The Danger of Ace King

Players that know Holdem well are on intimate terms with the math of Holdem and the starting hand rating list.   Ace King is high on the list just after the pair of rockets, also known as aces and the lovely pair of Kings.  The problem with Ace King is it is just a good drawing hand that gets over bet way to often in Holdem games.  On TV you see a lowly pair of fours beat Ace King for all the money a non-paired player has bet.  The hand is a good drawing hand, but that is all it is, just a good drawing hand.   Way to many players over bet this hand before the flop.  Watch a cash game or a tournament at any level, this scenario will be played out over and over with the Ace King winning some times, but losing a lot of the times.

This makes these two cards very dangerous to the stack of player holding them.   They look so good before the flop, but after the fop they can be just a drawing hand.   The Ace Queen can be even worse, but that is another drawing hand story.  This starting hand can easily lose any pot or hand.  [Read][more...]

The Other Omaha

The other Omaha is the one with only one winner per pot in most hands.  Omaha HiLo seems to be the most popular of the two poker games, but Omaha is the game that is featured in the WSOP each year.  Omaha is a high hand only game with nine cards per hand including the five-card flop.  The game is played just like Omaha HiLo only there is no low hand winner.  You must use two cards from the four that are dealt to each player and three from the flop.  Good starting hands are high pairs or suited connectors.  Many pots are still won in this game with more three of a kind, flushes or straights than you see in Holdem.  The extra two cards per hand open up more possibilities.

The lower popularity than the other Omaha is due to there only being one winner so the pots are uniformly smaller.  The game just does not have the gamble in it that you see in Omaha HiLo.  On the other hand new players to the game are still at a disadvantage as experience with the play of the game is important when figuring if your hand is good enough to win.  [Read][more...]

What Poker Games do online Casinos Offer

A new online poker player may well wonder what games are offered online.

The obvious answer is they all offer Holdem in both limit and no-limit games.

This form of poker is without a doubt the most popular game there is at any online casino.  The game is numerous in cash games and the number of tournaments offered online each week is in outstanding numbers.  One site out of the many online can have well over one hundred or more tournaments.

The next poker version that gets a lot of play is Omaha HiLo.  This two winners in a pot game can have huge pots in small limit games, as the two winners possibility makes players gamble on their hands.  Players who are just learning this game are at a big disadvantage when they play against experienced players.

New players do not know how to value their hand and overplay hands that are really not that good in Omaha.  Holdem players are real pigeons in Omaha, as winning Holdem hands are not of high value in Omaha.  [Read][more...]

Is poker a game of skill? A South Carolina judge thinks so

A South Carolina judge by the name of J. L. Duffy stated it so in the middle of the trail of five men arrested for running a weekly game of Holdem.  He was very clear in his surprise statement that Texas Holdem was obviously a game of great skill and he had no doubt about it.  The defendant's attorney was very surprised by the comment and also said that it sounded very good for his clients.

This group of poker players pulled out all of the stops by binging in a real poker player as an expert witness.  Any one that watches the WPT on TV would recognize their expert witness as Mike Sexton who is seen every week commenting on the play during the Weekly WPT tournament.  You may have also seen him playing very well in some live tournaments this last year.

Since this trial is still going on, the verdict is not known yet and both parties state that no matter who wins there will be an appeal to a higher court.  The violation of the law is in dispute as gambling or betting on a chance outcome is illegal.  A game of skill would seem to go in the face of this law, but it is up to the judge how this case will be settled.   Other states, California for example, have used this logic to make poker rooms and the game itself legal using the game of skill logic. [Read][more...]