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Insights

Bleak House: The State Of Online Poker Today

There is no denying the fact that online poker in general has seen quite a bit of a downturn and that its problems started with the 2006 UIGEA, signed into law by then-President George W. Bush. There probably are online poker operators who will tell you that they’re doing better than ever, there are however scores more who aren’t around to tell you anything anymore. Overall poker traffic numbers don’t lie though, and these numbers tell us a few things, none of which are particularly encouraging for the industry in general. For starters, traffic numbers have been steadily dropping for...

Video Poker Tips – Getting Started

Articles / Insights / Tips

Video Poker Tips – Getting Started

Video poker is admittedly one of the most attractive features in many casinos – both online and offline. Who can easily resist all those brightly colored flashing lights and the large signs predicting a WIN? Yet for those of us who have actually given in to the video poker machine’s allure, we know that the promise of the bright lights is not all that we expected it to be. Then again, I would have to admit that the chance of winning and the actual losing is part of video poker’s image. It just seems to keep on giving you enough...

Playing Shorthanded In Texas Hold ’em Poker

Articles / Insights / WSOP

Playing Shorthanded In Texas Hold ’em Poker

When you watch poker games on TV, such as the World Series of Poker, you normally see them starting out with ten players. However, as the game progresses, players get eliminated and the numbers around the table start to dwindle. The starting number – ten players – is what is called a full table. When the players start falling out, then we have what we call a shorthanded table. In all online poker rooms you have the standard full table and with some poker rooms they offer shorthanded from the outset, which is normally six starting players. Is there a...

What Are Sit And Go Poker Tournaments?

Articles / Insights / Tips

What Are Sit And Go Poker Tournaments?

Sit and Go tournaments have become one of the most popular ways of playing Texas Hold ‘Em Poker today. Both offline and online, Sit and Go tournaments are played by countless players. So what exactly is a Sit and Go poker tournament? It’s basically just the same as any other poker tournament except that it’s like playing at the final table. No more elimination rounds – just the round that counts. Sit and Go tournaments might also be single table or multi table and these days there’s an emerging form of Sit and Go tournament online that’s proving ever more...

ORAC – The World’s First Poker Bot

Articles / History / Insights / Stories

ORAC – The World’s First Poker Bot

Anyone who is into poker bots will probably know exactly what I’m talking about here, because ORAC was the first ever attempt at a poker bot. Created by Mike “Mad Genius” Caro in 1984, this poker bot could actually be dubbed as the father of all poker bots. So who is Mike Caro? Well, his Wikipedia entry reads: “In 1978 he contributed 50 statistical tables to Doyle Brunson’s Super System and wrote that book’s chapter on draw poker. He acts as a consultant to many casinos, providing odds, and he helped develop the Poker Probe, the first serious commercial PC...

How To Play Video Poker

Articles / Insights

How To Play Video Poker

Though Texas Hold ‘Em undoubtedly holds the top position when it comes to popularity these days (thanks to the World Series of Poker mainly), there is no doubt that video poker is one of the most loved versions of poker there is. When you first look at a video poker machine, you may mistake it for a slot machine – especially if you are a beginner. Unlike slots, however, video poker requires skill from a player on top of the luck factor. In order to win at video poker, you need to know certain rules as well the ranks of...

Mistakes Even Advanced Poker Players Make

Articles / Insights / Tips

Mistakes Even Advanced Poker Players Make

Just because you’re an advanced poker player doesn’t mean that you’re not bound to make mistakes once in a while. Poker players are human after all. Yet knowing what possible mistakes you can make will definitely help you avoid them, so here are some of the most common errors that you can make in a poker game. Mistake #1: Missing value bets Value bets depend on the kind of poker game you’re playing. For limit hold ‘em, the bets are small in relation to the pot. Thus, the other players will probably call your value bet even with really weak...

The Worst Starting Hands In Texas Hold’em

Articles / Info / Insights

The Worst Starting Hands In Texas Hold’em

In my last few articles I’ve taken a break from hands, raising, and other poker terminology. It’s high time that we get back on track. I just realized that after I posted my previous article on choosing starting hands for Texas Hold’em, I didn’t do any follow up. Quite logically, if you can get good starting hands, then you can also have bad starting hands. In this article, let’s take things a bit further and talk about some of the worst starting hands that you can have. 2-7 (off suit) When you find yourself with a 2 and a 7,...

How To Find The Right Poker Room

Articles / Info / Insights / Tips

How To Find The Right Poker Room

So you’ve decided to try out your career in online poker. Before you actually embark on your journey, you should think about where to start it. There are a multitude of online casinos and online poker rooms to choose from. The bad thing is, not all of them are good places to patronize. As with most things in life, there are those that are reliable and there are some that will just scam you. Then there are a lot of online poker rooms which are not really out to scam players, but that are just not quite good enough in...

The Life Of Stu Ungar (Part 3)

Articles / History / Insights / Players / Stories

The Life Of Stu Ungar (Part 3)

Stu Ungar was a gambling prodigy: breaking records, defeating champions, and becoming the best at every card game he ever played. However, his private life was in shambles. His father died when he was a young boy, he grew up mean and tough on the streets, and in 1986, even his marriage to long-time love Madeline crumbled. It was not the end of a string of personal losses and debilitating mistakes. His adopted son committed suicide after a high school prom. His drug problem escalated from “social” drugs to celebrate a big win, to an almost fatal overdose during the...

The Life Of Stu Ungar (Part 2)

Articles / History / Insights / Players / Stories

The Life Of Stu Ungar (Part 2)

Stuey the Kid (also called Stu Ungar) was one of the best poker players in history. However, his interest in poker was actually prompted by his genius in gin rummy. He was so good that casinos banned him from playing, because nobody wanted to join a table where he was seated. This led him to start playing poker. He was an excellent poker player, who dominated the tables and left those older and more experienced than him in a sweat. He enjoyed seeing the panic on their faces – the hope, the sudden realization that they would lose, the desperation....

The Life Of Stu Ungar (Part 1)

Articles / History / Insights / Players / Stories

The Life Of Stu Ungar (Part 1)

He was called “Stuey the Kid”, and was one of the best poker and gin rummy players in history. Unfortunately, his skill at the tables was matched only by a string of poor personal decisions that left him in debt. When he was found dead in 1998, at just 45 years old, he had lost all of the $33 million he had accumulated over the years. Stuart Errol Ungar was born on September 8, 1953. His father, Ido Ungar, was a bookie, and the young Stu learned the game at an age when most boys were playing baseball in their...

Poker – It’s All About The Attitude!

Articles / Insights

Poker – It’s All About The Attitude!

…and learning to adapt to the situation. Those who hold the idea that poker is all about luck could not be more wrong. Neither are those who say that it’s all about skill. Playing poker is a mixture of these two plus the big one – attitude. Ask the experts and they will all tell you one thing – when it’s done and dusted, everything boils down to your attitude. That’s because poker isn’t all about the winning – it’s in how you play your game and enjoy it too. Then again, winning makes it all the more fun, doesn’t...

Do Online Poker Tells Really Exist?

Articles / Info / Insights / Tips

Do Online Poker Tells Really Exist?

You’ve got the skills, you’ve chosen your poker room, and you’ve got the best attitude ever. Now what? You’re definitely ready to play online poker, but what if the other more experienced players can sense you’re a newbie? In offline poker, “tells” are one of the most important aspects of the game. In this context, a “tell” is any behavior, habit, or physical reaction that may give the other poker players on the table information regarding the hand of that specific player. In a sense, a tell gives indications as to how you must proceed in the game. The question...

Tournament Poker Basics and Advanced Strategies (cont)

Articles / Insights

Tournament Poker Basics and Advanced Strategies (cont)

Another advanced strategy that most experienced tournament participants understand is the gap concept. The basic principle with this strategy is that it usually takes a much stronger hand to call a raise than it does to make the initial raise. This adage holds true no matter what kind of poker game the player is participating in. But it is more important in a poker tournament because of the closed nature of the games – you obviously cannot pull out more money and use it if you lose all of your chips (especially if the rebuy period is over). Poker tournaments...

Understanding the Net Present Value in Poker

Articles / Insights / Tips

Understanding the Net Present Value in Poker

It may come as a surprise but many poker concepts can actually be learned by studying other disciplines. For example, there are so many parallelisms between poker concepts and business. Various companies must make crucial decisions based on the net present value of money. In the simplest terms, this means that you would assign a discount rate that is based on a particular market factor in order to arrive at the net present value of money that you are going to spend or receive in the future. For example, if there is a choice between spending $10,000 three years from...

Ricky Jay Plays Poker – a Poker DVD!

Articles / Insights / News

Ricky Jay Plays Poker – a Poker DVD!

Have you ever thought about what kind of music you like listening to when playing poker? For that matter, have you ever associated poker with music? To be honest, I’ve never thought about this before until I came across an album about poker. You got that right, someone came up with an album with songs all about poker! The album Ricky Jay Plays Poker is comprised of various artists and offers listeners a chockfull of poker tunes. What do we mean by poker tunes? Well poker tunes are basically songs that talk about anything related to our favorite card game....

Women and Poker – Some Interesting Stats

Articles / Insights / News

Women and Poker – Some Interesting Stats

We have to admit it, poker is generally seen as a man’s game. Yet as other things change in our society, so does this general perception. I came across this really interesting article which talked about a study that was done on the subject. Let me share it with you… A new study by eCOGRA, an online gaming industry standards authority, finds that more women are playing online poker than ever. Nearly 30% of all participants in this extensive study examining player behavior are female, up from 15% in 2004. An international gaming company states that the trend is also...

Is Poker a Sport, or Not?

Articles / Info / Insights

Is Poker a Sport, or Not?

While the argument of whether poker is a game of chance or skill has been debated for as long as one can remember, it is not quite everyday that you will hear people debating whether poker is a sport or not. I came across a British guy’s perspective on this topic. Let’s follow his series of articles on whether or not poker is a sport. Here is what he has to say about it: I have stumbled across many dictionary type definitions of sport, some of which I could have used because they would clearly define poker as a sport,...

How To Play Chinese Poker

Articles / Info / Insights / Tips

How To Play Chinese Poker

It seems that there is an emerging (though quite not prominent yet) poker variant in existence today. According to Nicole Gordon of PokerNews, well known names in poker have shown quite a propensity for this type of poker. What am I talking about? Chinese poker, or 13 Card poker as it is also known, seems to be catching poker greats in its lure. Stories are rampant wherein poker greats play the main role. Each story varies but the end result is the same – poker players love 13 card poker and spending a lot of money on it. So what...