Manic Hispanic Poker

The most popular sit and go tournament played currently in poker online rooms is the simple nine player single table tournament. In these tournaments the top three players get paid money so you have a 33% chance of making money playing in these, but you need to remain consistent over the long run to make any serious money.

Depending on the blind structure you play at will deeply reflect how you play the tournament. If you’re playing with 15 minute blind intervals then you’ll be able to sit back and wait for some good hands to come to you. If you decide to play in turbo tournaments with 5 minute blind intervals then you need to be more prepared to play marginal hands and be willing to commit your chips early on. I personally would recommend playing regular blind tournaments with 15 minute intervals if you’re new to playing sit and go tournaments because it gives you more playing time.

The one thing you need to do in these tournaments is to limit the amount of hands you play past the flop, but play a lot of hands preflop especially when the blinds are low. When the blinds are low it’s worth playing to the flop so you can see if you can hit a straight or flush. When you do have a hand you feel is the best hand you need to make sure you bet it big and take full advantage of the hand. The goal you should aim for when playing in these tournaments is to play as little hands as possible, but when you do play hands you win a lot chips.

When you have a good hand preflop on Full Tilt Poker I would suggest raising the pot preflop so that you can get the marginal hands out of the pot. Nothing is worse then having a monster hand and losing to a horrible hand because you didn’t raise the pot preflop so make sure you always do. Winning a small pot is always better then losing a big pot. You also need to be willing to raise your opponents throughout hands when you think you can steal the pot from them. A lot of players will bluff fairly often so you need to be willing to find out sometimes whether or not they have a hand. Once you do this once the player will be careful about bluffing you again.

You also need to be willing to bluff in these PokerStars tournaments so that you aren’t losing blinds every time around the table. If you’re able to steal a small pot every time you go around the table then you’ll be able to wait for a big hand where you can try and double up. As the tournament progresses you should start limiting the amount of hands you play even more and aim to make it to the top three. Once you make it to the top three you can open up your game again and try things out, but don’t be to risky when you’re playing with 4-5 players left in the tournament.

When you play online poker there are some main categories where you can rank most players such as loose, aggressive, tight and conservative. There are some sub-branches as well which you’ll start to learn as you play poker more, but it’s only important that you know the most popular playing styles. As you can imagine a player who is tight is going to play basically every single hand different then a player who is aggressive so you need to be able to switch up gears based on the opponents left in the pot.

This is why you also need to be able to get a read on your opponents and be able to observe how they play hands when you’ve already folded. You need to classify your opponents based on there playing style so that you can use the right strategy to beat them when you’re playing against them in a hand. You’re going to make some bad reads on occasion, but if you limit the mistakes you make then you’re still going to be a profitable poker player.

* If a poker player is aggressive then this means they like to push the action into there opponents. To counter this strategy you need to play tight poker and wait until you get a good hand against the aggressive player. You’ll generally be able to slow play you hand and let the aggressive player bet the pot to the river which is when you can come over the top with a raise. Beating aggressive players on PokerStars is really simple and the only time it becomes difficult is when you try to force yourself to make hands that aren’t going to hit. You just need to wait for a good hand and you’ll easily be able to take a decent amount of money off of most aggressive players.

* If your opponent is tight then it can be more difficult to win a lot of money off of these players because of the fact they won’t be putting much into the pot unless they have a monster hand. To beat tight poker players you need to play aggressively and win more pots then they do against you. You also need to limit how much you allow them to win off of you. You should lead out betting after the flop when playing against a tight opponent because if they have nothing they will fold. If they call or raise then they probably have an excellent draw or decent hand already so you should begin slowing down and stop betting unless you have a good hand as well.

* Conservative players at PartyPoker are hard to read because you never really know if they have a hand or are just buying the pot from you. You shouldn’t look to really try and catch a conservative player bluffing because they might not be and you’d only be guessing. If you have a hand then play it against them and if you don’t then don’t play the hand and it’s pretty much that simple. You won’t be able to scare a conservative player off of a pot and you won’t be able to suck them into betting often so they are the hardest player to make money off of.

Texas Holdem is the most popular poker online game and there isn’t much better then being dealt high pocket pairs while playing even though it doesn’t happen that often. High pocket pairs are excellent starting hands in Holdem, but low pocket pairs can cause a lot of trouble and aren’t really that good of a starting hand. We’re going to look at the strategy you should use when you play high pocket pairs and low pocket pairs.

High Pocket Pairs - AA/JJ

Being dealt a high pocket pair in Holdem is a great starting hand and you should definitely raise the pot preflop. Some players will recommend slow playing with high pocket pairs, but the problem with that is any two cards can limp in and you could be losing after the flop depending on what comes. There is also no reason to limp into the pot and let people see the flop for cheap because you want be increasing the size of the pot. I would suggest raising the pot 3-4X the big blind which is a typical raise and should have a couple callers. Depending on what the flop brings you’ll need to decide whether you can afford to slow play or whether you need to take the pot down now. If you hit a set or there are no draws after the flop then often your high pair will still be good, but when there are draws present you should think about taking the pot down right away before the draw hits.

Middle Pocket Pairs - 1010/88

Any pocket pair of 8’s, 9’s or 10’s is a good starting hand and you could raise the pot, but the problem is if you get called chances are your opponent will have two over cards at least. With two over cards they could easily hit a higher pair then you have on Titan Poker after the flop so be careful about committing to many chips with this hand. I would suggest checking out the flop to see if the cards are lower then your pocket pair. If the flop is 2-3-7 with 3 different suits then chances are you still will have the best hand because it would be hard to believe anyone calling a raise with a 2/3 or something like that.

Low Pocket Pairs - 77/22

Low pocket pairs aren’t really that powerful in a Holdem poker game and you shouldn’t raise the pot preflop with any low pocket pair. Your chances of winning the pot are fairly slim unless you just steal the pot with a big bet which isn’t going to make you any money. The only way you’re going to make money with low pocket pairs is if you hit a set and your opponent is sitting with a big pair or two pairs. The chances of hitting a set aren’t that great, but you should still try and see the flop if you can limp into the pot just in case you do hit the set because then you can usually get paid off in a big hand.

When you play Texas Holdem you can bluff at anytime with the way the game is structured, but it doesn’t mean that every time you bluff is going to be an opportune time. You want to ensure that you find the most opportune times to bluff your opponents when you’re playing and limit bluffing to strictly those instances. The more you bluff the more chances there will be that you’re going to get called and you don’t want that to happen. You could win ten small pots by bluffing at it, but if you get called once when you’re bluffing it could wipe away all your profits plus some which is why the best poker players limit the amount the bluff. We’re going to briefly look at some of the best situations which allow you to bluff your opponent out of the pot.

• If you’re in a small pot and there is only one or two opponents in the pot then you can usually bluff and steal this pot often if both players check to you. Sometimes they might just be slow playing, but you don’t need to make an over bet here. A small bet will win the pot if the players have nothing and if they have something and make the call then you know to slow down now.

• If a straight or flush draw is on the board and you don’t think your opponent has the draw then if the draw hits you can bet out like you have it. A lot of the time if the player doesn’t have the flush or straight they will fold because they assume you hit your draw. On occasion you might make the wrong read and your opponent will have hit the draw and in this case you’re going to definitely get called or raised so you’ll need to fold. You’re going to make the wrong read in poker, but if you can minimize how many mistakes you make you’ll do fine over the long run.

• Another time when a lot of players will bluff is when they had a draw that didn’t hit. This bluff is common and it’s often commonly called down by a player just to see what you have. You can get away with this bluff if the bet you make is big enough to make it not worth your opponent calling you, but you’re still running the risk they have a monster hand and will call you so be cautious.

Bluffing should definitely not be a huge part of your poker game, but it’s an important skill to possess at the table. When you’re in trouble and not hitting hands one bluff is enough to change your stack and mindset around. You should limit the amount of bluffs you make at the table and the number one rule is don’t show your bluffs unless playing with friends. At the casino gambling you should never show your bluffs because good players remember things like this and will catch you down the road.