Play Mode: Real Money
Table Name: Bogoria-19
Game Type: Hold’em
Blinds: $0.25/$0.50
Stakes: $0.50/$0.50
Currency: USD
Starting Date: 2008-09-18 GMT
Starting Time: 21:13:51 GMT

Seating Arrangement:

cpourqui is at seat 1 with $14.52.
Hero is at seat 2 with $67.45.
chainez38 is at seat 3 with $60.45.
lamobylette is at seat 5 with $62.10.
@@tony06@@ is at seat 6 with $51.30.

Post Blinds:

The button is at seat 6.
cpourqui posts the small blind of $0.25.
Hero posts the big blind of $0.50.

Deal Pocket Cards:

cpourqui: — –
Hero : 6s 6c
chainez38: — –
lamobylette: — –
@@tony06@@: — –

Pre-flop:
chainez38 calls $0.50.
lamobylette folds.
@@tony06@@ raises $2.25.
cpourqui folds.
Hero calls $1.75.
chainez38 folds.
Flop (8c 6h 5c):
Hero raises $5.25.
@@tony06@@ raises $14.50.
Hero raises $43.50.
@@tony06@@ raises $34.55.
Hero calls $0.30.
Turn (8c 6h 5c 5h 4d):

Showdown:
Hero shows 6s 6c.
Hero has 5c 5h 6s 6c 6h: Full House
@@tony06@@ shows Jh Jd.
@@tony06@@ has 5c 5h 8c Jh Jd: Two Pair
Pot Summary:
Total Pot: $103.35
Hero wins $101.35.
House Rake: $2.00

The reason I posted this hand today was to provide an example of how to fast play a set rather than slow play. I forced my opponent to play his hand correctly in most cases (to raise and represent a strong hand on the flop).  I am perfectly willing to bet into the player on the flop and have him fold. After all, he could very well have a draw himself and I do not want to give him the chance to draw. If I had check raised this flop I might have very well gave away my hand.

TY- FISH

Playing Small Pocket Pairs No Limit Hold em

When I play small pocket pairs in No Limit Hold em cash games, I am generally calling to see the flop in hopes to see a set. But the problem is that I do not want to spend a lot of money to do so. Basically I only call someones raise to see the flop ONLY if there raise is small enough or they have enough chips to justify the call.

Here is my logic. When calling a raise with any pair I will hit a set approximately 1/8 times. If I am playing .50cent / 1dollar blinds, and someone raises the pot to 4 dollars. I am holding pocket 4’s. Remember I know I will hit 1/8 times, I need to win 4×8 ,($32 dollars) for my call. And this is JUST to break even over time!! I am not playing poker to just break even, or lose money so I need to do some extra math to add a buffer.

Here is how I work it .(I am bad at math so I do it this way) The bet is 4 dollars so I think 4×8 is $32. I then double the break even point 32x 2 witch works out to be 64 dollars. If the player has close to 64 dollars or more I will play in hopes of rolling him or her for his entire stack. I might also make a call if 2 or more players are in the pot with stack sizes totaling more than the $64 bucks.

Why add a buffer ?? Why not play straight up?? Several things can happen when I do hit my set so I need to account for this. Sets are not always the nuts on the flop !! They can lose to flushes, straights or even higher sets on the flop or even worse on the turn or river. Also I play my sets very aggressively and quite often they player will fold to me right on the flop because he is wise to my play, or he was betting air pre flop and missed the flop.

Before you start your online poker career or even begin to learn the online poker rules, you need to first learn the hand ranks in poker, or in other words: “What Beats What In Poker”.

Poker Hand Ranks
Royal Flush

T♥ J♥ Q♥ K♥ A♥

Straight Flush

5♠ 6♠ 7♠ 8♠ 9♠

Four of a Kind

Q♣ Q♦ Q♥ Q♠ 2♥

Full House

Q♣ Q♥ Q♠ 5♥ 5♣

Flush

3♥ 5♥ 8♥ 9♥ Q♥

Straight

5♠ 6♣ 7♥ 8♦ 9♠

Three of a Kind

Q♠ Q♣ Q♥ 5♠ 8♦

Two Pair

5♠ 5♥ Q♠ Q♥ A♣

One Pair
5♥ 5♣ 7♥ 9♦ Q♣

A trap that brand new poker players fall into is that they do not understand how the poker hand is always made up of the best 5cards. Hopefully they are playing online poker for free so that it does not cost them very much money, or at least on a table with me so that I can take their money .In Hold em this is very important because new players who have not learned the basic rule of poker , will  disrespect their “kicker”.

Example: You hold A♥5♠ and the flop is  Q♠ Q♥ A♣

There is a lot of betting and the turn of river is  3♥ 5♣

Giving you a final hand of 2 pairs A♥ A♣Q♠ Q♥ with a    5♣ Kicker !!

Your opponent turns over    A♠ 10♠

Giving him a final hand of     A♠ A♣Q♠ Q♥ with a  10♠ kicker !!

If you are in this stage of learning I strongly suggest that you play online poker for fun, or free first unil you learn the hand rankings. Not knowing what beats what in poker before playing for real money can be a costly.

Free Poker Rules / Basic Rule of Poker

This information that I am about to post for you is absolutely free FOR YOU!!But it was not free for me, as it was not free for countless others who had to learn the basic rule of poker on their own. The fee to learn this was payed off to all the players on the online poker sites who were more than happy to take our poker chips. Most of these free poker rules are designed for No Limit Texas Hold em as that is the game that I play professionally, but they can be adapted for all Texas Hold em games and variations. If you are a brand new poker player looking for free poker rules then start by viewing this list of poker rules that I made for myself.

• Play within your means. If your willing to lose 200 dollars to start playing poker then plan on starting on very small stakes. (.5cent/.10cent blinds or lower)NEVER TAKE all  your money to one table.
• learn your hold em starting hands and stick with them !! But be Aggressive when you hit a hand!!
• Do not call big raises with medium hands, but be willing to raise with the same hand in late positions to steal blinds.
• Only call a bet if you feel strongly that maybe a raise is an option, or if you are drawing to a bigger hand. (learn your odds to call on draws)
• Only call with small Pocket pairs when you have odds to do so
• Watch the online poker players at your table to see what type of hold cards they are playing poker . categorize them and take notes accordingly. If you see that a player is playing more than 2 tables then note this. These poker players almost always have some set of poker rules that he is using for himself.
• Only play online poker for two hours at the most and then take a break. Read some books on poker rules and strategies and then play again. Applying your new found rules.
• The Basic Rule of poker is TIGHT TIGHT!! Winning players do not play a lot of hands!! Do not try and out play other players. wait for good hands and hope the bad ones get in the pot when have a hand.

If you need to learn the basic hand ranks, or how the blinds work in hold em then I suggest joining Everest poker .The Tutorials are top notch!!  They offer free play and micro limits for brand new players. They also have free rolls, and dollar tournaments.  While learning your poker rules for free or very little money, on sites like this, you need to always  try find ways to tweak your online poker game !!

Lately on the poker tables I have not been taking enough time to think over a hand before I act. Normally this happens in raised flops and I hit my much awaited set. I am always quick to bet them on the flop before letting the timer go down at all , usually not taking time to consider other options , but whats worse is If I get a caller I will make a really fast stupid pot sized bet no matter what card comes off for the turn. This has me a bit worried.

The key to this is going to be in ALWAYs taking 5-30 seconds before acting. of course not when its a fast fold in a disinteresting hand, but the ones I feel a strong commitment too. Today I applied my new rule and it seems to be working for me. Even if river the stone cold nuts and my only options is to call someones all in raise, I need to take a little time for reasons of discipline. Later on this can help me to slow down rather than blasting away my entire stack with one bad bet

TY FISH

Like most poker players, one of the things I love to do, is talk about poker. Because I am isolated alone on a computer for at least 6 hours a day while I play, this need to talk about the game is amplified. I am sure this is the case for many online rounder’s.

Bad Beat Stories

A complete waste of time!! In fact, it’s unhealthy and counterproductive.  Negativity feeds on itself and breads in the people that allow it too. I always TRY and stay completely away from these conversations. Of course I still maintain a polite approach to people who bring up these boring stories, but I try and quickly change the topic and keep the conversation positive and productive.

It’s much more productive to talk about starting hand requirements, or bank roll management, etc. than to talk about something that we have no control over.  Losing/ Break even players tend to focus on bad hands rather than their play. At the end of the day they think things like; If only I my Aces had help up, or how can they call with crap like that, or once again I get f**cked. Positive players reassure themselves that they played well, and that the outcome is really non substantial.

So when we get together to talk about our beloved game, let’s try and help each other out ok??Sorry your Aces got cracked again but howz about we talk about how much of a “Rock” you are , or maybe how much poker tracker has increased your revenues for this month J

• Bad beats are nothing more than “Expected Losses”
• Losers make excuses; winners always find a way to win.
• Never focus on a problem, only the solution

I had a good day on the online poker tables yesterday, rounding for about 4 hours and winning 4 buyins on the 6max NL tables.  My bank roll is getting larger and I hope to increase my stakes in the next week or so.

One thing that I notice an increase of on the poker tables lately is smack talk aimed towards the fish!! I really get annoyed by this and I have to really control the urge to yell at the players who are talking trash. Believe me when a fish stays in a pot holding 33 on a big board holding nothing but his pair and snags the final 3 on the river, I am not completely happy with this , but I take comfort in the fact that I am at the right table , and playing the right people. When this happens the last thing I do is type annoying statements to him to let him and everyone else at the table know he has made a mistake. Of course staying in with small pairs is obvious bad play, but less obvious is the large number of bad calls pre flop with suited crap, and people making tons of errors on flush / straight draws etc. IT is NOT my job to let anyone know about there mistakes. IN fact I want them to continue this play. Whats even worse so called poker players that are not even in the hand pipe up and say things to the fish .. I MEAN WHY ??

If I wake up in the morning and happen to look out my window, only to notice some man is standing on my front lawn with a large garbage bag throwing things about I might be upset at first. If I go outside only to learn he is reaching in the bag , pulling out handfulls of $20 dollar bills, and tossing them around my yard, the Last thing I am goind to do is yell. Poker works the same way, people show up on my tables and attempt to throw money at me. This is a good thing!! WHen it doesnt go my way crying is not going to help anything.
ARRG !!

TY- FISH !!

Before I sit down and play some No Limit Texas Hold Em Online I follow this simple system before I play. This comes from years of experience in the poker rooms, and I hope I can help another card player with this online poker strategy.

Hungry

Angry

Lonely

Tired

——————–

Hungry

Poker players get hungry for three things

1: FOOD

Sounds simple enough but poker players take this very seriously. I love my job like nothing else and believe me I can get up in the morning at like 6am and be logged in online and playing No Limit Poker before my eyes are barely open. My body and brain need fuel to be fully optimized and I always play poker like an ass when I am undernourished. Bluffing and making dumb calls because I cannot think clearly. The worst part is I might not even be aware of why I am playing like an ass, and the answer was there the whole time, I just refused to look at it or ignored the obvious.

2: MONEY

Please for the love of god disassociate your poker chips WITH money. Just play your game, and try and have some fun while you do it!! This is part of the reason EVERY serious poker player will always stress the importance of bankroll management. If you cannot afford to lose some buy ins fast then you should not be playing!!

3-BLOOD

Some asshole, fish , donkey , mofo or whatever you want to call him, caught a 3 outer on the river and just cleaned you out of 2 full buy ins IN ONE HAND !! ARRG ! Absolutely do not focus on that player, loll. IT WILL COST YOU!!! Focus on your game and maintaining your respect for the rules that you make for yourself when you play online poker. Sometimes we get a super fish on a table and its absolutely ok to loosen up our games to take chips from him, but we always need to make sure we are in the pot for a good reason and not just on a vendetta. Also resist the urge to try and outplay the good players. Most of the your poker income will come from the fish, not the other pros.

Angry

My life can come with a lot of stress. I need to ask myself if I am angry or in an overall good mood before I attempt to play online poker. This strategy can be the difference between a winning and a losing day. Why set myself up to fail before I even start to play poker?? If the wife and I just had a huge fight and she called me a miserable bastard, or a lazy poker playing prick, there is no way I can play poker shortly after. I have learned to get over the argument first , kiss and make up, RESET , and then play., play, play, lol.

Lonely

You had a big date planned for tonight, and now she cancelled!! You called ll your friends and absolutely everyone is busy. You find yourself at home and just do not feel like playing online poker. But what do you do ??Play poker anyway?? !! DO NOT PLAY POKER!! Entertainment time is soooo important when it comes to playing online poker. If you know you should not be playing and are just trying to fill in a few yours DON’T DO IT !!Get yourself a stockpile of things to do , so that you can plan ahead for these times. Buy some books, movies, get the abbmaster or whatever it takes.

Tired

I Do not play big poker sessions after a long day of activities, or after a crappy night’s sleep, or even while drunk, lol J My mind needs to be sharp and fully rested to play to my full potential . Even more important than this, I DO NOT play for more than 2 hours per session. I ALWAYS play for around 1.5 hours and then I break for at least 20 minutes before I play again. There are times of course when some idiot fish is dumping 2 buy ins per minute and in this case I will break my rule. However I still have a plan for this, I close down all tables accept for the fishy one, and I only play that table for at least 30 minutes while I stretch, grab myself drink ,etc