Choosing Coin Flip or Not

With the progression of a poker game, after raising and re-raising more and more the pot, there are moments when we have to choose to continue or not the game by betting on them only on "coin flips", these shots which we have to toss up. Even if everybody tries to avoid this dilemma, this delicate choice often happens in a poker game leading sometimes to involvement stack in stake. But even if coin flips is an inescapable stage in poker and what everybody cannot gain each time, the fact that great players of poker often achieve on the top of classification of poker tournaments can be explained thus by other matter: a style of poker game dictated by the position and the control of the pot. Indeed, the word "edge", the advantage of a big player against the others is often advanced by especially their experience.

Purely mathematical approach which dictates the fact of choosing coin flips according to a particular hand is indeed banished from big players’ vocabulary, reading of the situations instead of the preflop and post-flop is more important for them. Indeed, mathematical approach does not take into account the dynamics of the tournament.

In practice, theory of great authors as David Slansky or Dan Harrington allows to wander from these choices dictated by coin flips. According to them, "the chips I lose have more value than the chips I gain". If the mathematical arguments give you a chance by 2 to gain a shot where you have already bet 10,000 in the pot, great players do not see it like this. Adding 50,000 to your stack would not really change the dynamics of the game. On the other hand, loosing 50,000 would change absolutely everything. Indeed, if you try to increase your pot into 150,000 by tempting coin flips, you can very well fall again in 50,000. Indeed, you depend strictly on chance. At a moment of the poker tournament, your survival depends on a decision heads or tails, but a talented player owes maintain his advantage and leave aside this desire to gain.

The initial hands in Razz

Mastering well Razz and knowing the initial hands which can be led up to the end or not is essential in this variant. As for Seven-Card Stud, but the only one difference is that the highest hand wins in this variant, the third and the fourth cards are the decisive points in Razz. The third street is an essential indication determining your first decision which can be either to go to play the hand, that is to fold and to leave your ante. Online poker game is also enough to understand and win money easily.

Given that ante theft is the main objective of Razz, the good situations which allow achieving it are there essential to know. Even if you have a low card, if no player spoke after you in spite of your low card face-up, then you should steal antes especially if you have a good face down card. But such situation should not however be repeated too often. Aggressiveness at the beginning of shots could also awaken players’ suspicion in case of disposition of such card what can entail re-raise on behalf of those who have better hands. In case you have the best hand in the game, your theft of ante establishes a value bet.

In Razz, the board which is presented against your opponent must be used also at most, every time you have the opportunity to frighten your opponent. In case if nobody entered the shot and in case it is your turn to speak, you can adopt diverse strategies as the case allow. Instead of stealing antes every time, entering the set with three low cards height 8 is already rather ideal. By receiving better cards in poker game, it is also necessary to wonder how many available cards, not yet dealt to my opponents could I improve my hand? How many cards could give a pair onto my board? These cards duplicated in your opponents’ hands give a rather global outline of the strength of your hands.

Usual Terms in Poker

Knowing technical terms used often is really important in poker. This is one of the first rules to become a good poker player. These are some key terms that you have to remember and which are usually used in every sets or poker tournaments:

- To fold: allows player to put cards in the box and to not pursue the game by leaving at the same occasion chips that he invested at the beginning, in order to save more money.
- Showdown : which is the comparison of the seven cards of players
- Ante: It is the first sum that each player has to put on the table. We talk about initial stake in Stud poker. But, in Texas Hold’em and Omaha, the blind is used. The difference is that Ante doesn’t have the value of a bet in poker.
- Blind: It is a forced bet required in certain variants of poker. There are two blinds, the small and the big one. At the beginning, player who is at the left of the dealer pay this forced bet in Hold’em and in Omaha. Moreover, big blind is made by player having seat at the left of the player making blind. Blinds are rotated clockwise turn by turn and every player has to make a forced bet during the set.
- Bluff: It is a strategy which allows player to cheat his opponents by doing paradoxical bets more than his cards allow him to do.
- Buy-in: It is the minimal sum required to participate in a game table. The buy-in depends on each set. If the value of the bet-in is high, then gains are important.
- Flop: is the three first cards face up of the community cards on the board dealt at the same time in Texas Hold'em.

Hands Which can Bring the Most

With the combination and the probability of cards in poker which are more or less known, hands can return rather often. Draw of certain combinations can indeed appear more often than others. If a player is used to recognize these hands or trained for their identification, they have a bigger chance to win. On the other hand, the failure of distinguishing these classifications can also bring players to invest thoroughly in some hands which are not nevertheless worth.

- The Top pair/top kicker: it is the maximum pair of the board with the kicker as high as possible. It’s also known under the abbreviation "TPTK". Even though this hand is rather interesting, it is moreover necessary to be watchful when you have it. In case the pot increases and in case all the players are active, better hands than the TPTK can be in opponents’ hands. To know the custom of every player is important too. Indeed, passive players can raise only by having nuts in hands while the most aggressive players make it with a check-raise and draw.

- Two pairs: two pairs also establish a very good game in poker. Even in flop, this kind of hand is completely interesting because it beats a top pair. In micro-limits, players who hold little lower cards widely prefer to fold.

- Three of a kind: such hand is completely competitive especially if it is about a Three of a kind "Sets" that is a Three of a kind with a pair served in hand. If it is a pair of 2 that accompanies it, the only arrival of a set to the flop makes it interesting. But in front of the weakness of the probability that it arrives, raise preflop which has to accompany it shouldn’t exceed 5% to 10 % of your stack.

- AA and KK: with this hand, you are the favourite at 80 %. You should not thus sub-play it but to try to finish in a pot "multi -way". In every raise preflop, it is thus necessary to re-raise at any time.

Seven Card Stud: Seven individual cards for each player

Like most of poker games, Seven Card Stud is played around a table with eight players at most. Seven hole cards among which two face-down cards, four face-up cards and the final card (the river) face-down distinguish this variant of poker played on most of online poker websites and in gaming room. An ante, a compulsory stake, is paid before the first three cards, two face down ' hole cards ' and a face-up card or ' door card ' for each participant are dealt. This last card indicates the one who has to launch the stake. Indeed, the one who receives the lowest face-up card has to begin the betting by starting from the ' bring-in ' with an amount equivalent with at least the half of the lowest limit. This round is so announced by the dealer saying "the Low Card Must Bet ". For the following rounds, after each new face-up card is dealt, it will always be the player having the highest hand who will open the betting.

The betting rounds can so continue. The dealer distributes then a second face-up card to all players still in game before a new betting round, then, a third face-up card is dealt , followed by another betting round. The latest card (the river) is dealt face down and opens the way to the latest betting round which becomes more exciting in poker games. But in the case there are not enough cards to be dealt, a card from the clog will be used as a common card for the river. Time for showdown, each player has to form a hand with five cards among the seven cards at his disposal. It will be the one who has the highest hand who will be the winner.

The beginning of EPT tournaments

It is surprising to know that the place which gave birth to the pinhole was the place where takes place the biggest tournament of poker, European Poker Tour (EPT). The idea was launched in 1997 by an English TV station and spread beyond the Atlantic Ocean and became a major event of poker, as Poker Millions, World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour. The idea was arranged for European criteria by the English production and was animated and commented by the winner of WSOP, John Duthie of the TV station Sunrise and Vin in Europe. Duthie and his team of production set up a program similar to the World Poker Tour, with some differences.

History
The EPT was launched in 2004 as a direct competitor to the WPT. In order to entice numerous participants to this game, prizes were the half of those proposed by WPT. At present, the Tour goes to 10 countries per season. These countries include Denmark, Spain, England, Australia, Ireland, Czech Republic, the Bahamas, Germany, Poland, and Monaco.
Differences between EPT and WPT
Some points distinguish these two big tournaments of poker which invite thousands of players, every year.

1). The EPT takes place in diverse countries of Europe, while the WPT is played around the world and mainly in the United States, apart from a stage of the tournament
2). This difference of geographical zone makes the numbers of stars present in the event varying. The biggest players of the United States appear in the EPT tournament, except the famous Phil Ivey. In a general way, the American players are always beaten by players native to other countries. Then: what country does play poker the better?
3). The EPT final table is played by eight players, while that of the WTP with six.

Techniques to Bluff at poker

To bluff is an important element in poker: a good player who never bluffs will win less than a good player who often bluffs. It consists in making your opponents folding when they have better hand than you. There are many kinds of bluff in poker:

- Pure Bluff: when you bluff with an extremely weak hand and without possibility of considerable improvement.
- Semi-Bluff: when you raise with a worthless hand but with a strong potential of improvement.

How to bluff?
The first error to be avoided is to bluff too often. Do not always bluff the same players, and do not try to fight for small unimportant pots: take advantage of it to persuade your opponents that you are a lock by checking / folding, your future bluffs on big pots will be more credible.
Second thing, be exactly as if you had a better hand. Do not forget that your opponents always keep an eye on you, if they notice an unusual action, they could indeed pay you with an average game: we call it a "Nice call".

Some basic principles too are to be kept in mind: in the flop, the total bluff is misadvised because if after you raise and a player “calls”, the bluff is certainly lost. On the other hand, the pure bluff is more recommended than the semi-bluff at river. To succeed your bluff, errors which risk revealing your strategy are to be avoided as:

1) to bluff too often
2) to bluff players who call all the time for anything
3) to bluff more than 3 players
4) to bluff when the pot is not worth
5) to continue to bluff against the same person while he already get you once
6) to bluff when we feel that the opponent has a strong hand.

Poker: The most popular card game in the world

The attendance numbers of big poker live tournaments, which still increase year by year, continue confirming the popularity of online poker games. This game of strategy using 52 cards alternated by distribution of cards and by tours of bids where the best players can always lead remains indeed very different from other gambles which depend on chance. Controlling the game, having the capacity to read in his opponents’ emotion and the risk that the player takes according to the cards at his disposal, indeed make that online poker requires a real particular capacity. In several countries, poker is so classified in sports category.
Poker Games has a main objective to form the best 5 cards and player had to hide its emotion to his opponent. At the beginning, each player has to invest at first a sum of departure before being able to play a hand. It is only according to the various variants of poker, Texas Hold' Em No Limit, Omaha Hi Lo, Seven Card Stud… that the number of individual cards and the cards to be discovered are different. Also, it is as well according to these variant of poker that the high hand or the low hand wins.

The system of bid at poker game, the way of betting chips and the way of moving during the set, are one of the key points of online poker. Players around a table have the right to outbid alternately according to the sense of the needle of a watch. Each player has the right to call and to stay in the game, to raise by betting a higher amount or to fold if he does not want to call anymore the bids and to abandon. When the tour of bid ends and when there are still players who are not still folded, the remaining players pass in the showdown. And the pot accumulated since the beginning of the hand returns to the player who has formed the best 5 cards

Draw poker: Poker played with individual cards only

The board and the common cards face-up in the center of the table do not exist necessarily in other variants of poker. Variants called « draw poker » can be played in some sets; this variant was moreover the most played in France and in Europe before. In this variety which is especially used to initiate beginners and played also in private tournaments, 3 to 8 players can play. Five private cards are distributed to each player. And this type of online poker games can be played in a “play with pot ", a play in which each player has to give a forced stake defined in advance, or a "play with blind". With this last kind of poker game, the first player on the left of the dealer bets at the same time the initial pot and the opening. Each player can follow with a same minimal amount of blind or can raise.

The betting round can so begin. If no betting was made yet in the round, a player can say «check» and give the turn to the next player, without betting anything. Betting is finished as soon as everybody bet the same stake. In pot game, betting is opened by the first player on the left of the dealer. For those who are still at stake, before turning back cards, the dealer asks to each remaining player for the number of cards they want to exchange. Each player announces alternately the number of cards that they don’t need, by throwing them face on the table, before receiving new ones. A player who didn’t exchange any card announces "served". Then a second betting round can continue with the same rules. At the end of this round, the remaining players pass to the showdown. The “Lowball”, the “Deuce to seven” or “Kansas City Lowball” and “Badugi” (four cards) are among the variants of draw poker games.