It’s easy to understand why many players like to see a lot of flops, but unless you have a large stack and are playing in a relatively light game, you’re probably giving away more money than you need to. One reason so many of us like to play any two cards is because we see our favorite pro players doing the same. The major difference between them and us though is that they have the ability to outclass their opponent more often than we can when they miss the flop. Playing a wide-open hand selection style requires high-level player reading ability and discipline.

Does the theory change if you’re playing a cash game or in a tournament? Again, your chip count in comparison to the blinds and the other players will be the determining factor. In a cash game where you are doing well, there is not too much reason to open up your hand selection all that much. The blinds are always going to stay the same, which allows you much more freedom to sit back, be patient and wait for premium hands. The major drawback to this method though is that it can make you extremely predictable, so you need to be able to realize when your opponents have figured out that you’re only getting involved in pots with premium hands, because that would represent the right time to open up a little and play some marginal to medium strength cards.

But, this doesn’t mean play any two cards in any position. In early position you still need to avoid absolute junk hands like 9-4, and still be very selective about hands like K-J, A-10, etc, the reason being that you can get overly committed to a pot, only to easily find yourself dominated. If there isn’t a lot of pre-flop raising at the table, you may consider limping with suited connectors and small pocket pairs in early position, as if these hand combinations flop big you can make some nice gains.

Overall, if you need some kind of guideline to follow, you can always adhere to the top ten starting hands in poker (Google it), and then work your way down from there when it comes to deciding just what hands you want to add to your repertoire as you progress.

By: Chris Iaquinta

There are many difficult aspects in poker, but having to throw a good hand away is one of the hardest.  While other areas of your poker game may easily improve with time, such as hand selection and the ability to read other players, being able to lay down made hands is something that almost never gets easier for poker fanatics to do, even at the professional level.  While there are many factors that can play into the decision on whether or not to toss the hand into the muck, it’s your emotional state of mind that contributes the biggest part.

Ideally, you should be making laydown decisions based mostly on the facts at hand with maybe a pinch of instinct.  Is it very likely your hand is still good and that your opponent bluffs a lot?  Could they have been trapping you this whole time and you’re now drawing dead?  Do you have enough chips to survive in the cash/game tournament if you call and are wrong?  These are the right questions to be asking, unfortunately most of us focus on the negative aspects of the situation, such as not wanting to get pushed around by another player, hence we make an emotional decision instead of an intelligent one.

You need to discipline yourself to try and not get too heavily emotionally involved in any hand.  Don’t get married to your pocket aces just because this is the first time you’ve had them all week, if the correct move is to fold, then fold.  The same goes for a player that’s been bullying you all night.  Don’t make a huge call just because you want to finally get even with them, that is an emotional decision.

I like to base most of my big decisions on a profit/loss outlook.  Is the amount of chips I can win, combined with the facts of the situation, make calling the majority of the time a smart move?  Or am I putting way too many chips at risk when I could easily be dominated by a wide range of hands?  My goal is to always extract the maximum amount of chips when I’m confident I’m a huge favorite in a hand, and minimize my chip losses when I’m unsure of my overall hand strength against an opponent.  Using that simple rule of thumb should make it a lot easier the next time you need to toss a juicy hand away.

By: Chris Iaquinta

The majority of questions people emailing me every week deal with why pro players are so much more successful than the typical or even above average player. They wonder, “If I’m playing only the best hands, at limits I can afford against players that aren’t as good as me, how come I’m not making as much money as I should be, and how come the pros are?” The answer is, you’re not reading your opponents well enough, and in some cases, you’re not bluffing enough (especially in tournaments).

Pro players can crush rookie/novice/amateur and even other professional players both when they have the nuts, but more importantly when they don’t. You don’t need to have the best hand, you just need to make sure your opponent doesn’t have it either, and also to make sure that they know enough about poker to lay down a hand when it gets too expensive to chase the last card they need to win.

Bluff’s and tells are easily the most difficult part of the game to learn to implement, and I was thrilled when I learned that Phil Hellmuth’s 4^th and final DVD in his “Million Dollar Secrets” series covered bluffing and tells. Phil is regarded as one of the best mental minds in Poker, and also one of the best at bluffing, picking up tells, and reading his opponents. To be able to consistently win at tournaments and cash games, he knows that you just can’t wait for the stone cold nuts every time. Sometimes you can win the biggest pot of the night with 2^nd pair and a crappy kicker, something most players would lay down, but if your able to correctively deduce that your still holding the best hand or at least that your opponent isn’t holding a hand strong enough to call a large bet, you can take down the pot, get the money, and increase your overall win percentage. That’s what separates the pros from the rest of the pack.

Among other important area’s, Phil’s final DVD in the Million Dollar series covers such theories as:

• Reading your opponent like a book

• Trapping when you have a strong hand

• Winning even if your hand is weak,

• Knowing when and how to bluff

But by far my favorite section was “sensing your opponent’s weaknesses and strengths”. After watching the video, you’ll be amazed at just how much information a opponent will give away to you in the course of a hand, a match, and over a lifetime of playing with him. And I’m not talking about the weird tells you see in the movies where whenever the guy bluffs his right eye twitches or stupid junk like that, but instead learning how to recognize betting patterns, physical idiosyncrasies, and basically seeing if the story your opponent is trying to tell you adds up or not.

After watching this video, I completely dominated all my weekly home games, being able to guess with above consistent accuracy whether or not someone had the flush, the straight, or even more complicated decisions like whether or not their kicker to the Ace was better than mine or not. I was able to amaze friends by knowing when they held a big pocket pair, as well as when they held nothing! A few more weeks of practice, and I was doing the same in live casinos with people I had never played before. This DVD won’t make you capture 100% of every bluff, or every tell, but all you need to do is be right the majority of the time for your winnings to increase.

Easily my fav. DVD of the group, and a complete must for anyone playing for limits higher than nickels and dimes.

By: Chris Iaquinta

I don’t normally enjoy watching a player go on tilt or bust out for his last few remaining chips, but I must admit that I do enjoy the occasional smirk every time I see someone grossly overplay big pocket pairs like aces. Are pocket rockets the best starting hand in poker? Absolutely! Do they guarantee victory? Not even close, however when most players look down to see those two As staring back at them, they automatically start thinking about not how they need to play the hand in order to win, but rather how many chips they’re already going to scoop.

This miscalculation on how to play aces is even more damaging in a SNG, where players will normally rush to push their chips all-in since the single table format encourages quick, tournament life-threatening decisions. As a result, it is rare to see someone not risk a large amount of their chips with aces, no matter how the board comes. So how can you survive being dealt the “invincible pocket pair”?

The first step is to remove all delusions you might have about aces. They’re aren’t uncrackable, nor do they guarantee that you’ll be drawn out on by someone with something like 8-7. You need to treat them realistically. They are a statistical favorite pre-flop against any other hand. So with this knowledge, how do you precede? Do you limp in and try to survive against five opponents or go heads up and potentially win the minimum amount of chips?

The ideal situation would be to try to use your aces to double up against a single opponent. If the board is dry and doesn’t put a lot of danger out there for your hand, then you can try and set a trap, hopefully extracting a worthwhile amount of chips from your opponents stack in the process. However, you need to avoid putting yourself at unnecessary risk when there are flush, straight and full house opportunities with the flop, turn and river, as your single pair may now be easily crushed. And remember, although aces are the best possible single pair, they are still just a single pair.

By Chris Iaquinta

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.

So, you’re relatively new to poker but you’ve been playing for a little while now and want to try your hand online.

You’re not an expert yet, but you certainly have a good grasp of the rules and are ready to take your game to the next level.

There are a few things to consider when embarking on your online adventure and it’s important to remember that although the rules are the same as real life poker, the game play is almost entirely different.

What could make it difficult is the fact that you can’t see or interact properly with any other players. A big part of poker is being able to read your opponents – and without being able to see them, you’ll need to rely on lady luck that little bit more.

One way of combating this to a certain extent is to increase your level of patience. Sit and wait for a little while. If you have a hand that you might normally play big with, hold off, make your imaginary knock and see how that round pans out.

You have to learn to observe everything. Because you can’t see the player, it’s difficult to remember and associate their actions with their username easily.

It helps to make notes of anything that sticks out as being a character trait of that player. If JohnJohnson82 has a habit of betting small and then keeps raising the stakes to an outrageous figure on the final flop, make a note.

Next time you see that he’s in the round, make sure that you’re confident your hand will win, otherwise you know that he’s going to bet big and force you out of the game – losing all the money that you’ve already put in the pot.

I love the occasional big tournament and I don’t mind sitting hours on end at a juicy cash game, but the problem with both of these forms of poker is that they can require a multi-hour time commitment, something that not every poker has to offer. Luckily, there exist Sit ‘n Go (SNG) tournaments. The standard SNG is a single table tournament that pays the top three spots and starts out with 9 to 10 players. SNGs are a great way for new players to get involved in tournament poker because they offer low buy-ins, few opponents, and the opportunity to cash easily if you understand the differences in strategy involved with playing a SNG versus a regular tournament. Lets take a look at a few of them.

1. Controlled Patience: Since so many SNG buy-ins are cheap, you’ll see a lot of players playing recklessly during the starting levels, as they simply don’t care about the money and just want to try and bully the table. This strategy can work, but it is far too dangerous of a way to play during the opening rounds of a SNG simply because the blinds are too low and you often will have to risk too many chips in order to pick up minimal pots. Instead, take the early rounds as an opportunity to wait for premium hands, gain information on your opponents, and get an overall feel for the table. Is everyone playing super tight, super loose? Since it’s a single table tournament you’ll be playing against the same players from beginning to end, and many of them will continue to play the same way from their first hand to the last, so be patient in the beginning, gather information, and pick your spots.

2. Don’t Blind Off: Since only the top three spots typically pay out in a SNG, many players will often let their chips dwindle down to nothing, all while hoping that enough players get knocked out in the meantime in order to place themselves in the money. This strategy is terrible on every level. SNGs are typically only profitable in the long run when you win, so you shouldn’t ever be aiming to just come in third or even second. Secondly, if your chips get far below the average stack at the table, you will be bullied by the majority of the players, which will eventually result in you having to go all-in with a mediocre hand, which normally leads to elimination. The rule of thumb to follow is as soon as your down to about 10 times the big blind in chips, you are now just looking for spots to go all-in and double up. Small pocket pairs or hands like A-J? You’ll have to shove and hope that you double up, otherwise you’ll blind yourself out of the tournament.

3. Play to Win: As I mentioned above, the payouts for 3^rd and 2^nd place in the typical SNG is not profitable in the long run, therefore you must always play to win. Playing to win doesn’t mean playing recklessly, but it also doesn’t mean to fold every hand while waiting for the other players to eliminate each other. When you make it to the final three, your play will almost always have to switch styles and become more aggressive, because smart SNG opponents will do the same, and you can’t afford to fold hand after hand in a heads-up or three-handed situation. If you get the opportunity to eliminate an opponent when your down to the final three, you can’t be afraid to take it, as those extra chips will put you on the fast track to an overall victory, which is the only way to make long term profits from SNGs.

By: Chris Iaquinta

If you’ve entered the poker world within the past 2-3 years, chances are your playing way more of your poker online than in a actual casino. While online gambling used to be widely viewed as dark and seedy as playing in an old style Vegas casino. Now with sites like PartyPoker boasting tens of thousands of players online at any given point in the day, it’s now one of the fastest growing trends in America.

Personally, I make around 50-70% more money playing online then I do in a brick and motor casino. The players are less experienced, you can play more hands an hour, you can play multiple tables at once, keep online notes, not to mention the comfort level of playing from the safety of your couch or computer desk at home inside of sitting in a $5 chair for 8 hours or more. If you want to be able to contend with many of the new players out there today, you need to put in some serious online time, but without the proper tools and tips, you’ll lose money faster than ever for the reasons that you can make more than ever.

Utilizing the same great visual aids as his other works, Hellmuth was one of the first pro’s to release a video that deals specifically with playing online poker, and still true to this date, he is the most successful online player to do so. Some of the topics he covers includes:

• Online pot odds

• Playing multiple games at once

• Winning online cash games and tournaments

Some of the most useful tips I pulled from watching the DVD were the different information gaining techniques that you can employ even though you can’t physically see the other players face. Phil teaches you have to exploit the typical lazy nature of online players (It’s a lot easier to call a big bet when all you have to do is press a button, not shove in a stack of real chips), and how to maximize your effectiveness without putting yourself at great risk.

Still, I don’t recommend playing multiple tables at once until you’re consistently winning at a certain limit level, and even then you should drop down one level for each extra table your playing on until your comfortably winning at all of those. Online poker is definitely here to stay, and with more and more newer, less experienced players signing on everyday, even the greenest rookie can be making money by day one with the right information, the kind of info that right now is only available on Million Dollar Online Poker Secrets.

By: Chris Iaquinta

Developed by BioTools, Inc., Poker Academy Pro hit the market where (much like the poker book and DVD industries) a number of poorly designed and produced titles had already come before it. Their approach is “most of us learn best by doing”. So the theory is, the more hands you play, the better you’ll become. Sounds about right to me.

Poker Academy offer’s a bevy of AI opponents to play against in a vast number of different sceanario’s, and while granted playing against a computer is different than playing against a real person, you’ll be amazed at how much you can learn by just playing against the computer, researching your mistakes after the hand is played out, and being able to correct your play right on the spot, for again, free. If knowledge is power, than Poker Academy is lighting in a bottle.

So those looking for quick answers on percentages, odds and so forth, Poker Academy offers up the “Showdown Calculator”, where you can select up to ten players, set their cards to any two you want (Or even unknown to you). You can then set the board (Flop, Turn, River) to any real or unknown cards, and then set Poker Academy to run all possible combinations, going through all of the unknown cards, and then letting you know how many times each player will win, lose or tie each hand. You set a large number of unknown cards, and try out a hundred thousand different possibilities, experience that would require years of live sit-down poker to even begin to compare to having that probable information.

This is particularly useful if you’re a No Limit player, where frequently you will be in the position to move All In or call an All In from another player. Using the Showdown Calculator, I was able to easily recall my percentages of winning the showdown in a real game, and this allowed for me to make the best decision the majority of the time, which really is the only secret to winning in poker.

Other tools include a Hand Evaluator, which analyzes any current hand you load up and then look at its specifics, allowing you to see its mathematical strengths and weaknesses, as well as information on how tight/loose the AI is playing and how that affects the probable strength of your hand. Running a quick simulation with the Hand Evaluator will allow you to see a large combination of future board and hole cards, so that you can figure out how many times your expected to win, lose or tie.

For the more detail oriented player like myself, you’ll find use in the Player Statistics window. Here I was able to monitor my progress and was able to determine if my play was improving in short growths, or steadily over time. Using the Statistic’s window I was also able to track abnormalities in my play, like when a AI opponent sucked out on me at the river, which made me play rather “on tilt” poker afterwards, which of course lead to a dent in my bankroll. Being able to micro-manage my poker career to this extent is what in the real world makes the difference between players that make money for a living, and those that play for a hobby, and lose.

Combine all of this with that the fact that you can use Poker Academy for all current forms of Windows (98/Me/NT/2000/XP) and event Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar), a unlimited amount of bots and AI opponents to play against, and tracking and analytical tools that will expose every strength and weakness of your game, I can strongly recommend that any player serious about playing for a living, or any player in general that wants to turn their game around from a losing hobby to a prosperous venture needs to pick up a copy immediately.

By: Chris Iaquinta