Tips for Winning Online Poker - Your Chips

Poker Stack Sizes - 5 Ways Chip Stacks Affect Your Play
By Mark R. Holland

Players wanting to profit from poker games - both live and online - could greatly benefit from an understanding of how stack sizes affect your strategy, yet many people completely ignore this important factor. This article gives you 5 tips for profitable adjustments due to your chip stack and that of your opponents.

There are many ways of measuring stack sizes in both cash game and tournament poker including 'M', 'Q' and even more complex formulas. Here we will simplify the discussion by using a simple number of big blinds indicator.

Poker Stack Size Strategy Tip #1 - Implied Odds

When you enter a pot with a small pair or suited connector you will usually end up folding before the showdown. These folds are made up for by those times you hit a hidden straight or trips and win a huge pot - for example from an opponent with a high pair. Stack sizes are critical here, you can not call the initial bet if either your stack, or that of your opponent is too small. Trips need 12 times the big blind and suited connectors 20 times to consider playing, this includes a 'buffer' for those times you make your hand but do not get paid off by your opponent.

Poker Stack Size Strategy Tip #2 - Pot Commitment

Any time a bet early in a hand makes the pot much larger than the stack of one of the players, they can be thought of as being 'pot committed'. This is to say that it is likely that the rest of their chips will have to go in at some point in the hand, due to the huge pot-odds on offer. You need to spot this before raising and decide if your own hand is strong enough to play for the full amount of an opponent's chips.

Poker Stack Size Strategy Tip #3 - The River Bluff

You set up a hand against an opponent you suspect to have a weak holding. He chases against the odds and apparently fails to improve by the river. You bluff, hoping to induce a fold - and then realize your chips are too few to get a fold. By not adapting your bet sizes through the hand to ensure you have enough chips for a credible river bluff you have ensured that the weaker hand calls you. Plan in advance to avoid this error.

Poker Stack Size Strategy Tip #4 - Re-Stealing

At 12 to 17 times the big blind you have a 'difficult' stack in any poker tournament. Raising and then folding to a re-raise is marginal due to the high odds on offer, yet you have too many chips to open shove. However, this is the ideal stack to come over the top of an opponent's raise with. You gain is significant and your current stack is big enough to get a wide range of raising hands to fold.

Poker Stack Size Strategy Tip #5 - Tournament Bubble Play

At the bubble of a poker tournament many of your opponents will be looking to fold into the money before taking any big chances with their chips. This is particularly the case with the medium-sized stacks, who are comfortable enough to avoid taking any chances. Avoid the big (and very small) stacks at the bubble and steal blinds from the medium stacks. If an otherwise quiet medium stack enters the pot for a raise then beware - they may well have a strong holding.

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_R._Holland
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Tips for Winning Online Poker

New Blog - Aggressive Poker Strategy

Since there are many aspects to winning online poker, I have created a new blog specifically dedicated to Aggressive Poker Strategy.

It's new so give it time, but I will be adding more and more wisdom on the subject over the coming weeks and months.

Tips for Winning Online Poker

Tips for Winning Online Poker - Texas Hold'em Strategy

Texas Holdem Strategy - Jack, King Suited Pocket Hand
By Douglas Hayman

You are playing poker in your favorite Internet poker room, and you have chose to participate in a low buy-in tournament. In the very first hand of this tournament, you have been dealt a powerful Jack-King suited pocket hand, which you know has a probability win rate of 45.5 %. Moreover, you were dealt this hand while you were in the big blind position at the table. Everyone at the table folds in this hand except for the player in the small blind, who decides to go "All In". Based on his move, should you call him or fold the hand?

Well, there are certain things to take into consideration here. First of all, in a low buy-in tournament, there are typically players that will exhibit erratic, impetuous behavior, particularly in the first hand of the tournament. This is something that you need to take into consideration, and you must keep your wits about you. If the buy-in were larger, this may be a different case, but for a low buy-in, this type of behavior can often be expected.

Statistically speaking, you have a hand that wins 45.5 % of the time, and it is the 16th best pocket hand that you could have possibly received. Based on all of the above, this is a good situation to call your opponent, and remain in the hand. If you are super-conservative and elect to fold, you will live for another hand, and your opponent may have gotten the urge to bet heavy, out of his system. However, given the odds of winning, and given the possible impetuousness of your opponent in this very first hand, it is a good bet for you to remain in the hand.

Douglas Hayman, President of the well-known Expert Software Systems company, is a poker aficionado, who has developed many informational poker sites, which include:

Online Poker Sites Review - A complete set of poker information which includes poker rules, bluffing strategies, hand ranking charts, free software Poker calculators, power poker tips, a live poker news feed, and many other outstanding features.

Review of Top Poker Sites - A descriptive, concise review of the most popular and reputable internet-based Poker websites.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Douglas_Hayman
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Tips for Winning Online Poker

Tips for Winning Online Poker - Know the Odds

Can You Calculate Poker Odds Quickly Enough to Compete With the Big Boys?
By Cody Jackson

As Texas Holdem and other poker games continue to grow in popularity, so does the quality of the players (your opponents). It is essential to the success every player that you learn to calculate odds quickly and accurately.

Lets give it a try. For example, lets say we hold a 8 and A of hearts and the flop comes down 6 9 7 with two hearts. Here's how you calculate your chance of hitting the flush. First let's count our poker outs. Any heart will give us a flush. There are 9 hearts left in the deck (13 to begin with, minus the two in our hand and the two on the board). In other words, we have 9 outs.To calculate our odds of hitting our flush with the turn and river to come, simply multiply the number of outs by 4. ( 9x4=36). If the number of outs is higher than eight, subtract 1 from your total. That gives us 35. We have roughly a 35% chance of hitting our flush with the turn and river to come.

What if there's only the river to come? In this case, we multiply our number of outs by 2, and add 1 if we have 6 or more outs. (9x2 +1=19)We have a 19% chance of hitting our flush with only the river card to come. Piece of cake, right? Don't you wish it were that easy.

You also have the chance of hitting a straight. Remember, you're holding an 8 and there is a 6,7 and 9 on the board. Now any 5 or 10 will give you a straight and that increases your number of outs. And did I forget to mention that there is $100 in the pot and it will cost you $25 to call. Now you have to figure pot odds in addition to hand odds.

I don't know about you, but I became confused after the 9x4=36.

The beauty of it all is that there are free online poker calculators that are available to you to assist you in these calculations. They make all these calculations virtually instantaneously for you. They are also allowed in a large number of poker rooms. You now have the advantage of knowing your hand odds and pot odds. In addition, the poker odds calculator takes your table position into account.

Now that the mathematics is done for you, you simply have to decide what your opponent may have, and whether you want to play your hand.

Poker odds calculators do not guarantee success, but they definitely increase your chances of success.

To learn more about calculating poker odds go to http://www.mypokertips.net/

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Tips for Winning Online Poker