimes more complicated to
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