Since no-limit Texas hold em has been popular, there have been thousands (literally) of variations on a preflop strategy that emphasizes playing tight in terms of playing only big cards and pocket pairs. There is a big fallacy in this that is exposed with various points gathered with poker probability, and the key to a preflop strategy that is capable of beating today’s tougher cash games and tournaments is the ability to exploit this fallacy. The following is the basic idea.

If a tight player open raises in early position and it folds to you in late position, which hand would you rather have: pocket Nines, Ace-Jack, or Ten-Nine suited? If you said pocket Nines because you would like to set mine, realize that you are only hitting a set once in every eight and a half times you call. If you said Ace-Jack because you would like to play high cards, keep in mind that if your opponent has pocket Aces, pocket Jacks, Ace-King, or Ace-Queen that you are dominated and even if you hit the flop you will probably either win a small pot or lose a big one. So what about Ten-Nine suited?

The fallacy exposed with poker probability is as follows: the middle pairs like pocket Nines and big cards like Ace-Jack hit the flop relatively unoften, but when you do hit, the strength of your hand is usually set in stone. That is, either you are forced to take lot of pressure in the case of a set, or you cannot take hardly any pressure like if we flopped a pair of Aces with Ace-Jack in the previous example. But with a suited connector, you don’t have to make a pair to hit the flop extremely hard. You can make straights, flushes, and all kinds of simple draws and combo draws to give you a super flexible hand to play. And most importantly, your opponent will have no idea what you have. If they like to bluff, you can call them down with your minor holdings, and if they like to call, you can value bet them with your showdown-ready hands that you hit fairly often. The point is that poker probability shows us that we are more likely to hit hands and draws with suited connectors than any other hand.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jesse_Eddleman

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Poker tells are the heart of the people game in poker. To be successful, you must develop the skill of reading both obvious and subtle nonverbal cues exhibited by other players at the table. Being able to judge poker tells will greatly influence your betting decisions, protect your bankroll, and boost your winnings.

Knowing how to recognize a good hand of cards in poker is not enough if you want to become a winning poker player. Being able to judge your opponents’ hands is of equal importance. Almost every player has revealing tells that give away his or her excitement, worry, indifference and so forth. When you enter a poker game you need to continually observe the other players. A critical technique is to watch them when they are NOT participating in a hand. This will help you know what normal is for them when they are free of the mental and emotional work that goes into betting a hand. When you have a good idea of what normal is for someone, then their physical mannerisms, expressions, and quirks that could be poker tells will pop out for you more easily. This process especially begins to bear fruit when you regularly play at the same poker venue and you know many of the players. Of course, your more worthy opponents will be watching you too and you need to craft an even-keeled poker persona.

Although good players try to hide their tells or mislead their opponents, it is very difficult for any person to suppress all nonverbal communication. You might think you can put on a face that makes it difficult to determine what you are thinking, but can you hide what you are feeling? Even buried emotions can surface through nonverbal communication with the movement of eyes, lips, hands, posture, etc. To develop your poker persona, work on behaving the same whether you are in a hand or not. Be mindful of the way you act. If you are quiet and don’t use a lot of hand gestures, then maintain this when you participate in betting. Or, if you are a more outgoing personality, try to maintain your normal level of animation during betting instead of becoming abnormally still and focused. As you get better at monitoring yourself for poker tells, you can gradually become more artful with your performances and manipulate others.

Winning at poker requires a marriage of knowing when to play your cards and determining what your opponents’ are holding. Noticing poker tells is an important part of being able to read the probable value of the other players’ cards. This information will let you know when to bet and when to fold. It’s easy for beginning poker players to focus solely on their cards and not spend enough time studying the other people at the table. Poker is a mental combat just as much as it is a technical game.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tracy_Falbe

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Knowing your opponents playing styles before you even playing with them will give you a distinct advantage over most other players. Knowing how your competition plays their hands is key in consistent winning. Poker Edge will keep you constantly updated on all this valuable information.

Here are just a few of the advantages of knowing what kind of player you are up against:

- Play a lot of hands against players that will call anything to see a flop, and fewer hands with the opponents that tend to play tight.

- Bluff the aggressive players and play aggressively towards the tight players

- Implement Bluff against the aggressive players

- Play more hands with people that play poorly after the flop

- Sit to the right of tight players and to the left of aggressive opponents

Poker Edge also has a great feature that will sniff out the fishy tables or tables full of weak players. If the reason you are playing is to make money then the AUTO TABLE LOOKUP will be your best friend. Auto Table Lookup allows you to see how many fish and shark there are at each table. Poker Edge uses a simple red and green color code scheme that will allow you to locate the most profitable tables before you even sit down. Now you will be able to be the shark every time!

Here are a couple of examples on how Poker Edge can be useful

Lets say you just flopped the top two pairs so you place a bet. All of your completion folds out but one, he calls you. The turn card comes out to make 3 hearts making a possible flush for your opponent. You bet your two high pairs and your opponent raises you. You look up the player on your Poker Edge stats and see he only raises 7% of the time on the turn and he wins 100% of showdowns. You then easily fold your hand knowing he hit the flush.

You hit top pair with top kicker, and there are a few players. You bet the flop and get all but one player to fold. The turn card come out which doesn’t help, but your opponent raises you. You pull up his Poker Edge stats and see that he raises 35% of the time and only folds 8% telling you that this opponent likes to bluff or chance straight/flush draws. You call his raise and check on the river, he also checks and reveals he was chasing a busted straight draw. You walk away with the pot

These are just two of the countless situations you will be able to you Poker Edge in. If used correctly this really will pay for itself after just one session!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Matthew_Bobeck

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