Being a Better Shuffler Doesn’t Make You a Better Player

online poker players are known for their ability to take the smallest details about the other people at the table and turn it into a character description. Just think about the whole culture of “reading the players” and “noting the tells”. It all hinges on how people project themselves. Some online poker players take this a little too far when it comes to shuffling. Let me be the first to tell you: being a better shuffler doesn’t make you a better player. It seems very basic, but it is an undeniable truth. Some people apparently think that home games are the chance to show off all of your fancy shuffling skills. These people apparently spend their time trolling through online tutorials to find the fanciest way to mix up the poker cards. They come in with interesting new techniques that are full of flash and finery. These are the people who try to shuffle with one hand or behind their back. What fancy shuffling is lacking, however, is substance. When you try your new shuffling knowledge at the poker table you are just showing that you don’t value the basics. The standard shuffling technique is mathematically sound, highly predictable, and easy to master. Why fix something that isn’t broken?

The Bi-Polar Strategy

Table image plays a big role in any poker game whatever the stakes. And recently on some of the top poker forums, some discussion has been going around as to whether making an odd first impression is +EV in terms of making money in that game in the long run. The example given was say you’re sitting down at a new table with poker players you’ve never seen before. You raise first hand, and bluff it all the way down to the river, regardless of the cards and, win or lose, you show the table those cards (Obviously this works better if you have a hand like 72o) but you get the general idea. What you’ve done is made a big first impression. People will be making conjectures about your play, your style, and your aptitude in the game. Are you a fish, a maniac who’s loose as a host at a bordello, or have you simply lost your mind and decided you wanted to donate to the charity of poker? With that, you can then use that impression. And use it to your advantage. Think about it. You bluffed air down to the river and went to show down. Don’t you think later on, when you have a monster, more people are going to be willing to call you down? This approach of course takes some good acting and a great transitional online poker game in order for it to work, but if you can pull it off correctly, the consensus is that you’ll be able to turn that crazy image you left in their minds as a first impression, into a money making machine after you bust a few brave souls who are trying to keep you “honest” from then on out. Again, food for the brain, but also a very interesting line to try out if you’ve got the roll to do it.

How Much Money Can I Make in a Poker Tournament?

Let me start off by saying, that I can’t quantify how much money you can make in a poker tournament. I don’t know you, I don’t know your playing style, and I don’t know the stakes you like. What I do know is that you will make far more money playing tournaments than you ever would playing traditional cash games at the casino. The stakes are higher in a tournament, the entry fees are often low, and the chances of placing are pretty good for a player with decent strategy.

Before we get too far into this, I would like to state that I am talking about online poker tournaments. There is no way that you could play enough brick and mortar tournaments to make anywhere the amount that you would need to play expenses. If you want to make a steady income from poker, or even use it as your career, you need to dedicate some serious amounts of time to online tournaments.

Let’s talk about how this is possible. With an online tournament (or even multiple tournaments at once) you get to play low risk, high reward games to your heart’s content. Add to the equation the fact that fish swarm online tournaments for their chance to be the next great poker star, and you have a winning combination. Online tournaments are your best ticket to a steady poker income.

Five. ) Making Poker Friends

You would be surprised where you can find fellow poker players- anywhere from your local bar or eatery, to your doctor’s office, to a car dealership. Poker has become ubiquitous in today’s society, and it is much easier to find a game than it previously was. The days of having to travel hours to find a game have seemingly disappeared, and with the advent of online poker, you can play without leaving your bedroom. In all these games, you can find compatriots to help pass the time with conversation, or to compete against in a friendly manner. The more poker friends you have, the easier it will be to start a game, so keep your friends close, and your enemies closer, especially if they like to play cards.

If you are enthusiastic about cards, you may wear your online poker room’s t-shirt around town, and this may attract attention from other players. Always be modest about your game, as people won’t want to invite a shark to their home game. Just talk about how much you love playing, and how you love to learn and play with new people. Online players tend to be much stronger players than those who just play live games as a result of the high volume of hands they play online. Consequently, you will be a big favorite in whatever home games you play in as an online player, but keep that fact close to your chest, and fly under the radar if you want to be invited back.

Other than making poker friends just to start games, it is great to have fellow players that you have a good rapport with to discuss hands and strategy. The online poker forums are a great place to meet people to discuss hands, as well as start home games with. Making friends that play poker will have a lot more in common with you, and you will have more fun with them than you will with people who don’t share a similar lifestyle. Make friends with other players, and you’ll have a lot more fun playing, as well as living your life.

Which pro Sports Players Would Be Best at Poker?

Here’s another installment in the What If? poker series. This time, we imagine pro athletes from various sports around the world as poker players, and how they might play and fare in poker tournaments.

First up are football players. There’s little doubt about these guys. While many football players are actually quite smart (there’s an entry exam, look it up!), I doubt they’d be able to shed their aggressive on-field tendencies when it came time to sidle up to the poker table. I can see these big brutes using their chip stacks as aggressively as possible; scaring away unsure bets, taking pots on big raises, and going all-in when it might not be the most opportune time.

Soccer players would play poker as they do the Beautiful Gamewith grace and methodical calculations that could see their chip stacks growing steadily throughout the game. Like a typical soccer match, they might even appear to be outplayed for a majority of the contest, only to surge at the end with the win.

Lastly, baseball players. Aside from all the hand signals and chew, I imagine baseball players might be the best. Baseball requires a bit of strategy and thinking on your feet, and rash decisions are not often rewarded on the diamond.