Poker Education

Hello and thanks for coming by. It is time to define more terms that will come up as you work to win on money poker sites. I hope you are enjoying my alphabetical progress as much as I am. At the very least it prevents me from sitting here for minutes on end trying to decide between all the poker terms in the dictionary.

The first term I will define is ICM, which is short for Independent Chip Model. If you enjoy sit & gos on a Full Tilt Poker download, ICM is incredibly important. It assigns a cash value to your chips when there are less than 10 players remaining in a tournament.

It’s pretty slim pickings for the letter J, so we will just go over “jam”. If you have some free poker training and the instructor recommends that you jam, he is saying to go all-in. It is interchangeable with the terms “shove” and “push”.

My next word is “kill”. If you decide not to download Roulette in favor of poker at the local brick-and-mortar, one of your options will probably be a kill game. When someone wins two pots in a row, they are required to pay an extra blind the next hand. A half kill is one and a half times the big blind and a full kill is two times the bid blind. Passive players that lose a lot of money on poker flash sites will probably enjoy kill tables since they have the ability to slow aggressive players down a bit.

When someone makes a move “light”, they are doing it with a hand that is usually second best. Say you are playing on Tiger Gaming and you get dealt 74 in the big blind. A player that opens frequently in late position raises on the cut-off, and you decide to reraise since you assume he is weak a large percentage of the time. He is likely raising light in late position, and you are reraising light in return. You should encounter these types of hands often on poker sites.

Well that was my last term for this entry. In December I will start with the letter M and I plan to have plenty of great examples ready to go. To keep yourself busy, be sure to play lots of poker.

Time for another entry full of poker terms you would benefit from learning when you download money poker sites. Last time I left off at the letter E.

Whether you prefer tourneys or cash games on Ultimate Bet for Mac, “effective stacks” is a word that comes into play very often. When two players are in a pot, the maximum either of them can bet is the amount that the shorter stack has. The shorter stack is the effective stack. If you have 3,400 chips and your opponent has 2,200, the effective stack is 2,200.

For the letter F I chose the term “flip”, an idea you might encounter while playing with friends on a Lucky Ace Poker download. If you decide to participate in a flip, you must push your entire stack in with any two cards that you are dealt. You might be thinking to yourself that this does not coincide with the definition of flip you heard the other day. Well a flip can also describe a situation in which you have 50% equity. For example, if you sit at a cash table and you get it all-in preflop with QQ vs AK, this is referred to as a flip since you take down the pot around 50% of the time.

I wanted to review the term “gutshot” next. A gutshot is any straight draw with just 4 outs. For example, say you chose to play some hands rather than play Craps online, and you get dealt 78 preflop. You open limp on the button and you get A46 on the flop. The straight draw you have is called a gutshot since there is only one card that can come to make your hand (four outs). The word gutshot is interchangeable with “inside straight draw”.

I chose “Hero fold” for the letter H. It is a hero fold when you reluctantly lay down a strong hand. Pretend that you are sitting at tables on your Everest Poker download and you are playing with someone that you have never seen raise before. You peel 45 and get a 678 flop, but instead of folding or calling, your opponent decides to raise! Folding this hand following a single raise is definitely a case of a hero fold. It may seem nitty, but unlike most other games, poker is a thinking game and sometimes tough decisions are needed.

That’s it for me today, but I will be sure to continue on when I write another entry in a few weeks. Between now and then, hopefully you play a ton of hands. Give PokerStars a try if you have not already done so. Tu primer juego de póquer, tu primer torneo, tu primer pozo. Empieza donde está lo mejor del póquer. No esperes más para descargar PokerStars.

A few months ago I went over a number of common poker terms that are important to know if you are working towards beating money poker sites. I thought that I would do that again with some new terminology for my next few entries. To entertain myself, I will go in alphabetical order and choose one term per letter. I hope you are as excited as I am ;)

For the beginning of the alphabet, I would like to describe the word “ante”. If you would like to play tournaments on a PartyPoker bonus code, this is a very important term to know. An ante is a bet that must be paid by all players at the table before the hand is dealt. The ante is usually around a tenth of the big blind, although it can be more or less depending on the game.

Here’s a word for which you probably already know the definition: “bluff”. When someone bluffs, they are representing a stronger hand than the one they actually hold in order to make better hands fold. If you want to see a bluff in action, you probably just need to watch high stakes poker after you download Full Tilt Poker (since it is a key way to take down pots).

Regarding the third letter of the alphabet, I will define “chip dumping”, an offense that the best online poker sites all take very seriously. Chip dumping occurs when someone intentionally loses their chips to someone else. People will do this to share chips in a tournament, for example, but the seriousness of the situation becomes apparent when you consider that chip dumping can also be used for money laundering. Now you know why US poker sites always have a security team looking out for suspicious betting patterns on the tables.

When you are taking advantage of free poker training, you will probably read about “dirty outs” every so often. You have a situation of dirty outs when cards that improve your hand improve an opponent’s hand even more. For example, pretend you are playing cash games on Tiger Gaming and have an open ended straight draw on a board with a couple hearts. If you turn your straight with a card that is a heart, this could be a dirty out since someone may have also made a flush.

I think that is good for now, but I will be back sometime in October. Between now and then, perhaps you should try a Bwin Poker download. Take care!

My next entry is going to inform you of a training website that focuses on Sit-N-Go (SNG) tourneys on money poker sites. SNGs are tourneys that don’t start until they’ve reached a predetermined number of entrants. For example, you can register for a one table SNG, and the cards start being dealt once the 9th player registers. Most SNGs have one or two tables, but they can also be heads-up or over 20 tables. Even if you play Mac poker, your room of choice should have SNGs available.

SitnGoGrinders.com specializes in SNG play. Since the payout structure of a SNG is known from the start, there are specific tactics that can be employed to ensure higher profits. SitnGo Grinders has a wealth of SNG information on their site including articles and videos, and all their instructors have proven themselves as winners in poker. While you are not likely to find free poker training here, you’ll still probably find the membership fee a bargain. There is no sign up fee, and a month of video access works out to around $20. If you’re thinking long term, you should think about signing up for the entire year because $129 will give you access for a full year and then each month after that is just $10.

SitnGo Grinders is one of the newer training sites out there, so they don’t have as many videos as some of the best online poker training sites. They release a new video daily, so the video selection should keep growing at a decent pace. The selection will still keep you busy for several hours the way it is, though. You’ll find hundreds of videos for both 6 max and multi-table SNGs, all played on top Texas Holdem sites. There are close to a hundred videos for full ring and heads-up games, which is less than the other categories but still not too shabby.

Several of the video makers make their videos on a PokerStars download. These players likely chose PokerStars because of the VIP program as the majority of them are either Supernova or Supernova Elite players. These statuses show that they spend countless hours grinding SNGs, which is what you’d expect when looking at the name of the site! The videos offered start at very low buy-ins but go up to nose bleed stakes, so there’s a little something available for everyone.

If your game of choice is cash on your Titanpoker download, you will not find anything useful on this site. If you’re a multi-table tournament player, you won’t have any videos targeted to your game either, but there’s a chance you could benefit from the instruction regarding ICM. Despite the fact you’ll need to go elsewhere to learn other games, it’s still an excellent site given its prices. If you’re a SNG player on US friendly poker sites, it’s safe to say that you’ll greatly benefit from the in depth strategy that they offer.

So far I’ve introduced two training sites that focus on cash games on money poker sites, so today’s entry will describe a site that creates videos for MTTs. Poker Pwnage came out relatively recently, and their main goal is to turn out poker videos for those that play tournaments on download free poker sites. If you want to join, you must pay $35 as your membership fee and then monthly it’s $24.99. Comparing it to the sites from the previous entries, it’s cheaper than Cardrunners but more expensive than GrinderSchool.

If you just can’t win any of the tournaments you play on your Bwin Poker download, it might be time to look into Poker Pwnage. Their catalog contains over 300 online poker videos, and they were made by a number of successful multi-table tournament poker professionals. If you followed this year’s World Series of Poker, you might know that two of their instructors made final tables. Adrian “Chardrian” Dresel-Velasquez cashed for $43,000 in a Limit event and David “GhettoFabolous” Randall cashed for $270,000 in a No Limit event.

If you hate MTT poker but love Sit-N-Go’s with your Titanpoker bonus code, you’ll also be happy with Poker Pwnage. The instructors play stakes that start as low as $10 and go up to over $100, and you can find 6 max and heads-up games if you don’t like full ring. There’s a lot of stuff covering basic strategy, but it’s possible to also find some advanced tactics since US friendly poker sites are not easy to beat sometimes. Even if you’ve been playing since the Moneymaker boom, you’ll still learn a few things from these videos.

Do not sign up with this site if you are looking for help with Daniels Room poker. Right now there are only five cash videos, and who knows when the next one is coming out. If you prefer HORSE games after using your PokerStars marketing codes, this site is also not for you. They feature strictly Hold Em, and it doesn’t look like they plan to change this anytime soon.

It’s a refreshing change to come across a site that focuses on tournament play, so most people won’t criticize their lack of cash strategy. As you watch the videos, you can be confident that the advice you will get is capable of turning you into a winning player. Once you’ve received some professional advice, perhaps you won’t be required to make an additional deposit on your Everest Poker download ever again!

Last time I wrote about GrinderSchool, a training site that makes poker videos for beginner players trying out money poker sites. Today I will discuss Cardrunners, possibly the most recognized and respected training site online these days. The site was developed by Taylor Caby and Andrew Wiggins, and since 2008 they’ve been partnered with the Full Tilt download. The site features a great variety of online poker videos for almost any buy-in you want to learn about.

When you sign up for Cardrunners, you’ll be able to have a small amount of free poker training, but you’ll need to pay a membership fee to check out the best content. If you are still nursing a small bankroll, you might find the fees rather high: you get charged $100 to sign up, and then you must pay $30 per month to keep accessing the site. Serious players on an Everest Poker download will learn that these fees are actually a bargain given what’s received in return. Today there is an excess of 1800 videos available for streaming and download, and every week at least seven more are released.

Like a lot of the sites out there, cash games receive special treatment at Cardrunners. They have a great selection of 6-max videos on top Texas Hold’em sites due to popular demand, and the Full Ring catalog has gotten better over the past couple of years. If you’re more into either Limit or Heads-Up, you will also be pleased with the variety of videos you get to choose from.

For those that play mostly poker flash tournaments or Sit-N-Go’s, Cardrunners might not be the absolute best choice because their obvious focus is most certainly ring games. I’m not saying that the tournament videos are bad – the selection is still better than most sites, and they range from low to nosebleed stakes. For people that play tournaments occasionally, Cardrunners is the best choice as they still make a lot of videos for MTTs and Sit-N-Go’s to go along with their top notch ring game selection.

If you’re into Omaha thanks to the PokerStars bonus code, Cardrunners puts out some of the most useful videos out of all the training sites out there. This is also the case for other types of poker like HORSE or Stud. You’re obviously not going to find a large selection of videos like you will for Hold Em, but you’re not going to find better than Cardrunners for these games right now.

When you get some experience with free poker no downloads, Cardrunners is a fabulous choice if you’re willing to pay for some beneficial training videos. It is most certainly the number one choice for ring game enthusiasts, and if you decide to play a few tournaments, they will also help you out there. Overall, everyone is sure to get at least something out of the videos at Cardrunners.

Let’s briefly go back in time a few weeks: I described a number of useful poker tools that will help you improve your game on money poker sites. I mentioned that you should make use of a hand converter, always follow bankroll management, and try to have a poker odds table at your desk. I also mentioned that it’s a good idea to find a few free poker videos since they really help you to become a better player, and they are free poker training which means that nothing comes out of your pocket. If you’re especially enthusiastic, though, it might not take you long to get through all the free videos on the internet. By now your bankroll should be growing, and it’s probably a good idea to put some of your profits to good use. To help you out, I’m going to start a series that will highlight a number of the poker training sites that you are able to subscribe to so that your addiction to videos can be fulfilled.

I’m choosing to start with GrinderSchool since it was developed for beginner players. For as little as $10/month, you receive access to over 600 online poker videos made by players that have proven they beat the competition in US poker sites. They feature seven videos each week, and while almost all of them show No Limit Hold Em, at least four each month are videos for other games like Omaha or Razz.

The cash game coverage for No Limit Hold Em is excellent at GrinderSchool, so you’re in luck if you play cash on Tiger Gaming. There are a multitude of short-handed and full ring poker videos, and new players will have no trouble finding a few videos at their chosen low buy-in. There’s less selection when it comes to Limit or Heads-up play, however. The site features a few heads-up and Limit videos, but perhaps not enough to make it worth it for those that specialize in these types of games. Unfortunately, the same thing applies to people that need strategy tips for Omaha or other less popular poker games like Draw.

Have you tried Rush Poker tournaments on your Fulltiltpoker download yet? Even if you don’t like cash games, GrinderSchool can still help you out. Videos are also abundant for tournament players, and most of them are by some really excellent players. The videos show buy-ins as high as $55 and as low as $2, and almost all of the videos are part of a 3 to 9 part series. Those that have the goal to play outside of their bankrolls also have the option to view satellite videos.

If you find MTT events frustrating and prefer single-table tournaments on a PokerStars download, I highly recommend GrinderSchool. The founder of the site made most of the videos, but they recently hired a couple new high quality instructors. New players will be pleased to see that the buy-ins featured in these videos are as low as $1, and while beginner concepts are brought up quite often, there is also a fair amount of more advanced discussion.

I highly recommend GrinderSchool to inexperienced players trying the best US poker sites. We’ve already seen how low the monthly cost is, and with no sign up fee, it’s almost a no-brainer! If you play mostly Omaha or Stud, you probably should be looking elsewhere, but players new to No Limit Hold Em will benefit greatly from this training site.

You’ll recall that last time I told you about poker tools that will help improve your game as you strive to become a good player on money poker sites. The first thing I recommended was an online poker dictionary because you’ll find it hard to read poker literature if you don’t know the most common and important poker terms. If you take a look at a poker dictionary, though, there are so many different terms that you’ll wonder where to start! To help out, I will talk about some of the poker terms that I deem most important for someone learning on a Full Tilt Poker download or any other poker site download. Start with these terms because they are the most important ones to know.

The terms that I think you should learn first have earlier entries all to themselves, so please make sure you’ve read my previous articles before continuing. You should always pay close attention to “bankroll management” and “variance” as they are undeniably some of the most important terms in poker. When you’re learning to play on your Bwin Poker download, you might be the victim of a lengthy downswing. That’s why you need to have a healthy bankroll.

Since poker is all about money, you should quickly learn about the “rake”. The rake is the money taken from every pot or prize pool by the host of the poker game. So for example, if you play some no-limit hold em after using a Titanpoker bonus code, each pot you play will be reduced by around 5% and given to the site. Rake will differ between sites, and each hand can be raked up to a maximum amount.

Another term to take a look at is “position”. We’ve already discussed the strength of your preflop cards in the poker hands order entry, but the importance of position was never brought up. If you are last to act post flop, you have the best position at the table, and good position is as important for winning pots as the strength of your cards. You should be playing fewer hands when you’re out of position and more hands when you’re in position. When you download free casino games, you couldn’t care less where you sit in relation to other players. Because of the concept of position, poker is a different story.

You should check out the term “outs” in a suitable online poker dictionary. If you’re playing in a pot and you feel you don’t have the best hand, you should determine the cards that could be dealt on later streets that likely would improve your hand to the best. These are called your “outs”.

Look up the phrase “fold equity”. When you’re playing a hand, you need to take into account that there is a chance your opponent will fold if you bet. This is called fold equity, and it is very important because it’s a way to win pots without necessarily having the best hand. If you ever take a look at Daniels Room poker, you will see that the best players employ this idea very often.

If you read advice columns on the internet regarding poker, the word “nit” will likely appear every so often. A nit describes a player that plays a very limited number of hands and is afraid to gamble without the best of it. He will rarely put money into the pot if he is not guaranteed to win.

One more term that is going to be handy to know when you download free poker is “all-in”. Especially prevalent in tournament poker, you are betting your entire stack if you go all-in, and to call, your opponents must call the amount in your stack or go all-in themselves. If you are called and don’t win the showdown, you are likely bust and you must re-buy (if the game permits it) or leave the table.

In a future article, I will go through the dictionary and choose more terms to look at. In the meantime, study these terms carefully and see if you can find some strategy articles that use them. Good luck and have fun at the tables!

Today we’ll quit learning about intangibles like discipline and emotional control. Let’s instead mention a few online poker tools and resources that are available as you strive to become good at the game on money poker sites. For the first thing, it would benefit you to consult an online poker dictionary. Before you start learning about advanced strategy for your Full Tilt Poker download, you should learn all the important terms that are commonly used when discussing poker. If you can’t speak the language, you probably cannot learn everything there is to know about a certain subject. It’s like trying to fill a cavity without knowing what the dental tools are called!

The second thing on your list is to choose a poker forum where you can start threads and receive quick, free help. As you are considering a site, look to see if it contains information on Amex compatible casinos because that is an indication that they are very thorough. I chose a forum when I first started playing poker and I started improving quickly when I started writing posts and asking questions. If you would like to post hand histories on message boards, it would be best to try out a hand converter. Converting a hand makes your hand easy to read and will increase your chance of getting replies.

If you’d like another way to learn very quickly, you should obtain a few poker videos showing play on top Texas Hold’em sites. There are plenty of sites out there that offer videos if you pay a membership fee, but I would hold off on those until you’ve played a bunch of hands. When you’re just starting out, there are a lot of free poker videos out there for you.

Last but not least, remember to use a poker odds chart immediately after you download free poker. As we discussed before, you should use it to put your opponents on a range and decide whether or not you have enough equity to go with your hand.

Just because these tools are free, it doesn’t mean that they’re not absolutely essential for your learning. Several players online know nothing of these tools themselves, so you have a huge advantage over them. Use the tools to help study the game and you’ll be playing Daniels Room poker in no time!

Thanks for coming back for my fifth article. Previously we veered off topic and rather than talk about ranges and the poker odds table, we talked about overlooked poker skills. These skills can’t tell you the correct moves in post flop situations, but they’ll help you maintain your bankroll and help you become a fully developed player. Today I would like to explain variance, another important topic for people playing poker. This is similar to the last entry: I’m not discussing cards when I discuss variance. Instead I will display the importance of discipline and emotional control in this game.

Variance is the primary motivation for having a large bankroll when playing Texas Hold Em. Logically, if you’re the best player online, what is the point in having a bankroll? If you won every time you played on Tiger Gaming, you’d never finish the game on a losing note for the rest of your poker career, right? I wish it were that easy.

Alas, you’ll realize that no matter how faultlessly you play, you will still have down days when playing Texas Hold Em. Occasionally the poker hands you’re given will be awful and you’ll be forced to fold almost all of them. Or maybe the hands you’re given will be excellent, but they’ll never end up the winner because sometimes the opposition is too lucky for you. It’s a fact that occasionally you will manage to lose despite getting it in as a 95% favorite. Moments like these will drive you to wish you were playing online slots instead of poker!

If you aspire to make money playing this game, you need to see that variance encourages bad players keep making deposits on real money poker sites. They are the reason you make money. Because you cannot hope for variance to bypass you, you should learn how to ignore it. Do this by following proper bankroll management and also eliminating tilt issues. Figure out how to shrug off unfortunate situations and as long as you have enough in your bankroll, you’ll be winning again before you know it. The other option is to just download free casino slot games, but we all know you don’t want to do that!