Anyone with a little self control that is. In online poker, that attribute is far more rare than you might think. Some conservative estimates indicate that more than 75% of online poker players lose money. With the outrageous growth of poker and hold’em in this millennium, there is certainly no shortage of valuable information for anyone who wants to learn how to play the game.

So many players though end up playing above their skill level and even worse, above their bankroll that inevitably, these are the players that end up in that 75% cluster of money losing fish. Yes you are essentially a fish by playing above your bankroll. Chris Ferguson didn’t build his bankroll with magnificent bluffing, power all-in betting, and underground intimidation tactics. Are you kidding me? Have you ever played in the $1 sit and go tournaments? Strategies like that will send you to head first into a brick wall repeatedly in frustration.

Ferguson merely used fundamental poker skills to win as much as he could, but more importantly executed exceptional bankroll management with a strict set of rules that determined which games and game conditions he could participate in.

Bankroll management is then, utterly important to your success online, and now there are software choices to help you keep track of that very aspect of your game. Personal Poker Pal is the latest in this market that with a variety of graphs, reports, and analysis tools can help keep your game moving up and build your bankroll the very best way – using other people’s money.

What a poker bankroll calculator can do for you is keep your skill set evenly matched with your bankroll. As your knowledge and understanding of the game improves, so then are you rewarded in your bankroll. It’s simple math really. If you jump too far up, you are penalized (eventually) for playing above your head and you take a hit.

It is impossible to be consistently successful in the modern game without a detailed analysis of performance, highlighting the reasons for success or failure either in particular hands or over a session, with the aim of improving future results. If you can operate a simple program like Quicken, then you should have no trouble with Personal Poker Pal.

You manage money everywhere else in your life don’t you? Unless you are just out having fun and you really don’t care about how much you spend on entertaining yourself playing online poker, then you need to start managing your poker bankroll, just like the pros.

Author: Marty Smith

Marty Smith has video reviews of all the poker calculators so you can see them being used before you decide which one is right for you. He also has a free poker calculator that you can use to learn more about poker odds.

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

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It is common for a poker player to directly accuse or insinuate that online poker is rigged. This is usually a result of a player receiving a “bad beat”. Phrases are jokingly made such as “jokerstars” referring to the popular poker network, PokerStars. However, a lot people share the common theory that the poker sites rig their software as to encourage action; increasing their profit. The theories and conspiracies cannot be proven, and many an investigation has been made into the credibility of these accusations.

Logic and reason

Rigging a poker site would be like cheating at your final exams – the costs outweigh the gain. If a poker site is caught rigging their software then it is likely that the said site will lose all the credibility and loyalty of its customers; customers that it has taken many years to gain the trust of. Rigging a poker site, according to Game Theory, would be irrational and illogical.

Human Behavior

Human nature is a strange thing; psychologists Jean-Paul Sartre and Soren Kierkegaard were a couple of the first to look into human behaviour and more recent psychologists have studied the minds of poker players. One thing that has been discovered about online poker is that humans are naturally very suspicious. Reasons for this natural suspicion lie in the fact that the mechanism controlling the outcome of an event cannot physically be seen. Unlike in a live game, you are unable to see the cards being shuffled and cut.

Preventing Rigging

According to Poker Stars, there are 50,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 different ways to shuffle a deck of cards.

Amazingly, the site uses the players to choose the order of the cards using “user input, including summary of mouse movements and events timing, collected from client software”. In the event that there are problems with this as a RNG (random number generator), they have a backup: “true hardware random number generator developed by Intel, which uses thermal noise as an entropy source”. Furthermore, the RNG is certified by 2 independent organizations: Cigital and BMM International.

Cigital: An independent software risk management organization working with such companies as Qualcomm, Visa International, Texas Instruments, AOL, MasterCard, General Electric, Motorola, Pfizer Health Solutions, and Ericsson.

BMM International: A global organization that provides independent computer systems assurance and compliance certification testing services, the Australia-based company is a client of the Australian government among other organizations.

Possible Rigging

The poker industry is an incredibly tough market and one that is definately not easily entered. The large businesses such as PokerStars, Full Tilt and Party Poker have swallowed their competitors and taken a huge majority of the market between them.

Smaller poker sites may have an incentive to rig their software as profits might be low and security standards/regulations may be of poor quality or even non-existent. These companies may get a slight edge over their competitors as they have very little to lose and a lot to gain by rigging their software.

Absolute Poker Scandal

Sept. 13th. Potripper won a $1000 buy-in tourney, Absolute Pokers largest tournament. The player CrazyMarco, who finished second, insisted that there had to be cheating involved in Potrippers win. One of the most obvious signs was when Potripper bet around 20k with T-high, got pushed all-in by CrazyMarco, and called the sick 180k to beat CrazyMarcos 9-high bluff.

CrazyMarco demanded the hand history released, and to his surprise, Absolute Poker was more than willing to help him with this matter. Feb. 21st, APs support send him a file, but this was far from the ordinary hand history he had requested. The file he recieved was huge, and after a short peak he turned of his computer and went to bed as he was unable to gain any information from the data file himself.

Two weeks later rumors are heating up at PocketFives, and Marco posts in the forum that he has this enormous file from the Potripper tournament. The moderator of the site, adanthar, offers his help, and Marco sends him the file. It turns out the file covers the entire tournament, all of the players’ hole cards, and other normally highly confidential information.

- Potripper folded the first two, then saw all flops, unless the times where an opponent had two queens or better.

- Potripper won all showdowns in the tournament.

- Potripper folded on the river every time he was behind – and raised every time he wasn’t.

- Potripper only bluffed when the opponent(s) had weak hands.

Conclusion

The online poker (and casino) industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. Credibility, respect and loyalty are at the top of the agenda for any of these businesses and therefore rigging would most likely have detrimental affects on the business.

Rigging of a poker site may be rare and unheard of, however there is the possibility that a freak incident such as the Absolute Poker Scandal may occur.

Author: Nick Pateman

Poker Forums at pokerisrigged.com offers unique and quality reviews, strategies, advice and hand analysis. By signing up you give yourself a leading edge in improving your poker ability.

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

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One of the less understood poker strategies is that of trapping. When playing poker, how many times have you been trapped by a more experienced or tricky player? We all fall into these traps from time to time… but why? How can we detect traps and avoid them? This article delves into poker strategy keys for setting traps, and detecting them.

First, what is a trap? A trap play is where an opponent with a strong hand represents weakness, luring their opponent into overplaying their hand. For example, I hit a nut flush (Ace-high flush) on the flop. I have the best hand at the table now, unless the board pairs (such that someone could pull a boat or four of a kind – not likely).

So, instead of betting it big, I might throw out a smaller bet or even check it (slowplay). Another player holding big slick (A-K) pairs up with an Ace on the flop, thinking he’s got the best hand so far. Another player has a small pair (e.g., 4′s) and picks up a set on the flop (assuming flop was something like 4-A-J).

Now, had I bet really big or raised back too early, the player holding the Ace would realize he’s trouble and the small pair would’ve likely folded pre-flop. Since I just checked it down, no reason to be afraid of me, since I’m obviously on some kind of a draw…

The person with the three of a kind (the 4′s) tosses out a bet of 4 times the blind. The guy with Aces calls it. After delaying slightly, I go ahead and also call it (why not, I’m getting decent enough pot odds).

So, I’m trapping them both at this point, letting them bet into me and just calling their bets. The same thing happens again on the turn, except the player with Aces drops out.

Now it’s just me and the set of 4′s. They bet big again, this time the size of the pot. Again, after a slight pause, I just call them “reluctantly”. Then comes the river, and they go all-in.

I immediately call them…oops! They’re sunk! What happened here?

These players never asked themselves two simple questions:

1) Why is he calling that raised pot (on the flop and turn)?

2) What hands might he be holding? What could he be
up to by calling my bets like that? Trapping? On a draw?

It’s crucially important to THINK before you ACT by understanding what the other players are actually doing. It’s also very important not to underestimate your competition, as there are some very wily players out there…

There’s a potential flush showing on this flop, and since I’m kind of “lurking” in this hand, it’s very suspicious behavior, and unlikely I’m on a draw calling those kind of big bets.

Unless you’re playing against a beginner or a drunk, there’s no reason to believe someone will likely call a raise that’s 4 times the big blind on a draw. That’s the first mistake – assuming another player has no hand and not realizing why they’re behaving as they are.

Second, the board is showing a possible flush – and both of these players aren’t holding it! Just because I didn’t bet on the flop does not mean I don’t have it!

Had either of these players slowed down and considered my betting (calling) behavior, and asked themselves these questions, they’d probably have realized what was going on. Whether the player with the set of 4′s could fold them is another story

Aside from a trap, what else could have kept me in this hand?

Traps aren’t easy to detect. When a good player calls a big bet, there’s a better than average chance they are trapping! You’ll also often see them delay for an unusually long time, as if they’re struggling to make a decision about calling your hand, then either call you, raise or go all-in. If this is indeed a good player, you now know almost for certain you’re being trapped (call) or warned (raise/all-in). If you don’t have the top hand at this point, you’re probably beaten.

This lengthy delay can be a great “tell” for traps and detecting strong hands, and is one you should learn to recognize. The delay is an attempt to make you believe they’re “struggling” to make their decision – do the opposite of what your opponents want you to do when there’s an obvious tell like this one.

Good players don’t usually call bets – they usually raise/re-raise with strength or fold. They don’t often waste their money on draws, so if they’re lurking in there with you, it almost certian it’s not out of curiosity…

If you aren’t spending twice as much time thinking about what your opponent’s hand might be, based upon their betting (calling) pattern and position and play history, you should be.

Your own hand strength is quickly and easily determined. Spend more time on your opponents, learning to read their normal betting patterns and skill level, then when they do something that doesn’t match their normal pattern, slow down and ask yourself why.

I hope this helps you become a better trapper (and avoid falling in yourself

Rick

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

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There are a lot of sites out there, and if you do not research, and read the fine print, you can end up with a bad first experience. The first thing you have to look for, is that you like the site on witch you are playing, if you do not enjoy your self at that site, it is like having a job, where every 30 minutes the boss shouts at you (I had jobs like that, and believe me it is not good)

You can take a look at, the graphics, and the atmosphere of the site, witch is very important.

There are many poker rooms, and you have the freedom to choose a good one. So before you sign up to a site, make sure you try them out first.

The second thing you have to look, is that the room has the games you want to play, and the tables are busy when you have time to play(maybe the black jack, is only busy when you sleep)

You want to make sure, that the stakes are comfortable for you, some sites start at high limits and some at low limits. It is also very important, to find a poker room where there is not much competition, experience players (sharks) want to find, rooms with inexperienced players.

You can check this by taking a look at the poker software for average pot and flop percentage information.Otherwise the sharks will eat you. Today, the online poker market is a very competitive field,there are more than 1000 poker sites to choose from,and you can take advantage of this, by choosing the best sites that offer one time, and reloaded bonuses, a lot of free stuff, books, odds calculator software.

Author: Varga Laszlo

Visit http://www.thepokertips.info to get your free Calculatem Pro poker odds calculator

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

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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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