Play Quality Starting Cards

In Texas Hold’em, the two hole cards a player is dealt lead to his first, and possibly most important decision each hand. Deciding to fold, limp in or raise your starting hand will set the tone for the next 3 rounds of betting.
Quality hands are pairs, 2 high cards, suited connectors, suited Aces etc…

Everybody has seen people win on TV with hands like 5-9 off suit and 2-3 suited, but they do not always show the hundreds of times the same players throw away these “garbage” hands.

There are no absolutes in poker, and there is certainly a place for a well-timed bluff with a garbage hand, but generally speaking, playing quality starting cards will lead to easier calculations and decisions for a player after the flop.

Position is Everything

The closer the player is to the dealer button (the later he is to act), the more liberal his hand selection can be. The reasoning here is the advantage of his position (being able to see what action other players take before he must act) will allow him to pick up some pots even when his hand does not connect.

If he limps into a multi-way pot from the button with K4 suited, and nobody bets out on the flop, he now has a chance to bluff at the pot and win it right there, make a probe bet to feel out the other players, or even check and take a free card if he likes his chances to improve on the turn.

The problem with trying to play a suited King from early position is that if any of the 6-8 players behind him decides to raise, he has to fold and give up his original bet, or call from poor position with a weak or marginal hand. Playing marginal hands out of position will typically cost a player in the long run.

Careful with “Trouble Hands”

One of the easiest ways for a player to lose his chips in Texas Hold’em is to go too far with a trouble hand. Trouble hands include hands like K-10 offsuit, K-Q and K-J, Q-J, A-J off and A-10 off to name a few.

These are hands that a player will want to make more than just top pair if he is going to invest in getting to the showdown. Their straight and high flush potential are worth much more than flopping top pair.

The biggest problem is that often, if 2 players are betting their top pair, the winner may be decided by the kicker. Flopping top pair with AJ when the opponent has AQ is a recipe for disaster. A player may find himself betting 3 streets when he is out-kicked from the very beginning.This is not to say that these hands can not be played. With proper position and conditions, these hands can win pots.

It is simply a reminder that if a quality player is betting and calling to the river, there is a good chance that top pair/decent kicker is going to lose.

Mix it Up!

These are just a few ideas to help develop a solid Texas Hold’em strategy, but a player must always be careful not to do the same thing with the same hand every time. Opponents will catch on quickly so it is important to deviate from the standards and mix up their play at different times.

This article was written by David Gibson, an expert in the Poker category at www.yoexpert.com

I gotta say I think its a really good idea on paper, and I’m glad to see a state finally stepping up to the plate to try and make a goal at legalizing online poker, but at the same time I feel it’s a long way from where it should be. Letting Californians only play against Californians doesn’t sound as much fun. You’ll have way less people online at a time so games will be further and farther between, especially during the wee hours of the night. Good initiative but the execution is far from there. Players want to play when they feel like playing, if you only allow those of us in CA who actually sign up for the CA game, well, the site will suffer from a lack of players and we’ll all head elsewhere.

It’s also worth mentioning that both New Jersey and Florida are looking at introducing similar bills to their states as well. If Florida, New Jersey, and California all teamed up on the same network (similar to say the Cereus Network {consisting of Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet}, Cake Network {Cake Poker, Unibomber Poker, Doyle’s Room and many others}, etc where several poker rooms all operate on the same server then they could really have a shot at this as each state would collect the taxes from their states players but you’d actually have a good amount of people playing online at any given time. 3 states playing on one server would be way, way better than each state having their own poker network designed only for their state. Just my two cents on that one.

Currently no taxes are being collected from any of the online poker sites as the US thinks poker is bad and wants to go after the card rooms as a whole. Some states including Washington, have even gone as far as to declare people playing online poker to be Class C Felons, on par with some fairly serious crimes.

Will online poker ever be designated as a legitimate past time activity? In my opinion no. As long as the granny state continues to oversee everything we do and tries to protect us all from the “evils of the world” we’ll continue to see poker deemed a criminal activity only participated in by hooligans, criminals, thieves, rapists, and drug addicts (which couldn’t be further from the truth.)

Anyway to read a more unbiased report of what’s going on head over to California Introduces Internet Poker Bill

They did the same thing with Gus Hansen on the World Poker Tour though, only showing his wild play and not showing the skillful maneuvers he made to actually make it to the final table, or the moves he pulled to survive the final table. Poker on television is nothing like real life, Joe Cada must have made a lot of smart moves to survive that field that were simply edited out before the broadcast or else he’s the luckiest man in the world.

Then again online play does start to teach you that the losing pocket pair typically hits trips on the flop, even though it’s only supposed to happen roughly 11% of the time. It seems to happen quite a few times more than it should. I have something like 8,000 hands logged in the past 50 days, and the number of suck out’s I’ve seen is unbelievable. Queens beating kings, ten four suited beating aces (really weird all in pre-flop but I’ve seen it), etc.

Perhaps they have the pros editing these tapes to create more suckers, who don’t know anything about odds so those with extra cash to flush will make odd moves with weak pocket pairs.

As promised, here’s the television.

By the way if you click the link above to order the television the FTC has mandated that I alert you I’ll make a commission. Or you can copy down the model number, go to Amazon and search for it. You’ll pay the same amount of money, I just won’t get my $12 referral.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIGBJXQo2Hs

Yes, that’s right that robber got ahold of the wallet quite easily. Why? Because the wallet was a decoy of course. Why carry around an item that thieves love to steal when you can keep all your poker winnings in your poker money clip? Protect your cash, use the poker money clip. Keep your credit cards at home, avoid falling into the pit of despair of credit card debt. Manage your money. Spend what you have to spend. Use cash.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8DFVbd32wg

The music sets the tone, the player with the card guard is mopping the floor with his opponent.

No, it can’t be read like a book, watched like a movie, or carry all your poker chips, but it is quite the poker novelty and a great addition to any serious poker collection.

To ensure that no one breaks their wallet when shopping for their poker loved ones, the royal flush will be on sale starting Black Friday. Orders of 3 or more money clips will be made available as in the past, our customers have wanted to share the money clip with many of their loved ones.

With 4 different uses and counting, the royal flush of spades may be the best versatile poker stocking stuffer on the market today. That’s just my opinion anyway.

So head on over to poker money clips to complete your holiday shopping.

The Top 10 Reasons To Order A Poker Money Clip

Note: This list is more for comedy than a real list as to why you should order a poker money clip.

1. Because your spouse doesn’t approve of “gambling” and knows how much money you have in your wallet at all times
2. Because your rubber band broke trying to hold your “gangster’s roll in place
3. Because that guy who wants to mug you doesn’t know all your money is in your money clip
4. Because you want to take a set amount of money with you to the casino and leave your credit card(s) at home (you’re a responsible gambler)
5. Because you booked your Vegas trip online (thus it’s already paid for) and know better than to take your credit card with you to the casino (thus avoiding the dreadful swiping away of the kid’s college fund at the withdrawal machine)
6. Because Money just looks cooler in the money clip than in your wallet
7. Because you hate reaching into your back pocket to buy back in to your poker game
8. Because you hate reaching into your back pocket to put away your poker winnings
9. Because you already own all the other cool (and not so cool) poker merchandise
10. Because you want a unique card cover

Think Mafia Wars, Ninja Clash, or any of those other games where you click a button and you get experience points. That’s how this Facebook Poker meter works. You sit at the table, fold, fold, fold, and you get points. They give you experience for sitting, not for playing well, which I personally think is just downright retarded. Wow, I folded a hand and I got 5 experience points. Great. Not.

I was hoping the meter would actually be good, but alas it doesn’t take anything into consideration except how long you sat at the table.

• A forum where people can discuss all sorts of poker stuff……. (done this in the past, it was called Cards, Booze, and Smoke…. it wasn’t very popular)
• A Poker Radio show aka a poker podcast (never tried this before, have all the stuff to make it happen, just need something to rant about)
• A paid members only section featuring all sorts of cool stuff for people to access….

That’s what I’ve come up with so far. Feel free to e-mail me at webmaster at pokermoneyclips dot com with suggestions, ideas, etc.