Poker variations

I came across two sites that I hope are helpful.

The Wild Jack Poker platform belongs to the Prima Poker network, and as such, enjoys an enviable degree of stability and client loyalty.  It connects players of all skill levels around the globe.

About Wild Jack Poker

Payment can be made using a variety of means, including VISA, MasterCard, Neteller and Click2Pay. The latter two as well as ACH bank transfer or checks are used to facilitate withdrawal of winnings.

Customer support of this poker site
Should you run into any trouble or if you have some doubts, you have the Wild Jack Poker Customer Support Team at your service, round the clock, round the year.  Call them on a toll-free telephone line or meet up online.

Wild Jack is one of the best online poker sites in the world.  Check this online poker site for attractive sign-up and promotional offers now.

Winners are pampered
If you’re a top poker player at Wild Jack, you’ll get an all-expenses-paid trip to the world’s premier land-based tournaments.  Monte Carlo Millions, the World Series of Poker, the Grand Prix de Paris and the Borgata Poker Open are only some of the tourneys which Wild Jack winners have attended.

Coming to Royal Vegas

Royal Vegas Poker comes with the unmatched backing of being part of the Prima Poker Network, itself run on Microgaming software, and belonging to the reputed Fortune Lounge Group.

Something for everyone
The online poker site offers a range of games to suit every taste and a variety of limits to suit all budgets. There’s room for everyone here – from the old, experienced hand to the greenhorn.

Excellent feel
The excellent graphics and other technological features give you a playing experience as close as possible to the real thing. You can watch cards being dealt, players betting and folding and the winners collecting their chips.

You can feel secure playing at Royal Vegas because the card shuffling is reviewed by independent auditors. Don’t miss out on this online casino website as well!

Bonuses and more
When you join up, you get $10 free. And you don’t even need to make any purchase. When you do make a purchase, you are eligible for a 40% bonus up to a limit of 100 dollars. When you download their software, you get another $10.

It offers fixed limit and pot limit with stakes starting at $0.05/$0.10, going up to $200/$400. It also has a fixed rake schedule.

Payments
Royal Vegas Poker deals in the US dollar, British Pound and Euros. You can choose from various payment options – Click2Pay, FirePay and a variety of credit cards, for instance.

Withdrawals are done through Click2Pay, FirePay, Check, NETeller and PaySpark, as well as direct Bank transfers.

The bottom line – both Wild Jack and Royal Vegas Poker are highly recommended sites, try them for yourself.

The game of poker has changed from something only played in casinos to a game many people enjoy in the comforts of their home.  Poker parties are currently one of the most popular kinds of parties to have at your home.  It’s a great way to get together with friends and have lots of fun, without having to make a trip to a casino which could be a good distance away.

Setting up your home for a poker party only requires a few fairly inexpensive poker room accessories and you don’t have to have an empty or spare room to do it.  Even if you have a small house or apartment, you can set your place up to host a poker party in just a matter of minutes with the right accessories.

The first thing you will need is a table to play on, and the best option for those with limited space is a folding poker table.  These tables come in many configurations and look just like those in the real casinos, only When you’re finished playing they fold up and can easily fit in a closet, often in a neat little carrying case.  Many folding poker tables also come with a second table top that can be used as a dining area for double duty.  Depending on how much you want to spend, a folding poker table can be simply a basic folding table top, or it can come with features like poker chip trays, cup holders or even padded rails.  Folding poker table prices range from around twenty bucks for folding poker table tops that can sit on top of your kitchen or dining room table, to a few hundred dollars for a professional quality poker table.

Once you have your poker table, you will need just a few other accessories.  Obviously, you are going to need some playing cards and poker chips.  One neat item is a poker chip set, which will usually include the chips, playing cards, and dealer button all in a case that can easily be stored away.  Once you’ve got your poker table, chips and cards, now all you need to do is call all your friends and invite them to your poker party.  After the fun is over, just fold up the table, pack up the poker set and in a matter of minutes your home is back to normal.

Why is it that as soon as I mention something about somewhere warm, where the sun shines and you dont lose the feeling in your fingers if you happen to forget your gloves behind…

Then the weather man turns up the winter knob some more… ahh you didn’t get enough snow and ice… ah let me be generous and give you a bit more… did I hear that you wanted to fly somewhere? … did I hear you wanted to escape the winter?….

Flights cancelled due to bad weather…. you aint going anywhere mate!

So even if I did want to go to Africa, India, Australia, South America… I couldn’t because the weather man has made sure of that.  So what do I do… I sit inside all snug, and smug… next to a heater and I log on and play online poker all night…

A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do… and in my case thats play poker.  Nothing wrong with that, its a skillful game of out-playing, out-witting, out-manouevering your opponent with your superior knowledge and poker strategy.

Of course I can hear my ma’s words ringing in the head… why dont you sleep at night and work in the day, just like all normal people?  …. Henry….(thats my Dad…) we should have been more strict with Edward and given him more boundaries…..

….It’s so terrible he has become a no good useless bum…. oh dear…..

Until I win it big time… then she will have a different song… I bet… you watch her…

It is truly astonishing how popular poker has become all around the world.  I bet you could go anywhere in the world, mention poker and people would have an idea of what you are talking about.

The one great thing about traveling and having a desire to play poker is that you can combine the two needs.

I have a friend who has just returned from a trip to South Africa – and guess what they played poker in Africa. Poker in South Africa has become quite popular and can now be viewed on television.

And after all why not?  They only had good things to say about the friendly African service and hospitality, whilst the standard of poker was very good and professionally organized.

Heh you could combine a game of poker and a safari – have you ever done that before?

I need to look into this…. google some flights and lets have a look…

Today I want to talk about the poker tell.  What is it exactly?

Wikipedia says it is a subtle but detectable change in a poker player’s behavior, that gives clues to their hand.  Ok that’s all very well but what do I look for and how do I know its a tell?

From my experience its all about body language, you have to become very observant of people’s behavior.   One way of doing this is to examine them whilst they are at various stages of play and ask the following questions:

Are they fidgeting?   What is the tone of their voice?  What are their facial expressions?  How are they breathing?

What are their hands doing?  What are they doing with their chips?   How do they place their chips?

Not only the chips, what about their cards, are they fiddling with them?  Or their cigarettes, drink or jewelery.

One good sign is to observe how your opponent is sitting.  Are they sitting forward or leaning back?

Then you have to look for patterns of play, so what are they doing whilst they think they have a winning hand and how do they usually bet?

You don’t need a degree in psychology but it does help to read up on people’s behavior so that you can work out some poker tells.  The following variations of behavioural patterns are guidelines, all people are different and there is no hard and fast rule:

- sometimes people behave aggressively or strongly to cover up when they actually have a weak hand, almost to over compensate.
- or the opposite, when they have a good poker hand, they will try and play it down by acting passively and not making eye contact.
- look for signs of adrenalin, a flush face, blood rush or a stronger hand shake, could be due to excitement.
- if players have a good hand they may cover the cards to protect them.

Poker tells is a complex subject, there are many variations of behavior and I could go on for ages.  In fact Mike Caro has written a good book on poker tells called “Mike Caro’s Book of Tells” if you want to know more about the subject.

Be careful of falling for traps where players are trying a false tell, to lead you into a trap or to do something without thinking it through properly.  Over time you will get a feel for what people generally do, but then there are always the exceptions!

Thanks Elroy, my old poker pal, for your comment and words of encouragement.

What I think Elroy means is that I should mix-up my play and keep my opponents guessing.  And, I did do this once in a while.  But its as if I think everyone can read me and knows exactly what cards I have, and its weird because normally I am super confident.  I keep my straight face and don’t give anything away…

Elroy is not the only one to have commented on my last blog post and on my general slump in play.  I’m getting advice from all sides! It sure has created some good debate!  Everyone’s got their opinion!

Even my mother gave me a call and gave me advice – I suggested I give her my bankroll and that she goes and plays for me – whereupon I was reminded of how sinful gambling is, what a disgrace I am to the family, that I’m a no-good bum, that I should get a decent job and stop wasting my time!

“Play the hand that you have – if you have the cards to win back them, if you dont fold…”
“Play aggressively, bluff if you have a marginal hand, force your opponents into folding…”
“A good hand has got to come up sometime, but its how you play the minor hands that’s crucial…”
“Just keep folding until the better hands come…”

Thanks guys for all your help.  The thing is I know, I know, I know – but when you get to the poker table, sometimes good common sense goes out the window and in come the emotions.  I know my stuff, I know I just have to work out my chance of winning and then play accordingly.

You all know what its like when you just don’t get the cards on the flop, turn or river – then some guy sitting next to you, who probably started with a nothing hand, clears the table when he gets lucky on the river.

But I think that the odd calculated bluff may help keep my opponents on their toes – keep em guessing.

Yes Elroy I know Bond is the man, but I meant it metaphorically – ok dude, get my meaning?

Happy New Year everyone.  Phew I hope your year got off to a better start than mine.  No matter what I do I just don’t seem to be getting the cards and when I do someone else at the table has better cards.

My “poker confidence” is starting to go and thats not good.  It started after Christmas and its funny because I was watching “Casino Royale” with my nephews and nieces, we had all got together and pulled out a few old DVDs over Christmas.  Bond thinks he has his opponent sized up, makes his move and is out-maneuvered.  It turns out that his opponent has been given information by a third party that Bond trusted as a confidant – but Bond doesn’t know that yet.

Its a key point in the movie, Bond is so sure that his opponent is bluffing, because of his tell, that he goes all-in and loses everything.  He of course pulls some strings and is soon back in the game.  But this time he is not so confident, well thats if Bond is ever not confident – what I mean is that you can pick up on the element of doubt.

Now I seem to have a big element of doubt in my poker game and my “poker confidence” is low.  Everyone says, “Be patient and wait it out”.  But no matter how much poker theory and poker strategy you read it is so difficult to put this advice into practice.  Its hard to stand by and watch other people winning and raking in the profits.  I am not naturally a patient person.

Others say be aggressive and bluff your way through it.  And that’s ok when your playing at the lesser tables but you’ll get caught out sooner or later.  Its one thing to mix-up your game when you are getting the cards, that’s because you are always keeping your opponents on the back foot, by semi-bluffing and bluffing, knowing you’ll get something on the flop, turn or river.

So I will just have to be patient – easier said than done.  I know my turn will come, everything turns around in the big cycle of life.

Well its been quite a year!  The Blog has gotten off to a slow start, next year I have dedicated more time to blogging and promise to keep you informed.

I wish you a very Happy Christmas and all the best for the coming year.

May 2009 be a prosperous year.

Just when you thought you knew it all.  Here’s something new.  And, of course its that time of year  when everyone is frantically searching around  for something new to give to their loved ones.

Estate Playing Cards brings ancient designs, 15th century Italy and traditional four suit card decks into the 21st Century.  The established suits: Church, Corporation, Community & Military, gain a fifth “Estate” – Media.  Royal & joker cards are replaced by family & imperial cards respectively, increasing the number of cards in the pack to 60.

While five suit decks have been around for almost a century, Estate Playing Cards have made more fundamental modifications to traditional playing cards; changes that not only more accurately reflect the modern world, but at the same time retain some of the earliest features of ancient cards from Europe and Asia.

In Poker a fifth estate increases the number of winning card combinations while lengthening the odds.  With 60 cards and five estates, the total number of five card hands is 5,461,512.  A Family Flush, with only 5 possible hands or a probability of 0.000000915, becomes the new top hand.  Five of a kind has 12 possible hands or a probability of 0.0000022.  Hands with a card from each Estate are called Rainbows.

Buying directly into a European Poker Tour (EPT) event is slowly becoming a privilege of the rich and the famous. Qualifying through an online satellite system is a much more cost-efficient alternative for the majority of players.

The poker and online poker world is abuzz with news about how great the EPT is doing and how its prize-pools are on the rise, together with its number of stops and popularity. Certainly, the EPT is a big player in the online poker industry now, and for that, more and more people add an EPT event participation to their wish-lists. The ever increasing prize-pools and buy-ins may be great news for poker professionals, for the EPT and the industry in general, but they’re not necessarily good news for you, the average Joe, the wannabe EPT player. Direct buy-ins are slowly slipping out of the reach of regular online players. Fortunately, the industry has found a great way to mend the situation. As EPT buy-ins become ever more substantial, more and more opportunities arise for players to qualify online. As every more or less experienced online poker player knows, the sky is the limit when it comes to online satellites and sub satellites. The satellite algorithm works so well that it can be replicated almost infinitely, and therefore EPT seats become attainable for players for a few dollars or frequent player points. Sure, it takes a tad more than just sheer skill to work your way up the satellite ladder and grab hold of a much-coveted EPT package, but the chance is there, and there is historic proof that it can indeed be done. Take last season (season 4) for example. A staggering number of 1,600 players gained access to the EPT’s tables via online qualifiers last year alone. The player who won the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo and ended up taking home more than EUR 2 million was also an online qualifier. Glen Chorny qualified through PokerStars. In season 3, it was yet another online qualifier who took down the title. Gavin Griffin was a Team PokerStars member, who really hit the lime-light when he won the EPT Grand Final. In an online poker room like PokerStars, there are always a variety of ways to clinch an EPT seat. Even if you measure your bankroll in a few dollars, you’ll still get a chance to play in a sub-satellite, Most of these cost around $2 to enter and some are accessible for frequent player points too. The EPT Steps satellites at PokerStars provide another interesting opportunity: buy-in costs $7.5 or 500 Frequent Player Points. Players will be faced with 8 opponents in a STT format tourney. If they reach the top 2 they move on to the next step. Those who reach the 6th step, qualify to battle it out directly for an EPT seat. If a player fails to advance, he takes one step back, but remains in the books. PokerStars is by no means the only online poker room offering online EPT qualifiers. Pretty much every noteworthy poker room offers such satellites these days. Qualifiers for a given EPT event usually start 1-2 months before the actual start of the event, so wherever you play, make sure you start your bid in time