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September 06, 2008
Advice for Women Poker Players
August 12, 2008
This is just for the women who play poker so men go away! Seriously, you can’t read this if you’re a dude. I recommend that the male reader go to my next post right away. You don’t want your manhood being questioned because you’re reading an article written STRICTLY for women players!
Ok ladies, now that I got rid of all the men let’s talk shop. Men are an assuming bunch. We love ‘em, we hate ‘em. You know how that goes. A woman can use her female wiles to advance her poker game. Here’s why. Whenever a woman sits down at a poker table (even a virtual poker table online) the men at the table make an assumption. That assumption is usually that the woman will not be as good a poker player as the men are. They don’t give women credit for the ability to be good poker players. I guess they don’t think we can master the strategic part of the game, or maybe we just can’t grasp mathematical concepts. Maybe we lack the aggression to be good poker players. We’re just too passive by nature to be any good.
When I sit down at the poker table I prefer to think of myself as “the black widow.” Sure, I smile sheepishly at the men. I may fumble my chips awkwardly. I start up lighthearted conversations and react seemingly with awe when my male counterparts win a hand. I flirt - oh my, how I flirt! I may even show missed drawing hands that make it appear that I’m playing loose. Do not be fooled by my antics for I am weaving my web of deception, waiting for the unsuspecting male black widow to arrive (so what the hell do they call the male of their species?). I seduce the poor fellow and have my way with him. Alright!! Get your mind out of the gutter. I simply mean that I build a huge pot and he still thinks I’m the sheepish woman who couldn’t possibly play poker. And then I spring my trap. I push in a huge bet knowing I have the nuts. What’s the poor guy to do? He’s pretty much pot committed and he can’t lose face in front of his male cronies. He calls my bet and I flip over the nuts and rake in a big pot. Another one bites the dust! Hey, maybe I should act surprised here and say I thought you had me beat - that sure was scary. And so it goes.
I’ve actually been sitting at a poker table playing with the guys and they nudge me under the table to let me know I should get out of the hand. Aside from the fact this isn’t fair to the other players - I do appreciate their protective nature sometimes. I notice sometimes that guys will try to teach me the game and show me their hands at the end of play. It all works in my favor. I’m making mental notes fast and furiously.
A woman poker player should work to develop her bag of tricks. Among these should be her black widow routine, playing the dumb blonde and flirting with the enemy. Poker is about developing a winning edge. Deception is built into the game. The next time you sit down at a table full of men, realize that most if not all of them will be judging you incorrectly until you prove them wrong.
A funny thing happens after the guys catch on to you. They start believing you every time you push your chips into the pot. This makes for some wonderful opportunities to steal the pot!
Ain’t it great being a woman? Just be sure to keep it between us, ok.
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How to Play Free Online Poker at Full Tilt
August 10, 2008
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When Donks Look Like They’re Outplaying You at the Poker Table
August 07, 2008
When lady luck is smiling on them, even a donk will appear to be making all the right decisions in his poker game. He just can’t seem to do anything wrong. You may be making all the right plays but you always miss or end up second best. All the while the donk may be gloating and bullying the table around tickled as can be that he’s riding a wave of luck. It’s frustrating and annoying, and can lead you to feel that you have to get even…. that you have to set things right and restore the poker game to its purest form, that which recognizes your superior knowledge and abilities.
Listen up my aspiring drunk poker players - Resist this temptation! You’re going to have bad streaks where the cards don’t fall your way and it may seem that everybody around you is winning. You have to stay on your game. Watch out lest your A 10 offsuit suddenly look like a monster because that’s the best thing you’ve seen in hours. It may not help that you’ve seen the other players winning with things like J 9 offsuit. Resist the temptation!
The simple fact about poker is that the best player doesn’t always win. Good players who consistently make good decisions can expect a profit in the long term, but that doesn’t necessarily hold true for any single game or any short term period of play. Great poker players come to understand this and learn to deal with it. Otherwise they are go insane. Come to think of it, I think some of my poker buddies are insane. Maybe I’m on to something here.
Getting back on track now… Isn’t it maddening when other players, usually those brash, foul mouthed, obnoxious a-holes, make all kinds of idiotic plays and they rake in their pots while they talk their trash. All the while you play great starting hands. Here you sit with AK of spades and here comes the flop 9 2 J of diamonds and there’s heavy action in front of you as the lucky bastards are shoveling chips in the pot as fast as they can. You fold and patiently wait your turn. Sometimes you get your turn of lucky cards and sometimes you don’t.
Here’s the good news. In the long term poor decisions always catches up with bad poker players. Good poker players who make good decisions are likely to be profitable. Hang in there!
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Poker Chips: They are Real Money After All
August 06, 2008
We see it all the time; A player accumulates a big pile of chips only to lose them back. It’s happened to me. Maybe it’s happened to you too. So just what happened?
Be very cautious when you find yourself the chip leader. It is helpful for poker players to think of their money in terms of how many chips they have, but there is a potential trap here. Sometimes we make the mistake of thinking of our poker money as “just chips.” We start playing looser, figuring our luck will hold out. We enjoy splashing around in pots we shouldn’t even be in, sometimes hoping (perhaps even expecting) that miracle river card to complete our hand. We don’t notice the steady flow of chips away from our stack until it’s too late. After they’re all gone we realize they weren’t “just chips” after all.
When you find yourself up in a poker game, it may be a good idea to start thinking of your chips as real money again. This is a good time to evaluate your game. Are you still playing solid starting hands and are you playing your best poker? Don’t let yourself fall into the trap of squandering your chips by playing too many marginal hands, chasing draws and paying off your opponents.
If you’re in a cash game it may be a good idea to cash out if you find that you’ve won but you’re losing your focus. If you’re in a tournament, my advice is to slow down and make sure you’re playing your “A” game.
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If You Think You’re Beat, Get Out of the Hand
July 21, 2008
A very good piece of advice, especially for players who are just beyond beginner level, is to trust your instinct. When you think you’re beat, get out of the hand. You will actually hear some poker players saying I know I’m beat as they call down bets on the turn and the river. This is a leak in their poker game that might only cost a little each hand but it’s a bad habit that can seriously affect your profitability at the poker table. In the long term this alone can mean the difference between being a winning player and a losing player.
When your instinct tells you that you’re beat, you almost always are. When we allow our mind to process all the information it is receiving, we usually get a pretty good (instinctive) feel for where we stand in a poker hand. Usually when we get that feeling, it’s best to get out of the hand before we place another bet. Save your chips for another battle where you have the advantage.
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My Poker Perspective on Feeding the Fish
June 09, 2008
We all bitch and moan about all the bad beats - about fish sucking out on us - about how our luck must be the worst in the world. Ok, I admit it. I do this too. It’s a good thing I’m winning money now, ’cause I need a therapist for anger management. I get sick of suckouts and bad beats just like all other poker players. I get angry because I work hard to build my bankroll only to have fish come along, make bad calls or bets and suckout to hit an unlikely card that will crush me.
My hero Phil Hellmuth has said (and it bears repeating), “if it weren’t for luck I’d win ‘em all.” Well stated Phil! I feel the same way. Unfortunately, luck is an element in this game and that’s why we have the fish swimming around joyfully among the sharks. They don’t know any better. Every once in a while they get fed when they suck out and win a big pot that shouldn’t have been theirs. They swell up like those puffer fish, sure that they have made an excellent play and raked in a well deserved pot.
So here is my poker perspective on feeding the fish. Nobody wants to do it so the Poker Goddess has devised a clever plan where all the good poker players feed the fish now and then. This is a good thing. What??!!! Yes, I’ll say it again - feeding the fish is a good thing! I should explain before you report this seemingly errant thinking to my therapist. The fact is that most of the fish would swim away if they always lost when the odds were against them and they made a ridiculous play. Either that or they would go buy some books and learn to play a better game. I’m not sure I would have survived the guppy stage if I always lost the pots. I won just enough to keep me interested in the game. And now look at me. I’m one of the enlightened poker enthusiasts who bitches about the fish! I tell ya, I wouldn’t have made it here without being fed now and then.
So, the next time you find yourself losing to a fish just remember you’re doing your part to fatten them up so they can be eaten another day. Just don’t feed them too much or else they may become bloated.
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Overestimating Your Poker Ability
May 20, 2008
Never Underestimate Your Ability to Overestimate Your Poker Ability
I’m not an absolute expert in human psychology, but I’m pretty observant of people. I have some formal training due to past employment in the legal field where I was certified in neurolinguistic programming and interview techniques. I have had occasion to interview many people under various circumstances and judge their reactions. One thing I have learned is that we humans have a tendency to overestimate our ability.
We all have ego, admittedly some more than others. The type of person who sticks with poker for any amount of time probably has an abundance of ego. It’s the way we’re wired. Poker feeds our competitive spirit and our ego. This ego can easily lead to an erroneous belief that we’re better at the game than we really are.
Once we learn the basics, off we rush to conquer the poker world. Some of us work a little to develop a few tricks but then we once again figure we’ve got it figured out. I would guess that even the pros (perhaps especially the pros) have to make sure they put their ego in check and that they don’t fall into the trap of overestimating their abilities. I have found this to be the single factor that was holding me back from making progress at several stages of my development as an aspiring poker player.
I have accepted the fact that I’ll never know everything there is to know about poker, but I want to know it all. So, I have dedicated myself to a course of constantly learning new strategies and gaining an increasing knowledge of the more technical concepts of poker. I am doing this by reading constantly, participating in poker discussion forums and even in friendly chatter with other players away from the table. I play poker virtually every day and try to learn something from each game I play.
I will not overestimate my poker ability. Go ahead… write it down 100 times so you’ll never forget it.
When you think about it, that’s quite an empowering concept.
Good luck at the tables.
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Grinding it Out and Winning!
May 10, 2008
I played poker late into yesterday evening and into this morning. I took first place in everything I played. Seriously, first place in every game. I finally grew too tired to play. Why, oh why can’t it always be this way? More often it seems I’m a huge favorite when the underdog sucks out (usually on the river just for a little added pain). If the cards always ran this way I could quit my job and never look back. Unfortunately, I’m still struggling to learn to deal with the variance in poker earnings. My earlier posts contain some fairly good advice on this subject and I haven’t forgotten that advice. In fact, I live by it. For now, I’m building my bankroll - a process that takes longer than I would have imagined when you’re grinding it out in lower stakes rooms. Still, I can’t imagine a better way to learn your craft. I study while I play and constantly try to apply new concepts and tactics to my poker repertoire.
I hope everybody is doing well, that your luck is holding up and that you’re constantly improving your game.
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* Double your money requires an initial deposit. Full Tilt Poker will give you an initial deposit bonus up to $600. When prompted, enter code “DOUBLEDEPOSIT”
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Poker in Wendover, Nevada
April 29, 2008
I just visited Salt Lake City over the past four days. I enjoy trying new poker rooms whenever I travel. I have a large collection of poker chips that I collect when I play in a new casino. All the SLC locals know the place to go play poker is in Wendover, Nevada. I had to go check it out so I made the 2 hour drive to the border town of Wendover. I played some $1 - $2 no-limit poker at the Wendover Nugget and Montego Bay casinos. Both poker rooms were a bit smaller than I’m used to but it was poker as usual when I sat down at the table.
My only real problem with these casinos was the fact that they allow smoking at the tables. Now, I have nothing against smokers but I don’t smoke. You’re playing in close quarters at the poker table so I don’t particularly enjoy smoking at the table. Of course, as luck would have it, about half of the players were puffing away while I dodged the billowing smoke from their ciggies. In my opinion, all poker rooms should be non-smoking but that’s just me.
I love sitting down at a table where the players are drinking and having a good time. It seems when I’m in a new house where nobody knows me, that the guys think they can boss me around at the table. This was no exception. I simply played a tight game waiting for premium cards or good speculative cards. Once I figured I had an advantage I fired into the pot and raked them in one after the other. By the end of the evening I had earned a decent profit and gained the respect of my drunken poker opponents.
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>>>>>> Download Full Tilt Software
>>>>>>>> * Double Your Initial Deposit!
* Double your money requires an initial deposit. Full Tilt Poker will give you an initial deposit bonus up to $600. When prompted, enter code “DOUBLEDEPOSIT“
