Poker Ace Blog

One-fifth of Mass. gamblers’ outlay spent on R.I. slots

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Colma, California — WHAT WAS ALREADY the largest non-Indian casino in Northern California in terms of the number of gaming tables has just gotten bigger.

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A look at one of the hardest obstacles to overcome in online poker, discipline 

You have read about them on the two plus two forums and you hear their stories while watching the World Poker Tour. They talk about how happy they are and how much freedom poker has brought them. They talk about money like they have an inexhaustible supply. Some even talk about the little things, like how poker has become a consistent second income for them.

Who are these people? They’re winning players. 

They are the players who have done the same things you have done. They have read all the greatest poker books, put in their time at the tables and probably lost a lot of money on the way. Yet somewhere along their journey they started winning, and they haven’t looked back. What’s the difference between you and them? Most likely it’s one of pokers hardest challenges and that’s learning discipline. You can know all the poker strategy in the world and have all of Sklansky’s and Malmuth’s books memorized to the T, but if you don’t have discipline, then you might as well just show up to the table,  pay everyone sitting there and then leave. It will be a much better use of your time.

Becoming a winning poker player is a true accomplishment and a big challenge. You may read a lot of success stories and see a lot of people doing it and they probably all make it sound fairly easy. If discipline comes naturally to you, then it very well might be easier for you than someone else. If not though, then it is truly something you must challenge yourself to work on.

Poker is a game of short term skill and long term luck. What this means is that you need to make the correct decision during every situation over a very long period of time to show a profit for your good judgment. In the short term, luck will either make the journey pleasant (during a good run of cards) or it can make it unbearable (when you get cold cards). The point is that the most important aspect is that of the long term. If you are well trained and know the game well, then you will show a profit over the long haul. The problem is when you let your lack of discipline cloud your otherwise good judgment.

Every time you deviate from your otherwise good strategy, you cut into your long term profit and increase the likelihood that you will not be a winning player. 

Let’s take a look at a few examples of how this might happen:

1. You are playing in a soft game on Ultimate Bet when you are dealt a pair of Aces. After a pretty flat board and just some players who call you down to the end, you are slapped by a pipe dream inside straight that caught on the river. You are really mad. Now because you are so mad, you play the next eight hands in a row trying to recapture your loss. The problem is that you’re playing weak hands out of position and you are just throwing money in the pot, not raising or check raising, just calling. You’re afraid to play because you were beat by a long shot, yet at the same time your anger if influencing your judgment and you are hemorrhaging money. Going on tilt is hands down the best way to lose all your money playing poker. When a bad beat gets under your skin, exercise some good judgment and take a break.

2. You have an affinity for Jack/Ten suited. You think it’s a good hand in large multi way pots and you play it well. You’re in middle position and the pot has already been raised twice pre flop. Despite the fact that you know calling is the dumbest move on earth, you do it anyways because you simply have to see the flop. You know it’s the wrong move, but you do it anyways. Winning players win because they eventually get away from behavior like this, do the same and you’ll be happy.

3. You have been playing excellent for a month now at the $1-$2 Hold’Em tables on Ultimate Bet. Your poker tracker stats are good and your bankroll is sitting pretty at around $750 up from the $400 you started with. You decide your going to move up in limits today and multi table some $2-$4 Hold’Em with maybe a table of $3-$6 thrown in. You lose most of your bankroll in a couple of hours and feel like you have a giant hole in your chest. Your discipline, which grew your bankroll in the first place, went right out the window and now you’re probably done with poker until you can afford it again.

Are these situations you often find yourself in? Are you playing hands that you know you should throw away? Are you sitting in games that could eat your bankroll in an hour? If you’re answering yes, then you have a discipline problem and it would be in your best interest to curb it quickly. Unless your supply of money is truly endless, you will never build yourself that high limit bankroll by being an idiot and playing without discipline. Knowing that an adjustment to your mind set and your decision making could turn you into a winning player should be enough motivation to work towards improving your discipline.

If you are reading this saying “I hear ya, but I just don’t know if I can do it” then take a look at these tips below. Integrate them into your playing routine and keep an eye on the prize. Solid discipline can turn you from a knowledgeable, skilled losing player into a powerful and dangerous winning player:

• If a good hand gets cracked or you can’t catch a good hand to save your life, then get up and take a break. Nothing feeds a losing streak better than more losing. Get up from the table (or the computer) grab a glass of water and give your mind a break. Simply change the scene for 15 minutes and collect your thoughts. If when you return, things still don’t feel right, then take an extended break or go find something else to do until tomorrow
• Model your playing after the true disciplinarian you want to be. If you are about to make a move that you don’t feel right about, then ask yourself “ Being that I am trying to improve my discipline at the table, would this be the right move to make?” Most likely the answer will be no.
• Look at the good things you have done to help calm stupid cravings. If you are doing well and making lots of money, don’t go ruining it by playing out of your limits. Trust me, the boys at the $10-$20 table will wipe out that $300 bucks you have made playing $1-$2 so fast you won’t know what hit you. Manage your money and your bankroll wisely and don’t go for broke the second you have some success. It is your consistent good judgment and playing that will eventually turn that $300 into $6000, at which point you will be able to take on the higher limits. If you need advice on money, read an article about Bankroll Management.
• Get advice from, or watch, a truly great winning poker player. You will be amazed at how disciplined they truly are. Its one thing to read about discipline and know the right starting hands, but it is completely different to actually sit there and do it right.
• Try to eliminate outside factors that might have an influence on your discipline and judgment. In online games, avoid chatting with other players and keep web surfing or other distractions to a minimum. In a live game move to a different table or find a different game if distractions at the table are clouding your decision making. Lastly, try to keep alcohol out of the picture unless you are purely playing for fun and don’t mind losing.

The most important thing you can realize about playing online poker is that if you never truly develop in to a disciplined player, then unfortunately you will never be a winning player. If your only goal is to have fun and enjoy the game, then this may never be a problem. But if you seek to truly profit from the game and be a winning player then mastering discipline will be your greatest achievement in becoming a truly profitable poker player.

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Introducing this great game to your home and online play 

In the past ten years Texas Hold’Em poker has seen an amazing rise in popularity and caused a literal poker boom across the world.

Enter

If you are looking to broaden your horizons beyond Texas Hold’Em and are looking to take on a different game, then you need to try Omaha High Low. It is like Texas Hold’Em in that there is a flop, a turn and a river, but that’s pretty much where the similarities end.

Omaha High Low poker is actually a variation of a simpler game named

1. If you have AA7Q and the board is QQ22K your best hand is QQQAK or three of a kind queens with an ace kicker. Remember, you can only use exactly three from the board and two from your hand. It might look like you have queens full of twos, but you can only use one other card on the board in addition to the two queens.

2. If you have KKK9 and the board is QQ9A5 your best hand is KKQQA or two pair, kings and queens with an ace kicker. You unfortunately do not have three of a kind Kings, simply because you can only use two from your hand. You learn quickly in Omaha that being dealt three of one card is not a good thing. If a king were to hit on the board, then you would have three of a kind kings but being that you have three already in your hand, the chances of another one falling are slim.

If you can understand the rules regarding how many cards you can use from your hand and from the board, you will have no problem picking up

So what exactly is

Omaha High Low is a fun and challenging game in that players battle to win the pot by playing both their best high poker hand and their best low poker hand. Now this might all sound quite confusing, but you’ll have it figured out in no time. In each hand of Omaha High Low, the pot is split into halves. One half goes to the player with the best high poker hand, and the other half of the pot goes to the player with the best low poker hand and yes it is possible for the same player to win both halves of the pot!

The best high hand is just that, it is the best poker hand as in any other game. A straight or a flush could win the high half of the pot just like they would in Texas Hold’Em. The low hand is what can be a tad confusing and might take a little getting used to. In the low hand, players are trying to make their best five card hand that has the lowest value. In order for a hand to qualify for the low, all cards in it must be under eight. In addition all five cards in the low hand must be different, meaning pairs and trips would not qualify. A straight or a flush does not affect a low hand. If you have five cards under eight, but they are all hearts, that is fine, you simply don’t take the flush into account in terms of the low hand. Here is the best part though, if you do have five cards under eight that are all hearts you might win both the low half and the high half of the pot! Why you ask? Well because you have an eight high flush in hearts to contend for the high half of the pot, and you have five different cards all under eight that could win you the low half of the pot.

So how do the low hands rank? 

The best possible low hand one can make is called The Wheel. It is A2345 and in addition to being the best low hand you can make, it is also a five high straight and is a fierce competitor for the high half of the pot. Anytime you get the wheel, you have a good chance of winning the whole pot.

Ranking the low hands beyond the wheel can be overwhelming at first, but eventually you will be able to figure them out in a snap. We will cover the basics here, but for an in-depth look at how to figure out low hands, read Learning The Low in Omaha High Low.

The best way to figure out which low hand is the best is to figure out which one has the lowest ranking high card. For example, a hand of 23467 would be a better low hand than 23468. Another way to do it is simply read the cards out loud as if they were a five digit number and treat any ace as a one. For example, if the showdown was between A2467 and A2368, the hands would read “twelve thousand four hundred and sixty seven” and “twelve thousand three hundred and sixty eight”, whichever number is less represents the winning hand. So in this example, A2368 would be the winning low hand.

Putting it all together 

So now you understand the difference between high and low hands and how the pot can be split but you might still be a little confused as to just how you can make both a high and a low hand with your five cards and with the community cards. Its really quite simple, you just have to remember the rules discussed earlier in that you can only use two cards from your hand and exactly three cards from the board. The most important thing though is that you can use two different sets of two cards from your hand for each your low and high hand. You may also use two different sets of three cards from the board for each your low and high hand. Here is an example:

1. Your hand is A267 and the board reads 77349. For your high hand you can use your Ace and your Seven to make 777A9 for three of a kind sevens with an ace kicker. For your low hand you will use your Ace and your Two to make A2347 for your low hand. Note how in each your low and high hand you still followed the two from your hand three from the board rule, but you used different cards for each the low and high hand.

2. Your hand is AJQ3 and the board reads 89T25. You will use your Queen and your Jack to make 89TJQ or a queen high straight for your high hand. You will use your Ace and your Three to make the wheel or A2345 for your low hand.

Suggested limits and ways to play

Whether you decide to introduce Omaha High Low to your home poker game or you decide to try it out online, you should know what types of limits and games are the most popular first. Most online poker rooms offer Omaha High Low in both limit and pot limit games, but pot limit is usually more popular. No limit Omaha High Low is played, but it is not as popular as pot limit.

If this will be your first time playing online, it is definitely a good idea to get your feet wet with some limit play first. Pot limit and no limit

Playing Omaha High Low in your home poker game is a great way to add some excitement to the night and there are many fun limits you can throw in to make it more interesting. A great way to play Omaha High Low at home is actually half pot limit. In half pot limit, players get the excitement of making increasingly larger bets, but it stays a bit more controlled and is less likely to bust a lot of players out of your game early. Another thing you can do to try pot limit or half pot limit Omaha High Low is to enforce a cap on the amount of a bet. For example, you could play half pot limit, with blinds of fifty cents and one dollar and cap the maximum bet at five dollars. Experiment with different levels and limits until you find one that fits the character and bankroll of your home game.

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PORTSMOUTH — Attorney Patrick Fleming isn’t a high stakes gambler.

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March 17 thru 22, 2008 receive your playing card from one of 6 Elkhart RV Dealers, register your hand at the RV / Motorhome Hall of Fame, and receive Free Admission. If you have the best hand you will receive a new RV. Special offers on RVs will be available and everyone is invited to join in and play.

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A professional poker player and his wife were found dead Friday in their home near Oakland, California, USA, and authorites are investigating the deaths as homicides.

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Prof, pupils: Online play’s OK

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Top gaming brand upgrades to full Internet casino, adds new languages, extends agreement to 2011

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