Tips to Improve Your Play in Poker Tournaments

Nowadays, playing poker is not only considered a hobby, but it is also considered a source of income.  Many professional poker players live off of their winnings, and, in a study done by a prominent online gambling portal, there now a lot of college students who are also playing online poker who make use of their winnings to pay for their education and daily allowance.

Knowing the fact that online poker winnings can augment the needs of many people, the importance of practicing and honing your skills before a poker tournament is being emphasized by many professionals in the poker industry.

Importance of Practicing

It cannot be denied that our brains need the challenge.  Without stimulations and challenges, a poker player's power to concentrate can drop, and he will usually see this drop in his concentration level when he starts to notice that he is getting a significant number of bad beats against his win rates.  [Read][more...]

Meet Mike Sexton

Mike Sexton will be 62 In September of this year as he was born in September 1947.  His birth state makes him a Hoosier although he and his brother went to the University of Ohio on a gymnast full scholarship.  He has been playing card games since he was a youth and his skill at the games was evident early in his adult life.  He played in college and even more when he finished a two-year hitch in the Army as Fort Bragg.  His after service job was as a Dance Instructor and working with a friend in a company the friend started.  The company sold articles to bases in North and South Carolina.  Along with his work he spent many hours playing variations of poker in the local card rooms.  His marriage ended and he lost the job, so he stepped up his poker playing for a few years and then he headed for Vegas to try his hand as a professional poker player.  One of the players that was his good friend growing up, and a player he learned from, later became a world-class seven-card stud player.  His friend from his youth was Danny Robinson. [Read][more...]

Calling Stations and Automatic Raisers

When you are in a poker game online or in a live poker room, you will run in to these two types of players.  The Calling Station is a player who has to see every winning hand that he plays against.  This player is just not able to fold any hand although he knows he can only beat a bluff or a very poor hand.  The automatic raiser is the player who just likes to raise no matter what cards he or she is holding.  This type of a player is great to have in the game, as they will constantly make the pots bigger with their raises.

A good player can use both of these players to advantage, and let them help you get more for a good hand.  Just remember, they may really have a hand from time to time.  But let them do their thing when you have a good hand.  Slow play or bet heavy and let them call or raise as they please.  This kind of player, with this serious defect in their game, can be of terrific financial help to a good player. [Read][more...]

Small Pairs Win Too

Many poker tournament winners got there playing small pairs and betting then right.  Pairs of threes, fives and sixes are seen winning many pots in TV tournaments.  Early in the tournament when the blinds are small, this type hand can win some big pots.  This can happen when the flop is set and the pair turns into three of a kind.  This hand if that happens can set up an expensive pot for a big pair or two pair.  If the player holding the small pair slow plays the hand hoping the opponents make a big pair or two pair and he catches the third card for the set this sets the trap.  This can make a lot of money early in the tournament and allow the player to be more aggressive due to the larger chip stack

Negreanu and Hansen play these kinds of hands all the time.   If you see them playing a hand like this, watch how they manage their bets.  This can be a lesson in real time on how to bet the hand for maximum profit.

If the flop does not help the player, they should bail out if the betting gets too stiff. [Read][more...]

Ace Queen Holdem Mystery

Ace Queen is a mystery starting hand for some players and a starting hand that other player seem to love.  When this author plays this hand the flop seems to come with a king in it and miss both of these cards.  Other players seem to make it work.  The question is why and or how come.  There is no logical reason for this disparity of results that seems to prevail when different players play this hand. Doyle Brunson said this was not one of his favorite starting hands.   Other players on TV like this hand.  They have had very good luck with it in live play or online play.   If you watch enough TV tournaments, you will see players draw to this hand all the time, with some missing it and some making it.  Doyle seems to have had my luck with this starting hand, or he would not nave stated that this hand was not a favorite of his.

From a math standpoint it is a good starting hand, however Ace-King, Kings or Aces is far better. This hand is one of those that a player grits their teeth and plays hoping the Flop will be generous.  Truthfully I would rather draw to a pair of tens than this hand.  However I have seen other players catch both an Ace and a Queen on the flop. [Read][more...]

Poker Player and Murderer Possibly The Same

A thirty-year-old poker pro was arrested in Las Vegas Monday for the murder of his father and mother in their home in early March of last year.  Ernest Scherer III was arrested for the brutal killing of his Father and Mother in a San Francisco bedroom community of Pleasanton, California.  A person that worked for the Country Club Administration discovered the bodies several days later in the Country Club community.  A phone call from the daughter who lived in Utah alerted them to a possible problem, as she could not get her parents on the phone.

There is some information on a possible motive for the murder.  Scherer III was deep in debt and not doing well in the poker world.  Since turning pro in 2002 he had won $339,000 according to tournament records.  He had a wife and a child that lived in Southern California.  His Father was pressing his son for the return of a $616,000 loan he made to buy his son a home in Brea, California.  This tragic situation was brought on by the mounting debts from gaming, credit card debts and the pressure to repay the home loan.  [Read][more...]

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