Trouble hands in texas hold em

Just as there are many hands in Texas Holdem that will win you a lot of money, there are a number of deceptive hands that may lead you into believing that they are profitable when in real fact they will often lose you decent sums of money from your bankroll. The sooner that you learn about the hands that are costing you dearly, the sooner you can start saving yourself from losing money. This article will address the most common hands that novices play with and highlight the reasons as to why they can be dangerous hands to play.

The ‘any two suited cards’ is a very popular hand that all varieties of beginners like to play. A flush is a pretty strong hand in the game of Holdem, and so if you manage to make one there is good chance that you will win a nice bit of money with it. Therefore many new players to the game will be prepared to enter pots with any two cards as long as they are suited just in an attempt to catch a flush at some point during the hand. There are two reasons as to why playing any two suited cards is dangerous.

Firstly, it is not that much more likely that you will make a flush just because your cards are suited. The probability of making a flush in Holdem is pretty low, and so it does not justify calling bet and raises in an attempt to catch one on the flop. On top of this, amateur players will often continue to call bets and raises with bad pot odds to make a flush on future streets, which just adds to the problem of playing such hands. The second reason is that you can catch half a hand like second pair on the flop, and end up losing money to another player that has formed a better pair than you. So by playing random suited cards you are setting yourself up for two great opportunities to leak money, so don’t do it.

Another type of hand that always manages to cause the beginner poker players a problem is the low connecting cards. These are almost identical to the problems caused by any two suited cards and can help players to lose money over the long run. It is not too likely that you will form a straight every time you enter a pot with connecting cards like 5c 6h, so don’t enter the pot under the false pretences that you will. You will simply be losing more money in the long run, as well as losing money in pots where you catch half a hand and your opponent catches a stronger one. So save yourself some money and fold before the flop.

One final hand that amateur players get overly attached to is a rag ace. Rag aces are simply aces that are accompanied by a low ranking holecard below a Ten. The problem that these hands cause is that players find it difficult to let the hand go after they pair their ace, and so they will often end up losing a lot of (if not all) of their stack to a player that also makes a pair of aces but with a better kicker. The best way to play these types of hands is to exercise a little self-discipline and fold them before the flop. It is unlikely that you will win a big pot with them, but it is likely that you will lose a big one. Save yourself a bit of money by folding and catch out the other amateur players the next time when you hold a stronger ace than them.

Poker lovers united

An important initiative has started up and I think it is important for all of the true fans of poker to be made aware of it. It is poker lovers united.

Poker lovers united is an online petition to address the unfairly high charges levied by online poker sites around the world. All of the online poker websites charge in the region of 5% for each and every poker hand/pot/rake, which results in substantial charges for the players over an evening of poker. Most of these charges are levied without clearly informing the players.

With enough people on board for this petition, we can put pressure on the legislative authorities to enforce a fairer policy within their legislations, which in turn will ensure that none of the online poker websites can charge their users the rates they charge currently.



We will gather more strength by involving the local and regional consumer protection organisations in this movement.

I encourage all my readers to go to the site and get on board. Fill out the petition and stay informed. POKER needs your support.

Bluffing in Online Poker

Bluffing is poker’s magic elixir. It’s the sleight of hand where high art and drama reside. It’s the place where myths are made. After all, what’s a western movie without a poker scene with one player trying to bluff another out of a big pot? To those who do not play poker or who have only a nodding acquaintance with it, bluffing is where those folks focus most of their attention when they think about the game.


What is Bluffing, Anyway ?
Ask most poker players to define bluffing and they’ll tell you about betting a weak hand with the hope of driving other players out of the pot. After all, without bluffing, poker would be a boring game. Bets would be made and the best hand would w\n. Always. The cards figure to break even in the long run; without the possibility that someone is bluffing, then each player would have the same expectation - and when all was said and done, no one would win any money.

But some players win most of the time and some players lose most of the time. And it’s often bluffing - or more precisely the possibility that one’s adversary might be bluffing - that goes a long way toward separating the winners from the losers. Bluffing, after all, is merely a form of deception - and deception is an essential component in winning poker. After all. if your omonents always knew what cards you had they’d be tough to beat. Deception is the art of kkeping others off balance.


Different Kinds Of Bluffs


Bluffing comes in several forms -the reason for bluffing frequently depends on the cards you hold, what you think your opponents have in their hands, and what you think they believe you have. Betting - or raising - with a helpless hand. With this technique, you have a weak hand but act as if it’s a strong one. The maneuver is
reversible, too: You can act weak when holding an extremely powerful hand in order to lure opponents into a trap. Betting or raising on the inexpensive betting rounds. You use this bluff in order to get a free card later on in the hand -when the cost of bets double. Betting with a semi-b1uf.C Noted poker theorist David Sklansky, who coined the term, defines the semi-bluff as " . . . a bet with a hand which, if called, does not figure to be the best hand at the moment but has a
reasonable chance of outdrawing those hands that initially called it." With a semi-bluff, as opposed to a bluff with a helpless hand, a player has two ways to win:
His opponent might think the bluffer has the hand he’s representing and release his own hand. If the opponent calls, the bluffer might catch the card he needs and
beat his opponent that way.


Keep ‘em guessing
We have no easy answer about players who bluff some, but not all of the time. Opponents who bluff some of the time are better poker players than those found at either end of the bluffing spectrum. Better players, of course, can keep you guessing aboot whether or not they are bluffing. And when you’re forced to guess, you will be wrong some of the time. That’s just the way it is. Of course, you might be able to pick up a tell (a revealing gesture) and know when your opponent is bluffing, but that’s not too likely in most cases. The sad truth is that players who keep you guessing are going to give you much more trouble than predictable opponents.
In most low-limit games, players bluff much too often. After all, when you play fixed-limit poker, all it costs is one additional bet to see someone’s hand. And the pots are usually big enough, relative to the size of a bet, to make calling the right decision. Here’s an example: Suppose the pot contains $90, and your opponent makes a $10 bet. That pot now contains $100, and the cost of your call is only $10. Even if you figure your opponent to be bluffing only one time in ten, you
should call. By calling, the laws of probability suggest that you’d lose a $10 bet nine times, for a loss of $90. Although you’d win only once, that pot would be worth $100. After ten such occurrences, you’d show a net profit of $10. As a result, you could say that regardless of the outcome of any particular hand, each call was worth one dollar to you.


The threat of bluffing
The threat of a bluff is just as important as a bluff itself. A good player - one who bluffs neither too often nor too infrequently, and seems to do so under
the right conditions - has something else going for her too. It’s the threat of a bluff. Does she have the goods or is she bluffing? How can you tell? If you can’t, how do you know what to do when she bets? These answers don’t come easily, and even topnotch players are not going to have a terrific batting average in most cases. As a result, the threat of a bluff combined with the bluff itself, is designed to help a player win some pots that she would otherwise lose and to win more money in pots where she actually has the best hand. After all, if you have the best hand and come out betting, your opponent won’t always know whether you’re bluffing or not. If there’s a lot of money in the pot, she’ll probably call. That’s the less costly error. After all, if she were to throw the winning hand away and relinquish a big pot, that’s a much more costly faux pas than calling one additional bet. Bluffing and the threat of bluffing go hand in hand. A bluff can enable a player to win a pot she figured to lose if the hands were shown down. The threat of a bluff enables a player with a good hand to win more money than she would if her opponent knew she never bluffed.


The Bluffing Paradox
A successful poker player has to adopt a middle-ground strategy. This means that sometimes you’ll be called when you bluffed and lose that bet. Other
times you will release the best hand because an opponent successfully bluffed you out of the pot. Neither scenario is enjoyable. Just remember that making errors is inevitable when you deal with incomplete information. One can call too often or not enough. One can bluff too often or not at all. And the only way to eliminate errors at one extreme is to commit them at the other. Very cautious players, who never call unless certain of winning, avoid calling with a lesser hand, but often relinquish a pot they would have won.
Players who call all the time win just about every pot they can possibly win, but find themselves holding the short straw far too often when the hands are shown down. The paradox is that good players make both kinds of errors some of the time to avoid being a predictable player at either end of the bluffing-calling spectrum. After all, there’s a relationship between risk and reward. If you are never caught bluffing, you are either the best bluffer in the history of poker or you are not bluffing often enough. If you are caught almost every time you bluff, you’re bluffing much too frequently. If you call all the time, you will never lose a pot you could have won, and if you seldom call, your opponents will learn that they can win by betting and driving you off the pot unless you have a very strong hand. Bluffing, after all, is much like mom’s advice: "All things in moderation."


Not All Bluffs Are Created Equal
If the hands were to be shown down, you know you couldn’t possibly win. So you bet. "Nothing ventured," you think to yourself, "nothing gained." If someone
calls your bluff, you lose a bet you would have saved had you checked. But checking, of course, is tantamount to relinquishing your opportunity to
win the pot. If you bet, there’s always the chance that both your opponents will fold. If someone doesn’t call you, then you win the entire pot. Suppose that pot contains $100 and the cost to bet is $10. Your bluff doesn’t have to succeed all of the time - or even most of the time - for it to be a good decision.
If bluffing fails nine times and succeeds only once, you will still be a winner in the long run. You’ll have lost an extra $10 nine times, or $90, but you will win
$100 on one occasion, for a net win of $10. That net figure may not be a spectacular profit, perhaps, but enough to prove that bluffs have to succeed only
every now and then to be worthwhile.


Bluffing with more cards to come
When you bluff with more cards to come, you usually have two ways to win. The bluff might succeed on its own merits, causing an opponent to lay down
the best hand. In addition, you might catch the card you need on a succeeding round and actually make the winning hand. Imagine that you’re playing Hold’em and you raised before the flop with KvQv, and two other players call. Suppose the flop is 5 4 6 ~ 4If~ y.ou come out betting on the flop, you have any number of ways to win this pot. Your opponents could fold, and you’d win right there. But even if one or both call, you certainly shouldn’t mind. After all, any of the nine hearts in the deck can complete your flush.


Bluffing Strategies
Bluffing is tricky business. You never know for sure if you’ll be called or if you’ll be able to steal a pot out from under your opponent’s nose. The next time
you’re inclined to perform larceny at the poker table, keep these tips in mind:

-Be aware of how many players you’ll have to bluff your way through. While one or even two players can be bluffed, don’t think about trying to
bluff more than two opponents unless you really have strong reasons to believe you’ll succeed.

-Understand that a bluff doesn’t have to work to make it the correct decision. After all, you’re usually just risking one bet to win an entire pot
full of bets. Bluffing has to work only some of the time to be the right choice. And even when you’re caught, a bluff can be successful if it causes opponents to call when you are betting a strong hand.

-Avoid bluffing players who are either experts or brain dead. Instead, aim your bluffs at good opponents. Poor players will usually call " . . . to keep you honest," while experts are more likely to see through your chicanery.

-Don’t bluff for the sake of bluffing. Some players will bluff just to "advertise." There’s no need to do that. Bluff if you believe you have a reasonable chance to succeed. You’ll get plenty of advertising value because some of your bluffs will be picked off regardless of how well you assess your chances for success.

-Never bluff a hopeless hand when there are more cards to come. Instead, think about semi-bluffing, which allows you to win the pot two ways: Your opponents may fold, or you might hit your draw.

-Take the opportunity to bluff if all of your opponents check on the previous betting round. It’s even better if they’ve all checked on an expensive betting round. But your chances are diminished if any newly exposed cards appear to have helped one of your opponents.

- Imply specific hands. Bluffs that seem to represent specific hands, such if as flush or a straight, have a much better chance to-succeed than bets
that appear to come out of the blue.

- Zero in on weak players. It’s much easier to bluff players who have shown weakness by checking, than to bluff those who have shown strength by betting on the preceding round.

-Strive for a tight, aggressive image by playing the kinds of starting hands recommended in this book. This kind of image has a much better chance of running a successful bluff than a player with a loose image. If you are seen as selective, tight, and aggressive, your opponents will not suspect a bluff when you bet. When you have a license to steal, use it.

-Attempt a bluff occasionally when all the cards are out and you have nothing, but don’t overdo it. But if you have enough to beat a draw, save that additional bet and try to win in a showdown.

Mathematics of Poker | An introduction to Probability, Outs and Odds

Applying pot and win odds at the poker table is essential to making good poker decisions. Some experienced players can do this simply by their excellent feel and judgment for the

game, but most of us need to rely on mathematics to help guide us with close decisions. Players who understand how to apply odds in a poker game will have a significant advantage over most of their opponents, Let’s look at an example to demonstrate how to apply odds to make good poker decisions. You are playing in a $1-$2 game and are seated on the button. You hold K♥ T♥ and the board shows 9♥ 2♣ 4♦ A♥. An opponent bets $2 for a total pot of

$10. To simplify the example, we assume your opponent is betting a pair of aces

but will fold if another heart comes on the river. Should you call to try and improve


to a flush?

Understanding Implied Odds in No Limit Hold’em

Although poker is considered a game of skill due to the fact that superior players tend to win over the long term, there is an element of gambling involved. In any game with elements of gambling, odds are paramount. Casinos design their games so that the odds favor them. Similarly, successful poker players manipulate game situations so that the odds are on their side. Get a good look at all our featured online poker calculators

Understanding Pot Odds

Pot odds are the odds the pot is laying you to win the hand. If there is $40 in the pot and you must call $10 to continue, you are being offered pot odds of 40 to 10, or 4 to 1. How is this relevant? It means you need to win that pot at least one time out of five to break even. The one time you win the $40 will balance out the four times that you called $10 and lost. Of course, to be a winning player, you want to consistently get yourself into situations where the odds of you winning the hand are better than the pot odds. These calculations are pretty straightforward and there is even poker software on the market that can help you analyzing pot odds.


Understanding Implied Odds

Implied odds represent the pot odds with additional speculative money added to the pot based on the likelihood of winning future bets on later streets. For example, you play Texas hold em and has As 5s on a board of 8c 9s 3s. There is $100 in the pot and your opponent bets $50. You are being offered odds of $50 to win $150, or 3 to 1. Your odds of hitting the flush on the next card are 4 to 1 against. Mathematically, this would make it correct to fold. However, if you believe your opponent will call off more than $50 on the turn and river if you make your flush and bet, it would be correct to call.



Implied Odds Pitfalls

The problem with implied odds is that they are speculative. You must be very honest with yourself when deciding whether or not your opponent will pay off your flush. This determination should be based on your observation of the opponent over time and your analysis of the situation. You need to also consider the size of his stack. He might not even have enough left to pay you off in the amount you need. You can be more confident in your implied odds if there are multiple players still in the hand, since this gives you more players who may be willing to put money in the pot with a flush out against them. Also in online Texas holdem, players are usually more wiling to pay you off compared with live games.

You can be much more confident in your implied odds with a straight draw than a flush draw, since a straight draw is much better disguised. On a board of As Ts 3c 6s it is brutally obvious that someone who suddenly bets may have a flush draw. On the other hand, if the board is Qs Ts 3c Ac and the same player bets, it is much harder to put them on K J for the straight. They could just as easily be betting a paired ace or be semi-bluffing with a flush draw.


The Article forms a good introduction in the meaning of pot odds and implied odds but for more expert players it’s pretty uselss as it’s basic poker odds stuff. Nevertheless, I did get the powerful calculator Calculatem Pro through this page and Im still happy for it. I mean, Im pretty smart but lazy as well and I can count all my odds myself but just dont have the time or energy to do it. Now Calculatem Pro does it for me and I can say it has brought me lot’s of winnings and prevented me from making an awful lot of mistakes as well!
Jannes Hansson
Götenborg, Sweden

Inducing Blufs - Playing Mentality Poker

When you are making a bet it is always important to understand the purpose of the bet and how your opponent will see it. Each bet, check, or raise you make needs to have a purpose and as you play it is important to define that purpose for each hand you play. Often the biggest mistakes in poker are made when we take medium strength hands too far. We inflate the pot size for our hand and then get into trouble on later streets when our hand becomes 2 nd best or our opponent already had a better hand.


The point of bluff induction is two fold. First we attempt to minimize the pot size with a medium strength hand in order to see a showdown and prevent ourselves from getting all-in with the worst of it or be bluffed off our hand. Second we try to give our opponent some rope and hope he makes a misplay and puts money in the pot with a bluff. Being able to correctly induce bluffs and control the size of the pot are key skills for a no limit player.





Most importantly our goal is force our poker opponents into bad situations and have them make bad bets while protecting ourselves from making similar bad bets. Since each bet we make must have a purpose we need to consider: Am I value betting or bluffing in this spot? Will my opponent call with a worse hand here or am I trying to push him off a better hand? One of the most paramount skills for a no limit player is the ability to make a stark contrast between his bluffs and value bets. The power of bluff induction comes in the middle, often when our hand is only just strong enough to value bet but too good to turn into a bluff. These are situations where we are neither bluffing nor value betting because our hand strength is mediocre. Instead of making a bet that has no meaning we instead choose to check with the intention of calling and allow our opponents to bet worse hands.


Most players don’t use bluff induction enough in their game. Instead they focus too much on their own hand strength. They will often double barrel on Axx or Kxx boards with top pair medium kicker. While this play has its place and is often provides a solid place to bet again on the turn often a higher expected value play will come from checking and allowing your opponent to bet. Consider, your opponent has already called one bet, he has a hand why not let him try to push you off your medium strength hand instead of betting and allowing him to play better. What I mean by this is often when you value bet with mediocre holdings on the turn and river you are allowing your opponents to fold out worse hands and call/raise with better hands. It is situations like this that we look for when we attempt to induce bluffs.


With the increase in post flop playback over the past year in online games bluff induction has become an increasingly important tool. Although being able to make re-bluffs and replay-backs can help you deal with playback as well it is often easier and safer to use bluff induction as your main tool to stop your opponents from making too many bluff flop raises and floats. If you are playing your hands in too straightforward of a fashion you will push your opponents out of the pot when you still have value to extract and allow them to play their hands far too easily.


Bluff induction isn’t just a powerful tool for the reasons I have already mentioned. If we are able to read our opponents hands well and can make good big calls we can use our bigger hands and even our weaker hands to induce bluffs. Instead of betting on the flop with a weak top pair perhaps we check and let our opponents do the betting in the hand for us. Or perhaps we check the flop with a good hand in order to get opponents with weaker hands to call value bets on later streets. No matter the specific situation bluff induction can be a great tool in order to extract value because it leaves your hand values more open ended then continuously value betting. For example, if we choose to value bet our hands over and over we never correctly punish opponents who playback by just calling on earlier streets to attempt to take the pot away later. We don’t punish players who attempt to bluff their missed draws on the river and we just don’t get enough value for our hands.

Online Poker Cheating: Why Collusion Doesn’t Work

Author:Timmor L. White

Immediately after the first Internet-poker website went virtual, people began to wonder if there might be a way to beat the system through cheating. It didn’t take long for players to realize this fact: While they were playing online poker, they could be speaking on the telephone to another player at the same table, and no one else would be the wiser.


This idea of working with another player was not new to the world of poker. At brick-and-mortar poker establishments, players have been teaming up for as long as there has been gambling. Two players go to a cardroom and sit at the same poker table. They have a predetermined system of signals to communicate with each other about their hands. The theory is that, together, they can better manipulate the betting and, eventually, win a lot of money. This form of cheating is called collusion.



In practice, making collusion profitable is an iffy proposition. It is far more difficult to execute properly than most people imagine. Nonetheless, done skillfully over a long period of time, two colluding poker players can gain an advantage over the rest of the table. For that reason, cardrooms and casinos have policies in place to watch for collusion. Should they spot
evidence of two players working together in this manner, they will promptly ban those players from their establishment.



Online poker is a different story altogether, and you can see why. With online poker, there is no physical poker table where players actually see each other with their own eyeballs. When you play poker online, you could be doing anything. Players can (and do) post probability charts next to their computers, sit at their computers naked, loudly swear and curse and give
tells like crazy. Anything and everything is okay, since players cannot see what other players are doing. There are activities that no player would dream of doing while seated at a game in person, but those same activities can be done easily when playing poker online.

Included in this list of possible activities is talking to other players. At an in-person game, it is not possible to carry on a secret conversation with one of the other players at the table. You cannot discuss your hand and devise joint strategies to defeat your opponents while you are involved in the game. Obviously, if you tried to do this, other players would know what you are doing. But that is not the case online. Online poker seems perfect for such strategies of collusion.



Players collude in online poker games all the time. Often, those players think they are the first people ever to devise such a brilliant scheme. They congratulate themselves on their cleverness. In truth, they are late to the party. It is estimated that as many as one out of every five online poker tables contains at least some players working in collusion in some way. Is this collusion effective? Not really. Most players who try it, do so only for a while, and then give up after they notice they are not generating any more profit than they normally do. Often, the colluding players actually end up earning less than normal. Such players eventually conclude that working in cahoots with another player is more bother than it is worth, at least for them.
So, what are they doing wrong? Why do their efforts at collusion fail to produce a profit? There are four basic reasons why simple collusion does not work for most players:


1) The players do not communicate effectively. In most cases, players do not have a clear system of communication worked out before they get on the phone with each other and start blabbing about their hands. As a result, misunderstandings and mistakes are common.


2) They do not play well. For most players, the added complication of constantly dealing with another person, analyzing his hands and figuring out strategy with him, is too much added mental baggage. These players do not concentrate as well on the things they should be concentrating on during the game. The most common result is that they play too many poor and marginal hands. These players are eager to get in there and start using their new perceived advantage, and as a result, they play too many hands and play them badly.





3) They are only two players strong. Rarely do colluders get more than two people to go in on their scheme at one time, and that is not enough. Three or more players on a multi-way phone conversation is bedlam, and highly ineffective. It can never work to produce results. And two players are not enough to influence a game and its probabilities a sufficient amount to make much difference, especially if there are another four to eight players seated at the same table. Two guys sitting at a table of ten are not likely to accomplish much, no matter how good they are at their little plan.


4) They don’t know what to do. This is the biggest reason why online collusion fails for most players. They sit there on the phone with their buddy, and they just know they have some kind of an advantage over the rest of the table. However, they simply do not know what to do with their newfound power. They do not know how to use it.


If you are one of the millions of online poker players who suddenly get the bright idea to collude with a friend while you play, I offer you this advice: don’t bother. If you persist in putting your little brainstorm to the test, go right ahead, but you will soon find your dreams of poker riches dashed upon the rocks of reality. True, there are ways to cheat at online poker. Many players do so every day. But colluding with a friend is not one of those ways. Talking on the phone with your buddy while playing is a sure path to failure. Just in case you are open to hearing my message, I thought I’d save you the trouble and disappointment of trying this shortsighted scheme.


Timmor L. White is the founder and president of Online Poker Systems and the OPS Group. With a background in Internet technology, he is active in the study and reporting of online-poker playing strategies.