Poker Tournament Strategy Tips and Advice For Online Poker

In Texas Holdem, making good decisions is vital to getting deep in poker tournaments. This article covers the poker basics of when it is a good time to go all-in throughout the different stages of a poker tournament.

Understanding basic poker tournament strategy helps you arrive at executing correct tournament decisions.
Timing, in poker tournaments, is practically half the game. Possessing the mindset of when to make moves and when to fold is a crucial part of tourney success. That being said, let's examine scenarios where it is a good idea to go all in, and then some situations in a poker tournament where you should wait it out. Before we do that, the first poker tournament strategy you want to erase from your mind is the concept that when you are down to 10 big blinds (BB) or less, you need to shove with certain strong hands. This poker basics theory is a poor poker tournament strategy and essentially nothing more than an excuse players use to try to double up. Living on hope is not the way to win a poker tournament.

The 10 Big blind theory in poker has inherent strategic flaws, mostly because a majority of tournament poker players embrace the concept that if they get an opportunity to knock out a player they will take the chance. Therefore, you are essentially involving yourself in an unnecessary race with the hope of gathering much-needed chips. In other words, an all-in induces action! Therefore unless you have a really strong hand, than you should NOT go all-in regardless of how many big blinds you have left. Believe it or not, the real poker basics strategy is; 'it is better to blind out than to take an unnecessary shot in the dark.' (Remember, a chip and a chair is a real story!)

Now with 10 BB remaining, typically you have a minimum 30 hands left before you are blinded out. Therefore, with 10 BBs, you should never become anxious. The poker basics formula to calculate how many hands you have remaining before being blinded out at a 9 person table is typically three to three and one half times the number of big blinds remaining. So, if you have 30 BBs, you will be able to see about 100 hands before you blind out assuming you fold every hand. The hands remaining formula is a basic poker tournament lesson taught in my poker tournament strategies newsletter, (see link below).

Now that we have covered how many poker hands you have remaining, let's find out which hands in your tournament are critically a good time to go all in. In the case where you hold a top ten hand in late position, and there are more than two limpers, and you have 10 BB left, this is strategically, a good time to shove all in. The limpers likely will not call you preflop. On the other hand, if you are willing to take the risk and limp, you could get more value by waiting to see the flop. Especially if your opponents are loose, and tend to limp with warm hands. However, my strategy is to take down a limped pot preflop, as this will give you more chips to make a play later.

If you have a warm hand such as KQ suited or less, and you are in late position with no action before you, this is a good tournament strategy to shove and get rid of the button and blinds. You must remember that in addition to the number of hands you have remaining, your position is very important as well. In a poker tournament, players will tend to tighten up as they get deeper, and you can take advantage of this as a short stack, to get your chips in. However, you should only do it in position, with no players in the pot before you. This eliminates the possibility that some players like to limp in a tournament with monster hands, hoping to catch (or, trap) the shortstacks making a move.

Late stage tournament poker strategy; you want to play a tighter variety of hands and use position to make an all in move. In the middle stages of a tourney, when players are holding onto their stacks, your strategy should change. For example, limping with a monster hand to see a flop before you make a move. In the case where the flop is a really dry flop (no draws, no high cards, no connectors, etc.), there is never a need to go all in, make a strategic bet and you are likely to take down the pot uncontested. On the other hand, if you limp and the flop is a really draw heavy flop, you want to proceed cautiously before going all in. Maybe put out a big enough bet to see if someone is drawing. Usually, two-thirds to three-quarters bet is sufficient. If you get called and the draw does not come on the turn, exercise your poker strategy and consider this may be the time to go all in.

Typically, players are less likely to make an all in call on the turn, in middle and late stages of a tourney. Therefore, your strategy to get rid of drawing poker hands is best on the turn and not on the flop. In almost every case possible, it is rarely a good idea to get all your chips in the pot on the flop or even pre-flop. This again is a poor strategy and usually induces action by drawing hands that figure they have 2 cards to come and their odds are better to hit their draw.

Now for a look at early stage poker tournament strategy. There is almost never a reason you should have all your chips in the pot in the first 4 or 5 levels of any poker tournament. It is mathematically impossible to get blinded out in any poker tournament in the first 5 levels. In other words, you can not get blinded out, so why get all your chips in? The early stage of a poker tournament is best to slowly build up your stack with the intention of doubling your stack by the first break. However, the first 4 or 5 levels of any poker tournament is where most of the loose aggressive donkeys play! So, make it your strategy that unless you have the top 4 nuts on the flop, turn or river, you should avoid going all in.

We covered early stage poker tournament strategy, where you should build slowly and avoid the donkey play, middle stage strategy where you should target your plays for the flop or turn and late tournament stage strategy where you want to patiently wait for top hands to make your move. We also covered the false 10 BB theory and how to calculate your approximate poker hands remaining. The final word in this poker tournament strategy is that you want to reserve your all in for only when you have a lock on the pot! Do not get it all in weak or preflop, work your poker strategy on the flop, turn or river. After all, that is where the real power chip building is! Good luck and for more poker tournament strategy tips, make sure to sign up for my tournament newsletter sent free right to your email.

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What a Rush! Rush Poker at Full Tilt

Full Tilt poker just introduced a new way to play poker, called Rush Poker. User input and suggestions helped to formulate this new method of online poker with a twist. Much like speed poker or the turbo Texas holdem tournaments, Rush Poker has a twist that will keep you addicted.

I took the opportunity to try out this new way to play poker online and here is my review of Full Tilt’s Rush poker.

The way the game works is you register in a ring game (cash game poker) and buy in for your desired amount. The game is not a poker tournament, rather a regular cash game. The twist is you are playing against hundreds or even thousands of other players as each table you sit down to will rotate the players.

When you first join a Rush Poker game, you are set at a table with 8 other players, and dealt your hole cards. If you choose to fold your poker hand, you are immediately sent to another table with 8 different players.

To facilitate even more speed in the game, you can ‘quick fold’ before action is on you, to go to the next table. If you do not like the poker hand dealt to you, simply click quick fold and BAM! You are at another table.

The speed in which you are dealt hands is incredible, as I played for one hour and saw 312 poker hands! In a normal online poker cash game, that would be about 5 hours of play, and in live poker, that’s about 12 hours play.

In addition to the speed in which you are deal hands, there are a few more advantages to Rush Poker: the changing players, elimination of cheating or colluding and better hand selection.

The Changing Players

Since each table you are moved to has 8 other players and there are usually hundreds of players in the game, the chances of you seeing the same people again are slim, (although it happens). This is an advantage, because if you bluff or slow play or trap, these opponents may not see you again, and hardly have time to take notes on your play.

Elimination of Cheating / Colluding

This is a big plus! Since the players constantly rotate and the odds of any two players sitting at the same table are greatly minimized, poker cheating and colluding becomes practically non-existent.

In a normal game, two or three players can easily dominate a table using text, instant messaging or any number of other methods to communicate their hole cards to each other, giving them an advantage over other players.

Colluding becomes harder and therefore the Rush Poker game becomes a better game.

Better Hand Selection

One of the hardest things for poker players is the wait between hands and folding constantly until they get a good hand. Sometimes I personally have sat one or two hours without seeing a quality hand and scooping a big pot. When I played Rush Poker, I saw 312 hands and was able to win 26 pots that tripled my buy in!

The hands come a lot faster and it seems to me that people were a lot more selective about their starting poker hands. This adds to a good game, as you have a less chance of poker bad beats when a guy is so bored he plays a junk hand and hits a miracle card to river you.

Faster poker, it appears to be the next wave in online poker, as more sites are adding turbo texas holdem tournaments, but Full Tilt is the first to introduce this new idea to the poker cash games. I look for PokerStars to add a competitive method soon as It will catch on quickly with poker players.

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How To Win Texas Hold em Poker Games

Texas hold em poker games have recently become one of the hottest activities on and off the Internet. Live poker tournaments can be found in practically every major city and casino worldwide.

This new wave of entertainment has even become known as the newest sport. A sport where anyone, regardless of age, physical prowess, or experience can have an opportunity to compete with professionals side by side in a competition that produces many millionaires each year.

Merely playing in a Texas hold em poker game, does not necessarily mean you can win it, just like with any sport or competition, you must acquire and posses a special skill set to find yourself getting further and winning. The key to winning Texas hold em poker games is experience.

That experience can come from actual play or from practicing in online poker tournaments in the multitude of available pokersites. In addition to playing Texas hold em poker games, one must continually try and improve their game by using the knowledge of each game and apply it to future competitions.

Texas hold em poker games are primarily what is known as situational. That is to say, each situation you are involved in has a unique set of circumstances, which may or may not be repeated the next time you play. The reason is the deal of the cards and the variety of people playing in each poker tournament will change each time you play.

For example, when you are dealt pocket Aces in a Texas hold em poker game, you can not just assume the correct move is to raise or go all in. It largely depends on two things. One is the position in which you are sitting and the other is the style of players at your table.

If your table has several aggressive players that like to raise every hand and you are sitting before them (in early position), it may be a good idea to just limp in (do not raise). The hope is that one of your more aggressive opponents will raise giving you the opportunity to make more money in the pot.

If your table is tight and rarely anyone raises, and you are in late position (or last to act pre-flop), you may want to raise after several players have come in to the pot. This may get them to fold and allow you to just take the pot down now.

Texas hold em poker games are easier to win if you can obtain enough information on your opponents, and use the knowledge of different situations to play against these opponents. First, learn the different styles of how to play position, when to bluff, when to fold (different situations) and then put that knowledge to work and gain the experience you need.

A simple plan of attack that you formulate beforehand will give you the confidence and knowledge to win more Texas hold em poker games in the future.

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The Cash Out Curse Is it Real In Online Texas Holdem?

Lately, a lot of people have begun to question the honesty of several online pokersites, due in part to recent scandals involving players on particular sites. Many have gone so far as to claim that online poker is rigged and that a winning player is penalized for making withdrawals. This is known in the poker community as the ‘cash out curse’

Typically, a player that has won a large sum of money or has consistently played well and won several big cashes, goes to withdraw a portion of their winnings. Suddenly they are attacked by a seemingly inevitable curse that causes them to constantly lose game after game, forcing them to reload their account with more money.

Many claim that the poker sites, to keep people from cashing out their winnings, perpetrate this cash out curse. No matter how hard one would try to convince someone that this is just a fable, the losing player can not be convinced, as they continue to complain that online poker is rigged and that when they cash out they go on a losing streak because the poker site wants them to keep their money online.

Although the notion of a ‘cash out curse’ may seem ridiculous, it is entirely possible that a pokersite can (and often does) control the cards of a particular player. This is accomplished by the fact that everything in an online poker site is regulated by computer-generated codes and programs under the direct control of the owners of the site.

Read more at EzineArticles The Texas Hold em Cash Out Curse. . .

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RNG Full Tilt Poker Flaws

Is there something amiss in the software used to run FullTilt, or is it just our imagination? This post will examine the inherent RNG Full Tilt poker flaws and how it adversely affects players.

The RNG, as most any online poker player knows is the Random Number Generator that "shuffles" the cards in an online poker room. The RNG is by most accounts the fairest way to shuffle a deck to make the game appear fair and random. However, there are several inherent flaws which inevitably have many poker players screaming "This site is rigged"

There are several arguments as to why bad beats and suck outs occur on Full Tilt, and most of these are explained away in a non-technical 'that's poker' explanation. However, it stands to reason that there actually should be a more plausible reasoning behind the enormous amount of bad beats and suckouts.

That reasoning, as discussed by Paul Westin (a professional poker player and software engineer), is that there really are flaws in the programs used by Full Tilt as well as Pokerstars and almost all other online poker sites.

The flaws are a result of an attempt by the programmers to create a secure and unpredictable deal of the cards using the RNG. In 2001 several skilled software programmers were able to break the pattern of a popular RNG used on a well-known poker site, resulting in massive wins by the hackers.

This prompted the Online poker sites to find a more secure manner in which to deal and shuffle cards. At first, the seed used in the RNG was changed to a non-static variable (such as a white noise generator, sound wave technology, etc). This helped make it nearly impossible to find the seed, since the variable would constantly change in a widely non-specific pattern.

The next measure was to add in algorithms and subroutines to prevent any one player to win pot after pot. This was a safeguard in case the RNG was possibly compromised, and further accomplished by an algorithm which would force specific hands to win, while others would lose. (you know AA vs. 5 8os and the 5 8 gets there!)

The result is less than desirable, since the actual deal of the cards no longer mimic real life statistics. In fact, in a study of 250,000 hand histories, it was determined that a straight or flush occurred 12% more often than it would in live play. While a full house occurred nearly 25% more often than it statistically would in live play.

After careful examination of Paul Westin's complete study on the RNG full tilt poker flaws, I am without a doubt convinced that his answers are way more plausible than the standard answers given in most rigged poker debates.

It should be noted that Westin does not claim the sites are rigged to their own advantage, rather they are rigged to prevent cheating, collusion and players dominating a table. The algorithms used are in place to prevent what the poker site feels would otherwise be an unfair advantage.

However, the fact that they add in algorithms and subroutines in an attempt to prevent cheats, has opened up the door for a person to actually win more if they are familiar with the patterns created by the algorithms and if that player knows what to 'look for' while playing.

My opinion is that Westin is on target, his explanation definitely gives a player the advantage and he even shows how to suckout and how to know when you are going to lose a big hand.

You can read more at the Online Poker Code Crack site and further articles located at ezinearticles.

Good Luck as always!