Thanks to the glamorization of online poker, more and more players have taken an interest in starting to dabble in playing multiple cash game and/or tournaments at once.  Most of us figure that if our favorite pros can do it then so can we since all it’ll require is a little extra focus, right?  Well, kinda.  While yes, you will need to increase the amount of focus your putting forth in order to pay attention to more than one game, there are other factors at play that will determine whether or not you can win at more than one table at a time.

The main thing you need to realize is that with the more and more tables you’re playing at, the less and less you’ll be able to pay attention to the finer details of any one individual game.  Because of this, the majority of your strategic decisions are going to be based around hand selection and positioning.  If you do not have a very strong understanding of what to do with every possible hand combination in every position, you will make numerous bad raises, calls and folds, which will completely defeat the purpose of how many players want to multi-table in the first place.

If you’re still wanting to play at least two tables at once, the next thing you must understand is that you cannot stay at the same table limit that you were at when playing just a single game.  If your standard game is $1/$2 no-limit hold’em, then you’ll want to drop down to at least $.50/$1 if not lower when you start to play at more than one table.  The reason behind this is that it will take some time before you can comfortable play at two tables with the same effectiveness as you did at one table.  In the beginning you’ll just be struggling to keep up with two tables-worth of action, at which time you won’t want to be risking the same kind of money you were before moving to multi-tabling.

So if you’re dead set on making the move to multiple tables, make sure you have the right tools in your strategic arsenal, and secondly, have the discipline to be able to move down in table limits so that you aren’t risking too much of your bankroll at any one time.

By: Chris Iaquinta

Playing poker online, even for the causal person, can always be made better with the right tools at your disposal.  I mean, do you really think that Phil Ivey’s computer setup is the same as yours?  Is his designed for looks or for maximum comfort while playing?  While it’s true that you don’t need a highly complicated workstation in order to get the most out of your online poker experience, it sure doesn’t hurt to have a few key items that will make life noticeably easier.  Here are a few suggestions.

1.  Executive Chair:  How anyone plays online poker for more than an hour while sitting in anything other than an Executive chair is beyond me.  Folding/rocking chairs are way too uncomfortable, while even padded upright chairs still don’t provide the long-lasting comfort needed.  Executive chairs on the other hand provide arm rests, thick padding and most of them recline at least a little bit, allowing you to play for hours on end without feeling the least bit of discomfort.  You can easily pick up one for under $100 and it is definitely a worthwhile investment.

2.  Padded Mousepad:  A padded mousepad is one that has foam/gel cushions in place where your wrist sits while your hand controls the mouse.  You may not feel a lot of strain on your wrist while doing an hour or so of web browsing, but the hours of clicking and moving the mouse that come with any long online poker session can put a literal cramp in your style.  You can find these cheap at any electronics store that sells computers, you won’t regret it.

3.  Dual Computer Monitors:  Even if all you do is play one online poker table at a time you’re still going to want to get your hands on a second monitor.  Nothing is more annoying than trying to multi-task on a computer while constantly clicking back and forth between your poker screen and whatever else you’re working on.  With a second monitor you can keep your poker session going on one display, thus leaving the other display wide open so that you can complete your work/web surfing without the headache of having a cramped visual workplace.

By: Chris Iaqunita

To look at most poker players, you wouldn’t think that they really gave much thought about what they eat at the poker table.  Personally I never thought I’d be one of the diehard regulars on my favorite card room that actually eats a full meal while playing a session….until of course I found myself plowing down a tray’s worth of $1 orange chicken.  It was delicious, but it also made me feel very full and tired within an hour.
There is a small trend occurring thanks to some of the more health conscious pro players on the circuit, and that’s the preparation and consumption of food designed to keep a person alert and energetic.  When you think about it, it makes perfect sense.  How many other activities do you participate in that could easily last 6-8 hours while requiring a high level of concentration almost the entire time?  Poker players have all the reason in the world to want to be as full of energy as possible during a session, yet the only food we typically see coming out of the card room kitchen is greasy burgers and meatloaf.
There really isn’t a special diet plan for poker players to follow, you can simply follow any eating regimen that provides a lot of energy.  Lean meals such as a simple turkey sandwich isn’t a bad choice, especially if it was made using ingredients from a whole foods store.  A lot of pros that are eating to win digest a lot of items such as carrots and fruits, and stay away from eating giant three-course dinners that will result in nothing other than multiple trips to the rest room.
If preparing your own food before you go to the card room is just something you can’t imagine yourself doing, take a moment to search out all the options your casino offers.  Chances are you’ll find some decent items at the deli or snack shop, and if not you can scour the in-table menu for small plates of chicken breast or fruit.  It may not be as tasty as the double-layer cheeseburger, but the long term poker benefits will more than make up for it.
Chris Iaquinta

There are great live poker players and there are great online poker players, but being one does not automatically mean you’re also the other.  Online and live poker have a number of important differences between them, and being aware of these separations can help players that started their poker careers online make a safe transition to live play.

The biggest change from online poker to live poker is the comfort factor.  Online poker offers the benefits of being able to play in your own on your own time under optimal conditions.  Making good calls and laydowns is easier online because the stress that inherently comes from playing live poker is greatly diminished while playing online.  When you can physically see your opponent, emotions play a much larger factor in your decisions.  Maybe this one player is very annoying, loud, and has been bullying you at the table.  Now when it comes time to make an all-in call or laydown, you’re likely to have other elements such as anger or the need to not want to be embarrassed at the table factoring into the decision you need to make.  This is why you need to make sure you are prepared for the social aspects of live poker when you venture out into that world.

Another big problem online poker players have in the transition to live play is that they lose confidence in their hands and strategies.  It’s much easier to make a mathematically correct tough call online than it is live, as it’s far simpler to click “call” on your screen then to physically grab chips and put them in the middle.  Because of this, you’ll see online players laying down big hands simply because they feel out of their comfort zone in a live atmosphere.  The best way to overcome this problem is to build confidence in your own game.  If making a certain move is mathematically correct online, it will likely be just as good of a play in a live setting.

Learn to downplay the fear and social aspects of live play and you’ll be able to successfully bring your online expertise into the real world.

When entering the world of online poker, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of real-time poker against real-life players.

As a relative beginner, you can get drawn into betting big and playing hardball against players that have far more experience of poker online.

Because of this, it’s all the more important to remember to ease yourself in to the online game. You can’t see your opponents, so even if you have a good nose for smelling a bluff or an eye for reading body language, these skills aren’t going to come in handy compared to real-life poker.

One good way to ensure that you don’t get carried away is to play against fellow beginners (although be wary of this as you can get some poker sharks simply pretending to be new to the game.)

A more effective method of keeping your feet on the ground is to play ‘limit’ poker. This is the more cautious brother of no-limit hold ‘em and true to the name, there is a limit on the bets you can lay down.

Limit poker is played with fixed bets. In a 5 – 10c game of limit poker, the first two rounds (preflop and flop) all bets and raises are made in 5c increments. In the next two rounds (the turn card and the river card), bets and raises are made in 10c increments.

Playing this form of poker helps to ensure that you don’t get caught up in the moment – and even if you do, you’re not going to lose the amount of money you could playing no-limit poker.

Sit & Go’s (also known as SNG) can easily be some of most entertaining online poker you’ve ever played as long as you understand that they are quite unlike most other forms of poker (such as normal tournaments and cash games) and require a different type of strategy in order to be successful.  SNGs are (typically) single table tournaments where payouts go to the top three finishers and everyone else is left with empty pockets.  Since there are far fewer opponents to worry about overall than in a regular tournament and the blinds/antes also go up far faster, some key changes to your standard poker strategy will need to be implemented if you want to dominate the online SNGs.   Here are a few of them.

1.  Early Round Patience – The first couple of rounds in a SNG can definitely set the tone of how the entire match will play out, and it’s important to use this time to make some mental notes (or use the poker software to physically right them down) on the other players at the table to see if you can properly gauge to strategy.  I often recommend that you sit back and relax in the early rounds of a SNG, simply because there will usually be a couple of players that want to play too fast and too loose in comparison to what the format of a SNG allows.  Stealing blinds and small pots isn’t going to mean much at the beginning of a SNG since the blinds/antes will be fairly low in comparison to chip stacks, plus if you get overly invested in a hand and end up losing a lot of chips as a result, you’ve now ensured that the rest of the table will zero in on you as someone they may be able to quickly eliminate from the game.  Use the first rounds of a SNG to gather information, wait for premium hands, and ID the strength and weaknesses of the other players.

2.  Hand Selection – If you have a tight/aggressive poker style, you will be very well suited for the early levels of a SNG.  Getting involved in too many pots and flops with average to medium strength hands often times won’t benefit you enough to make it worth your while, and you’ll just give away precious chips in the process.  Instead, try to wait for hands that fall into the top ten hand range (such as AK and big pocket pairs) and hope that you can use the opportunity to extract a lot of chips from one or two players.  If the table is playing far too slow and the blinds and antes start to go up to an uncomfortable level then you will have no choice but to widen your hand selection, but make sure that the situation calls for it so that you don’t needlessly donate too many chips to other players.

3.  End Game Aggression – One of the biggest problem poker players have when playing SNGs is that they can’t make the necessary transition from tight to aggressive as the game progresses.  When the game is winding down to the last few players and the blinds and antes start to skyrocket, you can’t afford to sit there and wait for pocket aces, you need to make some moves.  Statistically, it is correct to always try and play for 1st place when you get down to the final three players.  Coming in 3rd will give you very little profit and second place is nice, but the real money comes when you win the whole thing.  Don’t sit back and wait for the other players to knock each other out at this stage of the tournament either, as you may just blind yourself off and be forced to move all-in with less than preferred cards.  Always play a SNG to win, never play to be satisfied with just 2nd or 3rd, because if you do, you’ll never see a profit.

By: Chris Iaquinta

Every time I play poker, both live and online, I always curse my luck when it appears that once again I have been stuck at a table that has a loud, foul-mouthed, reckless player that appears to be doing everything in their power to hinder/ruin mine and the tables poker fun. Turns out though that all my poker friends have the same story to tell of their own poker bully/chucklehead. I’ve personally never understood this type of behavior or the personality/mindset needed to manifest it, but it exists everywhere. While there are some obvious things you should avoid doing at a table in order to not make yourself out to be the bad guy of the group, there are a few lesser known bad poker etiquettes that you may be doing and annoying others with, perhaps even without knowing it.
1. Acting/Playing Slow – Poker, in a very general sense, is a game that should be played fast in terms of how many hands should be dealt in hour. More hands per hour equals better odds of you picking up better cards per hour, and nothing grinds that speed to a halt like a player that just can’t help but to play overly slow. This can be because they’re not paying attention to the game and have to be reminded when it is their turn to act, or maybe they’re watching TV, etc. Whatever the case may be, it is considered extremely rude to even unintentionally slow up a poker game. If you rather be watching TV, then leave the table and go watch TV.

2. Bad Language – Some people just like swear and curse, it’s understandable, but there’s differently a limit. A four letter profanity every once in awhile isn’t going to hurt too many feelings (unless the card room has a strict no swearing policy), but if you’re dropping f-bombs every time you lose a hand (or even win a hand), chances are a lot of the other players at the table aren’t going to want you around. That type of language can be distracting and can easily make others uncomfortable, so try to tone it down a little, because if a floor manager has to be called over to warn you¸ the next time you let one fly is probably going to result in a penalty of some sort or even ejection from the poker room.

3. Harassment/Name Calling – I know it sounds childish, but it’s amazing just how many older poker players resort to old-fashion 1^st grade name calling when they’re upset at a poker table. They’ll insult the skill level of other players, constantly rib them as the session progress, and create a really tense environment in the process. Just because Phil Hellmuth does it doesn’t mean it’s the cool thing to do, though unfortunately I fear that the reason many of pokers new breed do hurl insults regularly is because they see their favorite pros do it so often. That is one trait you do not want to pick up from our living legends.

One question I’m often asked by new and beginning poker player is where they should start to gain experience.  A live card room at a casino? One of the more popular online sites?  Is there a difference?  The answer, as you may suspect, is not all-encompassing, it heavily depends on the player in question.  Do you have the time to visit your local card room enough in order to gain adequate experience?  Are you comfortable enough with the basic computer skills needed to play online?

Another question to factor in, if possible, is to ask yourself what you believe your future in poker will be.  If your goal is to get good enough so that you can play in a lot of live tournaments, then you want to play mostly in brick & mortar card rooms.  However if you think you’ll end up spending most of your poker time playing online SNG’s and cash games, then obviously you want to focus your energy towards sites like Party Poker.

If you don’t know what your poker future holds, then there are some other determining factors you can use to help base your decision off of.  First, ask yourself if you have the patience to play for 4-5 hours in a live card room.  Fewer hands are dealt in a live room, which means you’ll be waiting longer for premium hands than if you were playing online.  If you only want to play poker an hour at a time, then a live card room isn’t going to work out too well for you.

On the flip side, if you enjoy human contact/conversation and even the social aspects of poker, a live setting is far more rewarding than the cold atmosphere that some players experience online.  Most players tend to keep to themselves online, so interaction can be at a bare minimum.  There’s also a certain satisfaction that comes from being able to hold the chips and cards in your hands instead of clicking a mouse, which is why I always try to find time to get in some live action instead of focusing mainly on online SNG’s.

Do a little soul searching and ask yourself what you want to get out of poker.  Your answers will help steer you towards the right training ground and get you started on the correct path.

By:Chris Iaquinta

When players are really gambling it up at the table, they often announce “I’m going to straddle.” So what is a straddle? A straddle is a third blind that is usually double the size of the big blind.  It is placed just to the left of the big blind.  In a $5/$10 no limit holdem game, the small blind is $5 and the big blind is $10.  If a player wants to straddle, the first player after the big blind or the “under the gun”, player places a third blind of $20 into the pot.  The action continues clockwise around the table and if a player wants to enter the pot they must call $20 instead of the original $10 big blind.  The “straddler” then has last action before the flop and has the option to raise.

So what effect does a straddle have on the game?  It makes the stakes of the game bigger by putting in a third blind and placing more money in the pot before the flop.  It sometimes causes more “action” as players now have an increased interest in playing for a bigger pot.  The disadvantage of straddling is that you are putting more money in the pot without looking at your cards and often times receive a poor hand.  You also will be playing a bigger pot out of position throughout the hand which is definitely another disadvantage.  To overcome this positional disadvantage, some poker rooms allow a “Mississippi straddle” which is the same as a regular straddle except it can be made from any position.  Players often use the “Mississippi straddle” in late position in a big bet game such as pot limit Omaha or no limit holdem because it creates a bigger pot while they are in position.

So the next time your poker game has hit a lull in the action, spice things up with a straddle and watch the fireworks start.

-this is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #218