Top 5 Must-Listen Podcast Episodes Featuring Poker Legends

Many sponsored poker players have become household names thanks to their poker skills at the felt, but over the last decade, appearing on podcasts has kept poker legends in the public consciousness. Listening to favorite players speak about the game we all love is fascinating. Many iconic names share anecdotes from poker’s colorful past, while passing on their experiences at the modern-day felt too.

Here are five of the best recent podcasts featuring legends of the felt:

  • Jonathan Little on the Table 1 Podcast
  • Jennifer Tilly is Locked In on The Chip Race
  • Phil Hellmuth on The Tim Ferriss Show
  • Daniel Negreanu on DAT Poker Podcast
  • Doyle Brunson Tells Poker Stories with CardPlayer

5. Jonathan Little on the Table 1 Podcast

PokerGO Cup winner, poker coach extraordinaire and bestselling poker author Jonathan Little has had huge success in poker and his chat with Art Parmann and Little’s fellow high stakes crusher Justin Young on the Table 1 Podcast was an incredible listen. From discussing Little’s humble beginnings and amazing work ethic when he was young to his latter-day scores in some nosebleed events, this is a Little story that feels way bigger.

Little is extremely candid here, drinking red wine from his PokerGO Cup – literally! – as he tackles hearty subjects such as online poker trolls, managing a live poker bankroll and how to break into the game if you’re a live player in terms of networking with other players. Some of his takes are so hot the hosts almost need asbestos gloves and he faces the Twitter/X drama head-on, as well as discussing how he became a successful poker author and coach, a ‘side hustle’ that has turned into a lucrative and highly satisfying business.

Young and Parmann are great hosts and while the show is almost 80 minutes long, you’d never know it. The antics race through books, business, the elusive poker/life balance and how one of the game’s most humble heroes deals with the dreaded poker ‘ego’ that all players must conquer in order to win.

Insightful, inspiring and downright hilarious at times, it’s an unmissable slice of poker life on a podcast episode from February 2024:

4. Jennifer Tilly is Locked In on The Chip Race

Winning a Global Poker Award for Best Poker Podcast in both 2018 and 2023, The Chip Race is a superb show hosted by Unibet Poker professionals David Lappin and Dara O’Kearney. Also nominated in 2021 and 2022, The Chip Race’s offshoot podcast The Lock In features some of the biggest names in the game over more long-form discussions that take on the hilarious and hard-hitting subjects alike.

This classic episode from 2022 featured the super-talented Hollywood movie actress and High Stakes Poker legend Jennifer Tilly. Discussing the impact of COVID-19 on poker and wider society, there’s a terrific blend of hi-jinks and hyperbole from all three as Tilly – the better half of Phil Laak – discusses subjects like near-death experiences, spectral beings and what its really like to play in nosebleed games as a film actress and absolute crusher.

Tilly is a poker author too, so the trio touch on her piece in the short story collection He Played for His Wife & Other Stories, as well as talking about some of the biggest players she’s taken on at the felt herself. Tilly is a superb guest and both Lappin and O’Kearney master the art of letting the talent speak and nudging along with intelligent, well-researched questions at just the right time.

At 85 minutes, there are Hollywood movies that are almost the same length, but few as entertaining.

3. Phil Hellmuth on The Tim Ferriss Show

Originally broadcast in 2017, Phil Hellmuth’s hour-long appearance on The Tim Ferriss Show is a revelation. The Poker Brat is a walking, talking headline maker at the slowest of times but here he is on rude form. Discussing coping mechanisms at the felt and away from it, Hellmuth is devastatingly honest about people like Vince Vaughn, Daniel Negreanu and himself (!) while exploring topics close to his heart.

Hellmuth is not the record-holder of WSOP bracelets for nothing and he goes into great detail about his victory in the 1989 WSOP Main Event as he defeated the legendary Johnny Chan. Hellmuth’s candour about what he was really thinking at pivotal points in poker history make for fascinating listening and while this is a show that you could enjoy while going for a run or doing household chores, it’s too involving at times to be anything other than a complete focus.

With the Poker Brat dishing the dirt on his marriage, his wins – and losses! – at the poker felt and the industry as a whole, it’s addictive stuff from the master of the controversial one liner.

2. Daniel Negreanu on DAT Poker Podcast

Daniel Negreanu 50

There is no-one in poker quite like Danie Negreanu. Often known by his moniker ‘Kid Poker’ the Canadian seven-time WSOP bracelet winner and Poker Hall of Famer digs deep on this recent foray into the world of poker.

Having been a PokerStars Team Pro and now a GGPoker Global Ambassador, Negreanu is the perfect person to discuss the seismic news that broke when the poker brand he represents bought out the World Series of Poker. Talking about the integration of GGPoker’s online software into the WSOP structure is fascinating and when Kid Poker speaks about the changes WSOP players can expect from future series, people listen.

As well as talking about topical subjects such as those, Negreanu also touches on Allen ‘Chainsaw’ Kessler’s incredible $1m plus win on the slot machines, poker commentators and the tantalising possibility of their being a Rounders 2 movie.

Does Kid Poker want there to be a return to action for Matt Damon and Ed Norton? You bet he does and he’s got an idea about exactly how the makers can ensure that it happens.

Check out the exclusive podcast episode right here.

1. Doyle Brunson Tells Poker Stories with CardPlayer

There is one poker player whose words will live on forever, and that person is Doyle ‘Texas Dolly’ Brunson. The 10-time WSOP champion won back-to-back world championships in 1976 and 1977 and ‘The Godfather of Poker’, who passed in 2023, was perhaps the most influential player in the game’s history. Present in the formative years of the game’s development, Brunson is a legend who will live on forever through his words.

Exploring topics such as the accident that ended his hopes of playing professional basketball in the NBA, Brunson’s life story is one that will constantly leave you stunned over the course of just under an hour. The Texan Christian, who battled ill health early in his life, survived well into his eighties and was a regular in high stakes cash game Bobby’s Room at The Bellagio for almost 30 years.

As well as discussing his phenomenal poker career, he also dives into difficult topics such as players dying at the same table as him, names his top five poker players, talks million-dollar prop bets and even tells listeners who he thinks should play him in the movie of his life.

If you love poker, you’ll treasure this priceless hour of Doyle Brunson’s thoughts as ‘Texas Dolly’ talks through a life in poker that is unrivalled by anyone in the game.

Conclusion

In a world where poker and podcasts continue to merge, each episode offers unique insights and stories from the felt, shared by some of the game’s most iconic players. Whether it’s poker legends like Doyle Brunson or modern stars like Daniel Negreanu, these episodes capture the essence of the game and the personalities behind it. Now, we want to hear from you! What podcast episodes featuring poker players have you loved? Drop your recommendations in the comments and let us know which ones you think are a must-listen for poker fans.

This Is A Smart Place For A Bluff – And Other Poker Thoughts That Will Get You Killed

The poker brain is a double-edged sword. It’s smart enough to have you pulling off an epic triple-barrel bluff but equally likely to give you advice that will set your bankroll on fire. Thanks to the way we’re wired, poker is never just about the cards we’re dealt, but about the ability to analyze and assess the endless stream of thoughts that flood our minds in-game.

Over time, I’ve been able to identify a few such thoughts that, no matter how much my brain tried to convince me otherwise, have been nothing but a money pit, or should I say burial ground.

Here are the 3 most common poker thoughts that will do nothing but set your chips ablaze.

This would be a really intelligent spot for my opponent to bluff.

Let’s keep it honest, if your opponent was that intelligent, they probably wouldn’t be grinding 50nl. That’s no disrespect to low stake grinders, but without proof to the contrary, we have to assume players will conform to population tendencies, meaning that they’ll play like the average player. And so, by definition alone, an average player is unlikely to be pulling off a high level, read-your-soul type of bluff. To assume otherwise is to fall prey to fancy play syndrome. Meaning that until you get to limits where the norm is to be a highly intelligent poker player with skilled hand reading and balanced bluffing ranges, stop leveling yourself and just fold to that darn river raise.

I’ll just see a flop

One of the biggest traps for amateur poker players who watch televised high stakes cash games is the thought that seeing a lot of flops with speculative holdings is a harmless strategy. However, for most players at the low to mid stakes, that’s not only untrue but also a surefire way to punt off some stacks with vulnerable hands.

This is because, generally speaking, your online opponents are playing much tighter ranges today than they used to, both due to the ability to multi-table and to instantly get another hand via high-speed games such as Blitz poker. Meaning that playing a significantly weaker range against them is like trying to win a pillow fight against an opponent swinging a bag of rocks. Sure, you may get a couple of licks in before they connect, but once they do, you’re going to be the only one in real pain. So, until your results prove you can join the big boys on TV, stick to the basics preflop and let your postflop skills dictate the action.

I’ll just play until I get even

Perhaps the most infamous of poker’s famous last words, this thought has buried more bankrolls than Phil Ivey. Although chasing your losses will sometimes work as intended, it is usually indicative of tilt setting in, and will more often than not, lead to even greater losses.

Wise players know that on a long enough timeline, the hourly rate they earn at their chosen limits will stay relatively constant. Knowing that to be the case, the next time you feel like playing longer than optimal, ask yourself whether you would continue playing if you knew for a fact that you would only make that same baseline rate, which, it’s important to note, you could just as easily make any other time.

So, make this the golden rule: the moment I hear my mind telling me “just until I get even,” or any other poker thought that has historically proven to get me killed, I will immediately step away from the table, preserve my bankroll and live to fight another day.

Remember, sometimes the most intelligent thing we can do is recognize what a dumdum our mind can actually be.

Elite Poker Coach Uses “Anti-GTO” Strategy

Let’s face it. Improving at poker in 2024 can be tough.

A lot of modern poker study methods come down to little more than memorizing solver-generated strategies and charts. This has proven effective for many, but it’s undeniably boring for most players.

But poker coach Uri Peleg* has come up with a different approach that emphasizes creativity and flexibility.

*Uri has coached numerous players who went on to win millions on the felt, including current top pro Barak Wisbrod.

This new approach is meant for players who want to win, but don’t want to spend countless hours studying solvers.

For today’s article, I have pulled 3 unique insights from Uri’s latest strategy video. He plays a short session of online poker, demonstrating the Poker Blueprint approach.

Each takeaway will be centered around a hand history from his session.

Note: World-class coach Uri Peleg is back with a brand-new course for players who want to get better at poker, but have no interest in solvers. “The Poker Blueprint” teaches a holistic, intuitive approach to poker that cuts through all the noise. Pre-register to get a free bonus during launch week!

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Important Background

Before getting into the hands and takeaways, you should understand the main principle of Uri’s Poker Blueprint strategy.

Always start by considering what pot size your hand wants. Then, try to navigate to that pot size as the hand progresses.

Uri will refer to “the pot size your hand wants” throughout these hands and the Poker Blueprint course. 

Takeaway #1: Take people out of their comfort zone with creative lines

Your opponents might be well-studied in the most common situations in poker. So a key way to beat them can be to take them out of their comfort zone with creative lines and bet sizings. Take a look at this hand that Uri played at 200NL:

Preflop: Uri is dealt Ac 7c in the Cutoff
Uri raises 2bb. Big Blind calls.

Flop (4.5bb): Kh Jc 8d
Big Blind checks. Uri checks.

Turn (4.5bb): 9s
Big Blind checks. Uri bets 3.4bb. Big Blind calls.

River (11.3bb): Jh
Big Blind checks. Uri bets 16.9bb. Big Blind folds.

Uri checks the flop because his hand is pretty weak and doesn’t want to play a large pot.

He then turns his hand into a bluff on the turn since the opponent showed weakness by checking. Now check out Uri’s thoughts on his decision to bet the river with a 150% pot sizing:

The Jh river is not the most intuitive card to keep blasting on. And this is a spot where his ability to read the story is very, very important.

So generally speaking, when the pot is too big for your hand, it’s a potential bluff candidate. And you can choose to bluff in all sorts of routes. If I start by going bet-bet-bet, the pressure on him is just to not overfold to direct aggression. And that’s one of the things that people are most practiced at, even if they probably still do overfold.

By going check-bet-bet, I’m putting pressure on him to defend correctly with a range that he’s much less practiced in playing. And when people are in these spots where they’re winging it, a lot of the time, they kind of give their hand away. So by checking twice, a lot of people will not have enough strong hands in their range.

He had a chance to be aggressive once I checked back and he didn’t go for it. So I can attack. That’s like waving a red flag in front of a bull. This is a spot that many, many people are messing up consistently.

But given that I bet big on the turn, how can I still bet big on the Jh river? Would I bet a Jx on the turn this big? Am I saying that I have a straight or Pocket Nines? Would I still bet Pocket Aces on the river or a good Kx? All these questions should have been in your head. Also how often does he donk bet his Jx on the river? Because if he donk bets all his Jx, I can keep betting my Kx.

The truth is, to me, until someone proves themselves at these lower limits, I’m like: You look weak. I’m putting on pressure.

Takeaway #2: When you bet the river, know what you are representing

Learning to tell a consistent story is extremely important, especially when bluffing. Take a look at this hand and accompanying analysis from Uri at 200NL:

Preflop: Uri is dealt 8s 7d in the Big Blind
Lojack raises 2bb. Uri calls.

Flop (4.5bb): Js 9d 2h
Uri checks. Lojack bets 1.8bb. Uri calls.

Turn (8.1bb): Ad
Uri checks. Lojack checks.

River (8.1bb): 4d
Uri bets 22bb. Lojack folds.

It’s worth noting that Uri’s call preflop is probably a bit too loose depending on the rake (though he’s probably playing a bit looser to generate examples for the video).

He check-calls the flop with his gutshot straight draw and then faces a check-back on the turn. Here is how Uri decides to approach this river:

So like we said, we want to attack these discontinued aggression spots. You could go for all sorts of sizes here, but we want to tell a coherent story. And the story I’m going to tell is I have something really, really strong.

The thing with this spot is that there are a lot of hands that missed. It’s not easy for me to have an Ax. I can’t bet big with a Jx. So if I make a normal-sized bet, it’s very easy to call.

The thing you want to be thinking about here is the narrative of the hand. When you bet the river, which hand are you telling the other guy you have? You could tell him you have a Jx. But then the bet would need to be very small. And you could tell him you have an Ax and then the bet would be medium. But there are not many Ax hands you can have. And then the last option is you could tell him you have a flush or two pair.

In theory, your opponent should check-back some draws and strong Ax to make your life kind of tough. But unless they show you they can do that, this is a very tough bet to call. It puts a lot more pressure on people to know what’s going on. So just a way of attacking this discontinued aggression combined with thinking about the narrative and what hand I’m repping.

Takeaway #3: There are multiple ways to keep the pot size small with a mediocre hand

Just check-calling is not the only way to get to a cheap showdown with a marginal hand.

Preflop: Uri is dealt Ah Jd on the Button
Hijack raises 2bb. Uri calls.

Flop (5.5bb): Kh Jc 8d
Hijack bets 1.4bb. Uri raises 3.9bb. Hijack folds.

Take a look at Uri’s thoughts on his decision to check-raise small as a method to keep the pot size small:

How big a pot does Ace-Jack offsuit want? When my opponent bets 1.4bb, the answer is that I want a little bit more in the pot, but not very much. There are all sorts of ways you can accomplish that. One would be to call and one would actually be to raise small.

3.9bb is roughly the pot size my Ace-Jack is aiming at. So let’s see if they are capable of reacting to this ridiculously small raise. It doesn’t make sense. Why would I raise a flopped set so small? It’s a very weird size. But it’s very tough to react to this. Imagine you’re him. You have Pocket Tens, Pocket Nines, Pocket Queens, or Ace-Five suited. It’s very, very hard.

Did you catch part 1 of this series about the $74K+ Doug vs Mariano hand?

Check it out here if you haven’t.

Don’t Do This in Poker! Doug Polk vs Mariano High Stakes Analysis

 

Note: Want to win, but don’t want to spend countless hours becoming one with a solver? Pre-register for Uri Peleg’s Blueprint now! 

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Online poker clubs vs. poker rooms: basic differences |

In poker there are many ways to approach the game. Therefore, platforms usually offer the option of playing games in random rooms or through clubs in a poker app.

To understand the basic differences between these two alternatives, it is also important to know the related concepts, such as poker room networks and poker unions. In this article we will review precisely these concepts, so that you have a clear understanding of how to differentiate all the available options.

What is an online poker room?

An online poker room is a website or online platform that allows players to participate in poker games over the Internet. These poker rooms offer a wide range of poker variants, such as Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Seven Card Stud, among others, and are often available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Players can access these rooms from their electronic devices, such as computers, tablets or smartphones, giving them the flexibility to play anytime, anywhere.

In an online poker room, players sit at virtual tables and compete against other players from around the world. These platforms offer a variety of betting limits, which means that players of all levels can find tables that fit their budget.

What is a poker room network?

Poker room networks are conglomerates of several online poker rooms that partner together to share player traffic and resources. These networks allow small and medium-sized online poker rooms to compete on a level playing field with larger rooms, as they can take advantage of the combined liquidity of all rooms within the network.

In a network of poker rooms, players can compete at shared tables with players from multiple online poker rooms, which broadens the player base and the variety of games available. This benefits players by providing a more dynamic and varied experience, while ensuring that there is always enough traffic at the tables to find games.

What is a poker club?

A poker club is an entity that brings together a group of players interested in playing poker on a regular basis. Unlike online poker rooms, poker clubs are not usually commercial operators. These clubs can be physical or virtual and can be composed of friends, co-workers or any group of people with common interests in poker.

In a poker club, members usually organize private games or tournaments among themselves. These events can be friendly or competitive, depending on the preferences of the group. Poker clubs are often an excellent way to socialize, improve playing skills and enjoy a community of poker enthusiasts.

What is a poker union?

A poker union is an organization that brings together various poker clubs and individual players for the purpose of promoting and advocating the interests of the poker community. These unions can play an important role in regulating and promoting the poker industry. They are usually focused on issues such as the legality of the game, player safety and the organization of large-scale events and tournaments.

Poker unions often partner with government institutions and charities to ensure that poker play is safe and well regulated. In addition, they can be a source of information and resources for poker clubs and individual players, providing guidance on legal and practical issues.

Basic differences between online poker clubs and online poker rooms

Now that we have defined each of these concepts, it is time to explore the basic differences between online poker clubs and online poker rooms:

Access and availability

  • Online poker rooms are available at any time and from any place with internet access.
  • Online poker clubs may have more flexible playing hours, but they depend on the organization of the club and the availability of the members.

Variety of games

  • Online poker rooms usually offer a wide range of poker variants and betting limits.
  • Online poker clubs may focus on specific games preferred by their members.

Competition

  • In online poker rooms, players compete against a larger and more diverse player base.
  • In online poker clubs, members compete primarily against each other and may have a more homogeneous skill level.

Sociability

  • Online poker rooms offer the ability to interact with players from around the world through chat rooms and virtual avatars.
  • Online poker clubs often encourage social interaction and the building of personal relationships between members.

Organization

  • Online poker rooms are run by commercial operators and are usually more formal in terms of regulation and security.
  • Online poker clubs can be more flexible and rely heavily on the internal organization of members.

Regulation and support

  • Online poker rooms are usually subject to government regulations and offer customer support.
  • Online poker clubs may have less regulation and often rely on member self-organization.

Also check out:

Best poker clubs

Is Poker Gambling Or Not? Pro Poker Player Says No

Poker is a huge part of my life — I write about poker, I authored a book on poker, I took third place in a poker tournament at the World Series of Poker. I’ve done extensive work for both the Commerce Casino & Hotel and the World Poker Tour’s online casino, WPT Global. I even met my husband at a casino while playing poker.

To me, poker was never taboo — definitely not something I associated with “GAMBLING.”

But back when I first published my book A Girl’s Guide to Poker, people would always ask me if I was a big gambler. My standard response? “I don’t gamble — I just play poker.”

Wisecracks aside, it’s important to explain why I don’t categorize poker as typical gambling.

What Makes Poker Different From Other Casino Games?

Poker is extremely unique because it is the only casino game where you don’t play against ‘the House.’ This is a huge distinction. In any other selection – roulette, blackjack, slots, etc. – you are trying to win money from the casino (aka ‘the House’).

Obviously the natural problem here is that the casino needs to keep the lights on
 you’re playing on their turf. These games are purposely designed for the casino to always have an edge.

What makes these games gambling is that the odds are not in your favor. If you win, it’s largely through luck. There is no way you can ‘beat’ a roulette wheel for example by placing your bets on different colors or numbers. If you win, it’s in spite of the mathematical probabilities, not because of it. Unlike poker, where you can invest money when the math is in your favor.

When you play poker, you are trying to win money from your opponents. You are not battling against the Bellagio, Caesar’s Palace, the Wynn or whatever establishment you’re playing at. You compete against other players, not the casino. Your goal is to win money from the other people at the table. The casino just hosts the game.

Key concept: poker players compete against each other. Not the House.

So How Does The Casino Make Money?

The casino takes a small amount of money from each pot, called the rake. For example, if the pot is $100, the casino might take $5, leaving the winner with $95. This way, the casino makes money no matter who wins the hand.

This structure means that the casino has no vested interest in the outcome between players.

Certain places will not take a rake and instead charge a flat fee to play at their venue.

For example, everyone at the table might need to pay a certain dollar amount per hour. This also prevents the establishment from being invested in who wins —- the cardroom is simply serving as a host. There is no reason for the hosting venue to want players to win or lose big. They simply want them to keep coming back.

So, if someone wins huge, it’s not coming from the casino’s pocket. The casino makes its money from the rake or the fees, not from the players’ losses. Already, this is what makes poker different from other casino games.

The Element Of Chance In Poker

Yes, poker does involve some luck. That doesn’t mean it’s purely a game of chance.

Let’s break down how luck and skill work in poker. Imagine an experienced professional poker player competing against an absolute beginner.

What do you think their chances are of winning a hand against one of the top professional poker players in the world?

  1. 20%
  2. 30%
  3. 50%

Surprisingly, the correct answer is close to 50%! How can this be?

A key point of understanding is that the outcome of any INDIVIDUAL hand is largely influenced by luck.

For example, you might be dealt significantly stronger cards than your opponent—it’s essentially a coin toss with a 50/50 chance. The dealer might give you a powerful pair of aces while your opponent receives weaker cards, or the reverse could happen. The likelihood of winning any single hand does come down to the luck of the draw.

How does this not sway us? Is poker considered gambling — didn’t I just prove that it is?

Not quite.

Think of the lottery. If I buy a lottery ticket and win, am I a skilled lottery player? Or did I just get lucky?

Of course the answer is I just got lucky. But how would we determine this?

If I were to play the lottery every day, would I be able to replicate the same result? Would I be able to keep winning? No — chances are you would see me repeatedly lose. There is no strategy here. This becomes apparent only after a high frequency. You cannot test luck or skill in any one particular event. It’s only over time that advantages can be revealed.

Still not convinced? Let’s try roulette.

We all recognize roulette as a game of chance. How do we know this? While there are mathematical proofs showing that no strategy can beat the casino’s advantage, it’s also clear on a simpler level.

If you kept betting on the same number — like, say, 11 —over and over again, you would lose all your money eventually. Winning or losing one time by betting on #11 doesn’t prove anything. What tells us it’s gambling is the inability to skew success.

The Element Of Skill In Poker

Let’s go back to our example of the beginner versus the professional poker player. We’ve already established that luck mostly determines who wins any single hand.

But what if they played 100 hands? How about 1,000 hands? Or even 10,000 hands? Almost certainly the pro will win over time. The more hands they play, the greater their advantage.

This shows the importance of skill in poker. While luck is important in each individual hand, skill is what matters in the long run. Experienced players use their joint understanding of math and psychology to win over the course of their careers.

Is poker considered gambling is a topic I’ve touched on similarly before, including in my book, A Girl’s Guide to Poker. Here are some highlights:

When does luck in poker become eclipsed by skill? At just under 1,500 hands—1,471, to be exact.

  • 1,471 hands is usually between 19 and 25 hours in live poker.
  • 1,471 hands is around 16 hours of online poker if you’re playing one table.

A beginner can rarely survive a full day of playing poker. They will pretty much inevitably go broke. You need expertise in order to even maintain your chip stack, let alone win.

I like to point to a 2015 paper, Study: Beyond Chance? The Persistence of Performance in Online Poker: The researchers found that skilled poker players consistently perform better over time.

  • Poker players who ranked in the top 10% in the first six months of the year were more than twice as likely to do similarly well in the next six months.
  • Poker players who finished in the best-performing 1% in the first half of the year were 12 times more likely than others to do so in the second half.
  • Players who fared poorly from the start continued to lose.

What do these numbers tell us? Basically, there are top performers in poker. Some players are better than other players. This would be impossible however in pure gambling, like slots. You would never be able to classify skilled versus unskilled slot machine players.

Meet The Professional Poker Player

Professional poker players are real people who earn their main income through poker. I’ve met many professional poker players
 including my husband.

When we met, he’d been supporting himself financially through poker for more than a decade.

Is poker gambling? No — countless people have made a reliable income tested over many years fully by playing poker as their profession. They do not rely on the roll of the dice or luck of the draw. Winning poker players study and master proven strategies.

Most professional poker players have a rigorous understanding of the mathematics in poker. They invest their chips in situations where the math favors them — impossible in other casino games. There is no scenario in roulette where you can bet all your money as a favorite. Unlike in poker, the odds are always against you.

Success in poker is largely based on putting yourself in better mathematical situations than your opponents.

In my coaching sessions for beginners, I advise them to only play high-value face cards — meaning both cards are ten or higher. Why? This strategy increases their chances of winning significantly.

For example, if they have Ace-King and their opponent has Ace-Three, their likelihood of winning is around 75%. Conversely, by folding weaker hands like Ace-Three, King-Seven, or Queen-Eight, they avoid situations where they are ‘outkicked’ and their chances of winning are much lower, around 25%.

Think about this: professional poker players typically fold about 80% of their hands.

This disciplined approach stems from their strategy of only entering hands where they have a statistical advantage over their opponents. By understanding the mathematics of poker, players can strategically invest their money in situations that statistically favor them.

You can find more on this in my poker cheat sheets article which will give you a mathematical edge on the competition.

Is Poker Without Money Gambling?

Sometimes, people prefer to play cautiously. Is playing poker without money considered gambling? No, because poker is fundamentally a game of skill. However, practicing poker with play chips or for free is still valuable.

Without a solid grasp of the mathematics involved, poker can easily and unintentionally turn into a game of chance, failing to invest chips wisely and committing to pots when the odds are against you.

When you don’t know the math, poker can easily become gambling. It is only by implementing sound strategies that skill can be realized and luck falls to the wayside.

Is Poker Considered Gambling By Law?

Countries differ on whether they legally classify poker as gambling, with the debate often hinging on whether poker is viewed as a game of luck or skill.

In the United States, online poker faced a major setback on April 15, 2011, a day known in the poker community as “Black Friday,” when the federal government shut down major online poker sites. Fortunately this situation is gradually changing as several states are now taking steps to legalize online poker.

There is hope that more jurisdictions will come to recognize poker as a game of skill, distinguishing it from other casino games. As this shift occurs, poker may see broader acceptance and different regulatory treatment worldwide.

Will famous poker stars bet on Mike Tyson against Jake Paul?

According to the best bookies, Mike Tyson is underdog against 27-year-old influencer Jake Paul. However, the former heavyweight champion’s victory is such an attractive odds that a number of celebrities could be in the running.

Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul match in Las Vegas

A couple of weeks ago, the news broke that youtuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul would be taking on 58-year-old Mike Tyson in Las Vegas on July 21. It’s been 19 years since one of the greatest heavyweight champions of all time last stepped between the ropes in a professional setting, so it surprised many that he would take on such a fight at his age. Tyson is now retired from professional sport, currently running his own business and most recently becoming an ambassador of an online casino.

Tyson and Paul’s fight is of course a huge hype, with daily newspaper reports of celebrities and sports personalities giving their views on the fight.

The build-up is certainly very professional. Both athletes are posting a lot on their social media pages and there are a lot of press inquiries. The fight itself is very divisive by the way, with many fearing Tyson because of his age and others hoping for the end of the influencer’s career with a Tyson ear.

The details of the fight are still subject to change, but as far as we know it will be an exhibition bout, with 2-minute rounds and fighters wearing 16-ounce gloves. There will be no scorekeepers, but a winner will still be declared, as knockouts will not be prohibited.

Mike Tyson’s chance against Jake Paul

This fight will be a sporting event that almost everyone has an opinion on. NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal, for example, doesn’t think it’s a fair move to take on young Jake Paul, as the basketball player thinks the age difference between the two is too big. Former coach Mike Tyson, on the other hand, said that Paul could take a very nasty beating if he takes a punch or two.

Betting on the Paul-Tyson fight is now open at the bookmakers. Bookmakers have picked 27-year-old Jake Paul as the favourite, with the YouTube influencer’s win paying average odds of 1.60, while a win for the veteran legend could be worth between 2.20 and 2.30 to punters.

Famous athletes who like to bet

The Tyson-Paul fight is of course a huge hype, with daily newspaper reports of celebrities and sports personalities giving their views on the fight. We can almost be sure that as the match date approaches, news will start to come in of celebrities and sportspeople placing big bets on the game.

This is not at all an unusual phenomenon, as we have seen examples of this in the recent past. Professional fighter Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather, for example, is a regular bettor on the biggest sporting events, and the millionaire boxer is not afraid to bet big. In 2005, for example, he bet $750,000 on his own victory against Oscar de La Hoya and won a handsome sum.

Mayweather’s favourite sport to bet on, however, is the NFL. The sports bettor also achieved the biggest loss of his career in American football when he bet $626 000 on the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII.

Will famous poker stars bet on Tyson?

Mayweather is not the only one who can claim to be a big betting man. Dan Bilzerian, one of the world’s most famous poker players, often risks his money by placing bets on sporting events. Four years ago, for example, he lost nearly US$1 million betting on the returning Conor McGregor at UFC 246, but the Irish bad boy knocked out his opponent in just 40 seconds to win the fight.

One of the best poker players of all time, Phil Ivey also likes to bet big. In 2015, he bet big on the Seahawks Patriots to win the Super Bowl.

Also a world famous gambler, former legend Billy Baxter was not only inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame, but also into the Sportsbook Hall of Fame. Baxter is a legendary name in the world of online gambling, having regularly won huge sums in sports betting for decades. The legendary Doyle Brunson also had a reputation as a big bettor, but several poker players have claimed that he took big losses on sports bets.

It’s safe to say that as the match date approaches, we’ll be getting news that the high rollers will start betting on the match. It will be interesting to see if the big betters place their bets on the young but semi-pro Jake Paul or the veteran but with an amazing career Mike Tyson.

Of course, for bets of hundreds of thousands of dollars, you also need to find the right offices. In addition to land-based arcades and betting shops, there are a growing number of online bookmakers where you can place huge bets.

How to set up an online poker game with friends?

Whoever tells you that poker can’t be enjoyed with friends is either lying or doesn’t know Pokerhub. This app is designed precisely to enjoy poker with friends and members of a private club that make the experience much more fun.

Pokerhub does not play with real money, so everything is about the gaming experience and the confrontations with members of the club or with those of another club. It’s a simple way to promote the social component of poker, something Pokerhub does very well.

How to play a private poker game online with friends?

Playing an online poker game with friends through Pokerhub is a simple and fun process. Just follow these easy steps in order to enjoy Pokerhub’s online poker games to play with friends:

  • Download Pokerhub. The first thing you need to do is download the Pokerhub app on your device. It’s available for both Android and iOS devices, so you don’t have to worry about compatibility. Once you have the app installed, open it.
  • Create an account. It is time to create an account in order to access Pokerhub. This usually involves providing a username, email address and password. Make sure your password is secure to protect your personal data.
  • Log in to your account. After you have created your account, log in to Pokerhub using your credentials. Remember that you will have to confirm the account when you create a new user.
  • Invite your friends. Once you are inside the application, look for the option to create a private game or join one. In Pokerhub, this feature is very easy to find. You can invite your friends to join your private poker table through an invitation code or by sharing a link.
  • Choose your rules. Before starting the game, set the rules of the game. Pokerhub offers a variety of options, from Texas Hold’em to Omaha, as well as different betting structures. Make sure all players agree on the rules before you start.
  • Use your chips. On Pokerhub you will never play with real money. Here you use chips, which you earn both by beating your opponents at the tables and by accumulating rewards from the loyalty program, which awards prizes every 24 hours for every time you log in.
  • Play and have fun, now you are ready to start! The game will play like any other poker game, but online. You can chat with your friends through the app to keep the camaraderie going, and Pokerhub will handle the rules and betting.

How to host an online poker game with friends?

Precisely on Pokerhub, hosting a game is something that anyone can do. You just need to be the club administrator to adjust parameters, variants and betting limits to shape the game you all want to play.

Remember that a good host adapts the table parameters to what the members want, so being able to listen to what others have to say is always a plus.

Otherwise, no special qualifications are required to host a game. If you want to manage your own club, you will have to create one and send invitations to your friends.

And remember that, if instead of hosting you prefer to simply join a club, you have a search engine on Pokerhub with which you can request access to any club that matches what you are looking for.

In Pokerhub, you will be able to enjoy online poker games to play with friends the way all of you want.

Advantages of playing with friends in a poker app

Playing with friends on a poker app like Pokerhub has numerous advantages that make the experience even more exciting and social. Here are some of the reasons why you should consider organizing an online poker game with your friends:

  • Convenience. One of the most obvious advantages is convenience. There is no need for everyone to meet at a physical location, which saves time and effort. You can play from the comfort of your home, regardless of your friends’ location.
  • Flexible scheduling.  You can schedule online poker games with friends at times that are convenient for everyone. This is especially useful if you have friends in different time zones or with varied work schedules.
  • Greater variety of games. Apps like Pokerhub offer a wide variety of poker games and betting options. You can experiment with different variants of the game and change the rules according to your group’s preferences. In Pokerhub, you will find the best online poker games offer to play with friends.
  • Security and fairness. Online poker apps are usually very secure and offer a fair environment to play in. Cards are dealt randomly, ensuring that the game is as fair as possible.
  • Social interaction. Despite not being physically present, online poker apps allow for social interaction. You can chat with your friends through the app, which adds a social element to the gaming experience.
  • Statistics and tracking. Poker apps often offer tracking tools and statistics that allow you to improve your game over time. You can review your past games to identify areas for improvement.
  • Bonuses and rewards. Some poker applications offer bonuses and rewards to their loyal players. You can accumulate points or bonuses that you can use in future games.
  • Control over your budget. Playing online with friends allows you to have more control over your gambling budget. You can set betting limits and control your spending more effectively.
  • Immersive gaming experience. Online poker apps often offer high-quality graphics and sounds that create an immersive and exciting gaming experience. They are the best online poker games to play with friends.

Take a look at this:

Private poker app to play with friends

The Mistake Poker Players Make When C-Betting

In this article, we’ll discover one of the most common errors that is made when c-betting and how you can avoid doing it. We’ll explain what the advantages are behind range-betting. and when not to do it, too. From knowing how and when to play the perfect c-bet to judging future streets of the turn or river after you’ve c-bet, we’re here to help.

These key mistakes are:

  • Not Range Betting
  • Not Mixing Up Your Betting Tendencies
  • Lacking Confidence at the Turn
  • Not Planning for the River

Why Range Betting Leads to Gains

Not bulking up enough at the poker felt? Chip stack looking limp in the late stages? Range betting needs to come into your game and pump up that profit margin. When you’re c-betting small on the flop, range betting can prove highly profitable. This is down to a number of reasons. Firstly, and most importantly, you can exploit weaker players by range-betting and the move is not only going with momentum and aggression but should be based on sound game theory too.

Range-betting – i.e. putting a player on a range of hands and knowing when to c-bet or not following the flop – is easy and can be applied to your game with immediate effect. There are plenty of ways to exploit players and not only that, but it frees up vital time in your head to compute more complicated situations.

Range betting helps the most inexperienced players improve their game, maximize their winnings and reap the benefits immediately. Winning more pots, you’ll also avoid tougher situations where others can exploit you. As they say, money saved is money earned.

You Shouldn’t Always Range Bet

Range betting has a big place in poker, but it shouldn’t always be used. Just like you shouldn’t c-bet everything, disguising yourself by mixing up your play, range betting shouldn’t happen if you’ve missed offsuit pairs of your opponent’s range. Likewise, you might want to mix up the amount that you c-bet. On low-paired board, such as 5-4-4, your pre-flop raiser opponent may well have a big overpair advantage, massively affecting how you should react, and in particular, whether you should range-bet.

If the flop comes 8-7-6 with two hearts, then you might also want to protect your stack by reducing the amount you’re c-betting or simply not doing so altogether. In this sort of position, the pre-flop raiser is actually at a distinct disadvantage, so if this is you, you’ll want to check virtually 100% of the time in order to avoid your own range of cards being exposed.

Becoming a Boss on the Turn

So much of modern poker focuses on the pre-flop action, the post-flop betting or the river, where a dramatic all-in puts poker fans into the heart of the action and both big bluffs and huge hero calls occur. The turn, or 4th street, is a vastly underestimated part of poker and where a lot of the crucial decisions that dictate the direction of the pot take place.

In general, you want to be extremely knowledgeable about your opponent’s ranges if you’re betting a second barrel on the turn. Understanding the texture of the board – a little like we demonstrated above – is vital and you can really push your edge if you know what to do at this point of the betting.

Ask yourself how you should approach your betting strategy and how you can understand that turn card. Did it improve your hand or actually impact your opponent’s likely range advantageously? Making sure that you know how different turn cards will affect your opponents and how likely they will be to call or fold to a bet of yours is really important.

Planning for the River

When you bet (or not) on the turn, you always want to be considering what you’ll do on the river. How often have you seen players bet or call on the turn then give up on the river and thought ‘so why did you bet/call on the turn?’. Don’t be that player who should have saved themselves some money.

Ask yourself some tough questions when thinking of the river, such as how does the equity shift for each player should a variety of different river cards fall? How much aggro are we likely to get back from each player if we check the turn then bet the river? Which hands do we have that benefit from betting on the turn or checking, and if they don’t benefit from a certain river action, should we check for showdown value or bet for value instead?

Some hands benefit from playing as three-street (triple barrel) bluffs. Others don’t. Ask yourself not only which of your own hands you should c-bet on the flop, turn and river (or combinations of those streets) but also what your opponent has to have to fold or call on those depending on what you want them to do.

In Conclusion

C-betting is a crucial part of poker and as with many things in poker, knowing when to play and when not to is crucial and will impact on your bottom line in time. Understanding your opponent’s true ranges are crucial if you are range-betting and while this is a brilliant tool to add to your skillset, overuse is going to punish you instead of your enemy at the felt.

Learning how to read board textures is pivotal to your understanding of when to c-bet and when to avoid doing so. Always consider what you’re planning to do across all three post-flop streets but then adjust to circumstances as things will change on each street too.

Mastering the c-bet – and when to hold off that trigger – can be extremely lucrative in the game of poker.

What is the difference between online poker, live poker, and video poker?

 

You can find out in this article how to adapt to the different majors ways of playing poker.

The digital form of poker offers various types, such as online poker, live poker, and, notably, video poker, which has found a dedicated platform on video poker sites. These sites are tailored to cater to video poker fans, providing a range of games that feature different rules, strategies, and levels of interaction. These platforms make it easy for enthusiasts to access their favourite games, offering diverse techniques and experiences unique to video poker.

Online Poker: The Digital Frontier

What is online poker?

Online poker refers to playing the game of poker over the internet, typically through dedicated poker websites or platforms. Players can participate in various poker variants against opponents from around the world, using virtual chips or real money.

Online poker represents the digital evolution of traditional poker, allowing players to access many games from any location. The primary allure of online poker lies in its speed and availability. Players can engage in multiple tables simultaneously, significantly increasing the volume of hands played per hour compared to live settings. It appeals particularly to those seeking to maximize their playtime and learning opportunities.

The diversity of online games surpasses any physical venue, ranging from Texas Hold’em to Omaha and more niche variants. Moreover, online platforms cater to all budget levels, with stakes starting as low as a few cents, making poker accessible to a broader audience.

The anonymity of online play allows for a focus on pure strategy, minimizing the psychological element of reading opponents’ physical tells​​​​.

Advantages Disadvantages
– Convenient access from anywhere with internet connection. – Lack of physical interaction and reads.
– Wide variety of game options and stakes. – Potential for technical issues or cheating.
– Ability to multi-table for increased volume and variety. – Difficulty in reading opponents’ intentions without physical tells.
– Anonymity can reduce bias and intimidation. – Delayed gratification for cashing out winnings.

Live Poker: The Social Game

What is live poker ?

Live poker involves playing poker in person, usually at a physical casino, card room, or private setting. Players sit at a table, handle physical cards and chips, and interact face-to-face with opponents and dealers.

Live poker, played in casinos and poker rooms, is cherished for its deeply social and psychological dimensions. The tactile experience of handling chips, the physical presence of opponents, and the ability to read add complexity and enjoyment to the game.

Live poker games are generally slower, with fewer hands played per hour, fostering a more deliberate pace and the opportunity for social interaction.

The environment of live poker often leads to softer competition, as many participants play for recreation rather than profit. This aspect can offer strategic advantages to skilled players who can adapt to the slower pace and exploit the less experienced competition. However, the higher rake and tipping expected in live venues can impact profitability​​​​.

Advantages Disadvantages
– Social interaction and atmosphere. – Limited to specific locations.
– Ability to read opponents’ physical cues. – Slower gameplay compared to online.
– Opportunity for live tournaments. – Travel and accommodation costs.
– Immediate resolution of disputes or questions. – Higher minimum bets in some settings.

Video Poker: The Solitary Strategy Game

What is video poker ?

Video poker is a solitary game combining elements of poker and slot machines. Players compete against a pay table rather than other players, with outcomes based on the strength of the poker hand they can assemble from a single draw. This format emphasizes personal strategy and knowledge of poker hand rankings, with a significantly lower element of chance than slot machines.

Video poker offers one of the best odds in the casino for players who master optimal strategies for the variant they are playing. The game is ideal for those who prefer a calm, controlled gambling environment without the pressures of time constraints or the psychological warfare inherent in traditional poker. Despite its simplicity, video poker requires a grasp of basic poker hand rankings and strategically selecting cards to hold and discard​​​​.

Advantages Disadvantages
– Convenient and accessible in casinos and online. – Lack of social interaction.
– Fast-paced gameplay. – Limited strategic depth compared to other forms.
– Lower minimum bets often available. – Dependency on RNG (Random Number Generator).
– No need to wait for other players. – Limited variety of game options.

 In the end: They are very different games

The choice between online poker, live poker, and video poker depends on individual preferences regarding social interaction, strategic depth, and play convenience. Online poker offers a fast-paced, diverse, and accessible platform for players of all skill levels.

In contrast, live poker provides a rich, immersive experience valued for its social and psychological aspects. Video poker appeals to those seeking a straightforward, strategy-driven game without the variability of human opponents.

Can you play poker online with friends for free?

Everything is better with friends, and poker is no exception. In fact, the experience changes completely and apps like Pokerhub offer a very interesting alternative to enjoy poker with friends in private clubs that is very attractive for those who want to enhance the social side of poker.

Here you have an excellent option to play poker online with friends
 free! How? Keep reading, we are going to tell you how to enjoy games of poker with friends online free, at no cost!

Where to play free online poker with friends?

Before we delve into Pokerhub, it is important to understand that not all online poker websites offer the possibility to play for free with friends. Most online poker platforms are designed for real money play, and while some allow free games, they often don’t offer the same experience or flexibility as Pokerhub.

Pokerhub is a poker app that has been noted for giving players the opportunity to play poker online for free and, even more excitingly, with friends. This means that you can organize private and personalized poker games with your friends without spending a penny. No real money is required to join or enjoy Pokerhub, making it an ideal choice for those who want to practice, socialize or just have a good time without risking their finances.

Below you can find out why Pokerhub is the best free online private poker app to play with friends. Take a look!

Why choose Pokerhub to play poker with friends for free?

There are several reasons why Pokerhub is the best free online poker site to play with friends. It is an excellent choice for playing free online poker with friends. Here are some of the most outstanding features and advantages of Pokerhub:

  • Easy to use. Pokerhub stands out for its intuitive and easy-to-use user interface. This makes it easy for players, even beginners, to join and create games in a matter of minutes.
  • Private games. Pokerhub allows you to organize private games with your friends. You can create a personalized game room and share the link with your friends, ensuring that only the people you invite participate in the game.
  • Variety of modes. Pokerhub offers a wide range of poker games, from Texas Hold’em to Omaha, allowing you to choose the game you like the most or try several of them.
  • No need for downloads. Unlike some online poker platforms that require software downloads, Pokerhub works directly in your smartphone. You won’t have to worry about installing additional programs on your device, just the Pokerhub app.
  • Live chat. Pokerhub has an integrated live chat system that allows you to communicate with your friends during the game, adding a social dimension to your online games.
  • Detailed statistics. Pokerhub provides detailed statistics of your games, allowing you to evaluate and improve your game over time.
  • Security. Security is a major concern in online gaming. Pokerhub takes measures to protect players’ privacy and ensure that their games are fair.

How to organize an online poker game on Pokerhub?

Hosting an online poker game at Pokerhub is a simple process. Here we will guide you so you can enjoy free online poker games with friends in private:

  • Registering at Pokerhub. First of all, you will need to register at Pokerhub if you don’t already have an account. Registration is quick and easy, and will only require you to provide a few basic details.
  • Log in to your account. Once you have your Pokerhub account, log in to the platform with your credentials.
  • Create a private game. In the Pokerhub control panel, you will see the option to “Create a private game”. Click on this option to start setting up your game.
  • Configure the game. Here you can define the details of your game, such as the type of poker you want to play, the specific rules, the betting limits and the duration of the game. You can also set a password for the game if you want only your friends to have access.
  • Invite your friends. Once you have set up the game, Pokerhub will provide you with a link that you can share with your friends. They will be able to join the game by clicking on that link.
  • Start the game. Once you and your friends have joined the game room, you can start the game. Pokerhub will provide the cards and supervise the game in an unbiased manner.
  • Enjoy poker with friends. Now you can enjoy an online poker game with your friends in a safe and controlled environment. Use live chat to maintain communication and enjoy an authentic social experience.

Don’t miss out:

How to create a poker club on Pokerhub

Poker Strategies to Improve Your Decision-Making Skills

Numerous strategies exist that can help poker players refine their key cognitive choices, and with any slight edge in the game being huge in 2024, we’ve taken a look at some of the ways you can take your decision-making in poker to the next level.

KEY MOMENTS WHERE THE PRESSURE IS ON

Every poker player worth their salt sits down at the table prepared to bring their A-Game, and in the key moments, make the right decisions. Not everyone can do that, of course, but the first thing to establish is what those key moments actually are. It is impossible to remain focused for a 12-hour day at the poker felt, so ascertaining what makes an important decision is vital.

Chess players often speak about focus being a movable scale rather than a binary ability that, like a switch, is either ‘on’ or ‘off’. Focus can be soft or hard in poker too. An example of soft focus might be the sort of spot where you’re not involved in a poker hand, but when the players who are reach showdown and have to display their hole cards, you make sure to look up from your phone and take note of these shown cards. Hard focus might be an all-in hand you’re involved in where either your stack or your opponent’s ends up being totally at risk.

Determining what should demand your total focus is a personal opinion, but it can often be summarized as a decision that has a big effect on your own place at the table or someone else’s. The biggest moments in your favorite poker shows are likely to tell you what those are. We’ll all remember where we were when Vanessa Selbst couldn’t quite find the fold with a full house in the first level of the WSOP Main Event against GaĂ«lle Baumann. We can probably all recall the first time we saw Erik Seidel’s call after Johnny Chan’s infamous ‘Look to the Sky’ in the 1988 WSOP Main Event.

The big moments require total focus. Would Selbst or Seidel have acted differently with a better ability to focus? Those hands are tough to formulate a cohesive plan of attack in and marginal when it comes to the final decisions, so it is unlikely. But unless you find yourself deep in an event you could win millions in, your own ‘hard focus’ moments are likely to be simpler – if you put yourself in the position to make optimal strategic decisions.

Emotional Control: Pre-Match Preparation

Every poker player must prepare for a poker tournament or cash game in the right way. For some, this will be a large bank of sleep to preserve their mental energy for the big moments. For others, such as Tight Poker columnist and former champion ultra-runner Dara O’Kearney, it could be invigorating the mind and body with a long run in the days before a major event.

Whatever your method, pre-match preparation to put your mind, body, and soul in the right place is vitally important. Poker decisions made by a tired mind will be lacking. Physical stamina is important late in days when events are won and lost or when the biggest cash game pots are scooped. Feeling comfortable and in the right mental state to execute decisions effectively is pivotal to making a profit in poker.

There are any number of ways of preparing yourself, but few are better than the old adage that you are the sum of two vital human basics – what you eat and how you sleep. Mastering a good routine in both respects is crucial. With nutrition and rest, the twin pillars upon which to base your preparation, how you plan for a cash game session, multi-table tournament (MTT), or live event is almost a case of trial and error. You can read about what others do, but your own gauge of how each process refinement affects your performance (short-term) and results (long-term) will be key.

I once asked an elite player who won a lot of money playing online poker how he prepared for a final day in a big SCOOP, WCOOP, or other such MTTs. He replied with one of the most unique answers I ever heard to such a simplistic kind of question. He said that around an hour before the final day – or any poker session! – kicked off, he would go out into his garden armed with a blindfold. He would scatter a selection of items in his garden and take a mental picture with his mind.

Then he would put the blindfold on and attempt to walk to the end of the garden, touch the fence, turn around, and come back to his back door. If he struck an object in his path, he would have to start again. When he made it all the way to the fence and back without striking any objects, he would remove the blindfold and be ready to play.

The Power of Mathematics

The 17-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth once responded to questions about his mathematical capabilities by confidently declaring that he knew the odds of any poker hand to within two decimal places. The answer may have owed a little bravado to the formative era of The Poker Brat, but there was an element of truth to it too. Hellmuth’s math knowledge was so good that his victory in the WSOP Main Event of 1989 changed the game and allowed those who focused on numbers to take incrementally large steps forward in the game of poker.

In this fresh era of GTO (Game Theory Optimal) play, mathematical ability is infinitely more important to this day. Poker, by its very definition, is a sum game that relies on incomplete information being interpreted by the players involved, and only by understanding the odds and probabilities of certain cards coming can you make correct mathematical decisions.

From push-fold charts to post-flop strategy, studying the numbers is often time-consuming and a difficult theory to immerse yourself in. Breaking it down into bite-sized pieces of advice to digest is important, as is taking in the information in a format that your brain responds to positively. From video training to strategy books, via tactics discussed on podcasts to online articles such as these, doing the work is vital, so make sure you do it well.

Adapting to Opponents: Examples of Key Decisions

Poker is full of tough decisions, but if you build up a list of questions in your mind ahead of those decisions approaching then you’ll be best prepared to deal with them when they come along. The first consideration you should make is towards your opponent, with the player more important than the cards you’re taking on at all times. Ask yourself how they are playing, whether they have been aggressive or passive and whether they are stepping out of character with their behavior in the current hand.

Once you have a handle on your opponent(s) emotionally, consider your own perceived image to them. Are they displaying any tells or behaving in a way that is dramatically different from their previously demonstrated patterns? Also consider your table position in relation to your enemy – then you’ll be able to appraise the situation in a more strategic manner and take advantage of any weakness.

Poker is all about gathering relevant information and making the best decision based on that data. Using logic, you’ll then be able to make that key decision with as much confidence as you can possibly have. From there, the cards will decide.

Being a Hero

Key decisions are often those moments where outside observers will look back on and say either ‘How did they make that call?’ or “What a great fold – how could they lay that down?’ Making the Hero Call or the Hero Fold is tough and will often be decisive in how your major result came around. Look at the past WSOP Main Events and you can probably remember an amazing fold or hero call that the champion made.

Making a big lay down is essentially laying down a really good hand when you have worked out that your hand is still beat by one that is even better. While it is hard to have any kind of strategy that declares ‘I’m going to make a hero fold/call today’ at the beginning of the action, you should certainly be confident that should it come down to it, you can make that tough decision. These often come from the gut, that part of you that just knows you’re losing or winning in a certain spot.

I once spoke to the great Sam Razavi, a British poker professional who has made a career making huge plays. In one particular tournament, he won solely the title and around $50,000 in prize money purely because he made one great bluff at a key moment. He’d worked out his opponent’s hand down to almost the exact cards and followed through on his gut feeling with total conviction.

Sam told me that gut feeling was really the accumulation of knowledge over time and your brain then telling you that for reasons based on cognitive ‘muscle memory’, you can make the right call. Should you be wrong, that supposedly impulsive instinct is then refined over time, and your gut feelings then become more informed, often without you being fully conscious of the thought process.

We’d all like to do such things but jumping across that ‘Execution Gap’ between believing we are doing the right thing then actually pulling the trigger is much harder than it sounds.

Taking on Tilt

Let’s talk about tilt. Not just in your own game, but in that of others too. Tilt in poker is reacting emotionally to a poker hand and letting that emotion affect the next hand or even several after. This is often associated with taking a bad beat. Let’s say you are all-in with pocket queens against the pocket sevens of a player with three-quarters of your stack in a big live event. As all the chips are committed pre-flop, another player tells the at-risk player with sevens that they folded a seven too. Then, a seven lands on the river, and you’ve lost a huge chunk of your stack to a one-outer.

That kind of bad beat could easily affect you thereafter. Down from possibly 200 big blinds to under 30, you’ll have to adjust your play accordingly and have fallen a long way back down the ladder despite playing the hand perfectly. Overriding the sense of justice is difficult, and you will need to strategize completely differently, possibly for hours or days of the event. Getting over this ‘tilt’ feeling is hard, but it can be just as hard if you go on a series of hands when you’re winning. Can you still play your A-Game and not dust off chips needlessly through a sense of overconfidence? It’s crucial that you do, but ‘Winner’s Tilt’ is a thing, having recently been referenced in Daniel Negreanu’s look back at why he had a losing 2023.

Getting a handle on your emotions is crucial to success at the poker table. One thing that many players don’t consider, however, is how to exploit this tilt in others’ behavior. If you notice someone tilting, either from winning a pot or losing one, make sure that you take advantage. Charge them more with your bet-sizing if they’re splashing around with newly won chips. Punish their loss-chasing mentality if they’ve been on the wrong end of a bad beat, particularly if it was to you.

It is pivotal in poker that if you are to have any success, then the greatest strategy is to separate the decision you’re making from the outcome of that action. Being as objective as you can while retaining an emotional balance is going to help you stay on the right side of tilt in your own mind and crucially, take the maximum in chips from those who are unable to do so.

In Conclusion

Understanding negative triggers to your own A-Game and exploiting those weaknesses in others’ games is the optimal strategy when making key decisions. Being comfortable in those marginal moments can often come down to a ‘gut feeling’ that is refined over time by your own experiences at the felt.

Executing key decisions at the poker felt comes down to a focus – both hard and soft – on making positive decisions and not focusing on the consequences but refining the process of your decision-making skills. The 10-time WSOP bracelet holder Erik Seidel was coaching the comparatively inexperienced poker player and author Maria Konnikova.

When she told him about the decisions she was making and the result of the hands, he asked her to leave out the part where chips were won or lost. All that mattered was the decision, the process, the execution, the work. The chips will fall where they may, but if you keep improving your strategy in making key decisions, over time you’ll always win more than you lose.

Your Ultimate Guide to Poker Betting Basics

There are lots of variants of poker out there, but all revolve around betting. And if you want to get into playing poker, or want to improve your play, it’s vital to understand how poker betting rules work.

Here we explain the basics of how to bet on poker, including the general rules of poker betting and common poker betting terminology. We’ll cover calling, raising, buy-ins and royal flushes.

How does betting work in poker?

Different variants of poker will have different twists on poker betting, but most forms of poker are played as variations on the following:

  1. Players place forced bets before the cards are dealt.
  2. The dealer distributes each players’ cards.
  3. Players then place bets based on their cards, either calling or raising or checking. Some players may fold, bowing out of that round. Some forms of poker have structured rounds of betting, such as the pre-flop, flop, turn, and river of Texas Hold’em.
  4. After the rounds of betting finish, if there are still players remaining, the showdown happens, where players show their hands of cards and the winner is revealed (the player with the highest value hand).
  5. Sometimes the showdown won’t be reached, and all players except one will fold, leaving the one remaining player as the winner of that round. Sometimes that player will have the best hand, but sometimes they’ll hold a weak hand but will manage to successfully bluff the other players into thinking they’ve got a strong one.

How to Bet in Poker – Poker Betting Actions

In most games of poker, when it’s your turn to bet, you’ll have four different options:

  1. Call: You match the amount of the previous bet placed.
  2. Raise: You increase the amount of the previous bet. The next player to bet then must meet that bet if they want to stay in that round. Raising when the previous player also raised is called a re-raise.
  3. Fold: You discard your hand, bowing out of that round of betting, forfeiting what you’ve already placed in the pot (whether you dramatically push your cards into the middle of the table or not is up to you).
  4. Check: At the start of a round, before the first open bet has been made, you pass the action on to the next player to your left without placing a bet but without folding, staying in that round of betting.

Betting Order

Betting in poker typically moves clockwise around the table, with the first player to the left of the dealer placing the first bet. There are some variants on this for different versions of poker though:

  • In games of poker that use a blinds system (an initial round of forced bets), the first player to the left of the big blind begins. Bets then move clockwise around the table.
  • In games that use antes and a bring-in system (another round of forced bets), it’s typical that the player with the weakest face-up card is the first player to bet. The action then moves clockwise around the players.

Blinds and antes in poker

Lots of variants of poker require players to place “forced bets” before the cards are dealt. This means the pot begins with money already in it, and players making commitments, before the action commences.

The most common types of forced bets are blinds and antes:

Blinds in poker

With poker variants that use blinds, like Texas Hold’em and Omaha, two players post blind bets before the cards are dealt. They’re called blinds as the bets are made ‘blind’ without any cards being seen.

The first player posts a “small blind” and the next player to their left posts the “big blind”, which is double the small blind. The cards are dealt, then the first player to the left of the big blind places the first bet.

Responsibility for posting the small and big blind usually rotates clockwise around the table.

Ante bets in poker

With ante bets, used in draw poker and stud poker, all the players at the table put an equal amount of money (or chips) into the pot before the cards are dealt. This ensures that each player has an incentive to bet, and that players will lose money if they fold. The value of the ante bet will typically be determined before the game begins.

Some forms of poker combine both blind bets and ante bets, with ante bets being placed before the small blind and the big blind.

Poker-hand rankings: from strongest to weakest

Most variants of poker use the same ranking of poker hands, meaning once you’ve learned it, you’ll easily be able to pick up new versions of poker.

Poker hands are ranked from the highest to the lowest, as:

  • Royal Flush – you hold an Ace, King, Queen, Jack, and 10, all of the same suit.
  • Straight Flush – you hold any five cards that form an unbroken sequence, all of the same suit, such as a 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.
  • Four of a Kind – four of your five cards are all of the same ranking, such as four 2s or four Queens.
  • Full House – three of your cards are the same ranking, and the other two are of the same ranking, such as three Kings and two 3s.
  • Flush – all five of your cards are of the same suit.
  • Straight – you have five cards that form an unbroken sequence, not of the same suit.
  • Three of a Kind – three of your cards are the same ranking, whilst the other two are of any ranking.
  • Two Pairs – you have two pairs of cards of equal ranking, such as a pair of 3s and a pair of Aces.
  • One Pair – you have two cards of the same ranking, like two 7s.
  • High Card – you can’t make any of the hands above, so your hand is valued as the highest ranking single card you have.

Buy-ins and Poker Chips

In poker games played in casinos – and in plenty of other cash games – players bet using coloured poker chips. In most cases, different colours of chips have different values, giving players options when placing bets and making it easy to identify how much is being bet and how much the pot is worth.

When you sit at a poker table for a cash game, you’ll have to “buy-in”. The buy-in is the amount of money you need to have with you to sit down at the table. You’ll exchange your buy-in for poker chips.

Poker betting limits

When it’s your turn to place a bet in poker, you may have limits on how much you’re allowed to bet. These limits, or lack of them, come in four common types: no-limit, pot-limit, fixed-limit and spread-limit:

No-limit poker bets

With no-limit poker games, any player can bet any value of chips they want to on one single bet, after the blind bets are made. A player can even bet all of their chips at one time, called “going all-in”.

Pot-limit poker bets

Unlike no-limit games, with pot-limit games, the maximum bet that can be made is determined by the size of the pot in the middle of the table.

Most pot-limit games limit the highest raise to the total value of the pot. If the pot is ÂŁ100, then the highest bet that can be made is ÂŁ100. Some versions of pot-limit use a half-pot-limit. So if the value of the pot is ÂŁ100, the highest bet that can be made is ÂŁ50.

As a round of poker progresses, the pot grows. This means that the stakes of pot-limit poker games typically rise over time, with players making larger raises as the pot increases.

Fixed-limit poker bets

With fixed-limit betting, the maximum amount that can be bet is determined at the beginning of the round by the dealer. Some casino tables will operate with the same fixed limit for every round.

Spread–limit poker bets

A game of poker that uses spread-limit betting allows players to make raises within a specified limit.

The specified limit could be a “one to five limit” which means each player can bet between ÂŁ1 to ÂŁ5, with ÂŁ5 being the highest raise. Some spread-limit games allow for a higher final bet in a betting round, like “ten on the end”, where players can bet up to ÂŁ10 on the final bet.

Simple poker betting strategy

Poker is a game based on probability. But it also involves psychology and being able to successfully bluff the other players you’re competing with for the pot. If you’re holding a strong hand, it sometimes doesn’t pay to go all-in, whilst if you have a weak hand, you don’t have to always fold. Try to use the following poker betting strategy:

  1. Play fewer hands, but play those hands aggressively: If you try to play too many hands, especially when you have weak hands, you’ll bleed away your chips. It’s typically more effective to fold on weak hands but to bet aggressively on stronger hands, making calls and raises.
  2. Don’t go all-in on strong hands: You should play aggressively on strong hands, but don’t go all-in. If you think you have the best hand at the table, you want to place bets that other players will call, to ensure they stay in the betting and that you can grow the pot as much as possible.
  3. Know when to bluff: If you bluff too often, the other players at the table will realise and will begin to call you on it. You need to bluff with thought. Bluff on hands you have cards to improve on, like straight draws or flush draws.
  4. Fold when in doubt: As well as bluffing too often, another way to lose quickly in poker is to call too often. If you have a strong hand, play aggressively. If you have a hand with options, you can bluff aggressively. But if you’re unsure whether to call or fold, it’s sensible to fold.
  5. Attack when your opponents show signs of weakness: If another player checks, it’s usually because they have a weak hand. Call and raise to try and get that player to fold.

Is online poker betting different?

The vast majority of online poker betting games use the same rules as the real-life equivalent. If you’re playing Pot-Limit Omaha online, the betting rules will be the same as real-life Pot-Limit Omaha.

Whatever type of poker you’re playing online, make sure you understand the poker betting rules of that game before you bet serious money. You can usually find the rules of a game in the information menu.

Although the same poker betting rules are typically used online, online poker betting tends to be faster-paced than real-life betting, and usually for smaller amounts of money.

Play poker with Grosvenor Casinos

Now that you’ve learned the basics of poker betting rules and poker betting strategy, you can try your hand at poker with Grosvenor Casinos. You can play poker in person at one of our 52 casino venues in the UK or you can join one of our poker tournaments.

You can also play poker online with us, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from the comfort of your home or even on the go on your phone or tablet. Download our dedicated Grosvenor Casinos Poker app for free on either your iOS or Android device. Take a look at our online poker promotions and join Grosvenor Casinos today.

 

History of online poker: origin and evolution

Poker is perhaps the most popular card game in the world, and over the years it has undergone changes that have adapted it to the technological boom of modern society. That has led to the proliferation of online poker rooms, creating a loyal community of players who enjoy the game from the comfort of their homes from their smartphone or computer.

But, how exactly did online poker come about, and how has it evolved since the early days of digitization? Read on to find out.

How long is the history of online poker?

The history of online poker began in the 1990s, ushering in a revolution in the way people play poker. Although poker has been played in various forms for centuries, the ability to compete online completely changed the dynamics of the game. The first online poker platform was established in 1998, when Planet Poker launched its website. This event marked the beginning of a new era in the poker world.

During its early years, online poker-faced significant challenges, such as lack of regulation and players’ distrust in the security of transactions and the fairness of the games. However, as technology improved and stricter regulations were established, online poker began to gain popularity.

Who is Chris Moneymaker and why is he important for poker online?

The year 2003 was a turning point in the online poker history. This was the year that an accountant from Tennessee named Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker (WSOP), the most prestigious poker tournament in the world.

His victory was an extraordinary event because, instead of qualifying through an in-person tournament, Moneymaker had gained his entry into the tournament through an online satellite on PokerStars. His triumph inspired thousands of players to follow his example and play online poker.

Chris Moneymaker’s online poker player history lies in the importance of the fact that his victory proved that anyone could compete with the pros and win. His success story inspired numerous online poker players to pursue their dreams in the game. In addition, his path to victory began with an online qualifier, which further emphasized the impact of online poker on the poker scene.

His online poker player history has got a huge legacy: the well-known “Moneymaker effect”, which has translated into a massive increase in the popularity of online poker. Many players began playing online in hopes of replicating his success. This led to an explosive growth in the number of online poker websites and platforms. The media exposure Moneymaker received also contributed to the online poker boom.

Differences between online poker and conventional poker

Conventional poker, played in physical casinos or at gatherings of friends, has significant differences from online poker. Below, we explore some of the key differences and we explain some of the most important online poker facts you should have already learnt:

Accessibility

Online poker is extremely accessible. Players can participate in games anytime, anywhere, as long as they have an Internet connection and a compatible device. This means there is no need to travel to a physical casino or stick to a fixed schedule to play.

Variety of games

Online poker offers a wide variety of poker variants, from Texas Hold’em and Omaha to Seven Card Stud and more. This allows players to experience different styles and rules of play, which may be less common in land-based casinos.

Anonymity

In online poker, players can maintain a certain degree of anonymity. This can be beneficial for those who wish to avoid public exposure or keep their identity a secret.

Speed of play

Online poker tends to be faster than conventional poker. Hands are developed more quickly, as there is no need to shuffle cards or count chips manually. This allows players to participate in more hands in a shorter period of time.

Safety and fairness

Although there were initial concerns about security and fairness in online poker, technological advances and proper regulation have improved player confidence. Online poker platforms use random number generators and advanced security measures to ensure fair play.

Social interaction

Conventional poker encourages in-person social interaction, with players sitting together at a table, allowing communication and reading opponents’ reactions. In contrast, online poker is played in a virtual environment, which can limit face-to-face interaction. However, many online poker platforms offer chat and real-time interaction features to compensate for this lack of physical presence.

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10 Tips for Poker Players to Overcome Bad Beats

If there’s a poker play we haven’t learned, then up-skilling to a better strategy can feel great. Improving our luck, however, is impossible. Luck doesn’t care about how hard you’ve been working on your game, whether you’re having a good day or a bad one, or whether you’ve lost your last ten coin flips.

Luck is an unfeeling acquaintance we cannot escape and must be treated as such. Dealing with a ‘bad beat’ can be difficult, but with our helpful hints below, you’ll be in the best possible place to get over that slice of bad luck and play your A-Game in the next hand:

  • Keep Some Perspective
  • Understand the Odds
  • Put Bad Beats to Work
  • Find Your Focus
  • Post-Match Analysis
  • Perform a Ritual
  • Focus on the Next Hand
  • Know When to Fold ‘Em
  • Stay Calm and Walk Away
  • Check Your Account(ability)

1. Keep Some Perspective

While all the following tips and hints apply and can help, it’s important to remember your place in the world. If you’ve lost a hand of cards, you’re already lucky. The chances are pretty high that you’re reading this on a $400 smartphone, laptop, or tablet. Given that 50% of the world’s population lives on less than $7 a day, you’re already in an immensely privileged position. Understanding that in the game of life, you’ve basically been dealt a premium pair can go some way to reducing the magnitude of your feelings about any given bad beat.

Before you play poker, think of the worst situation that could happen. Let’s say it’s a $5 entry tournament, and at the final table, you’re all-in with pocket aces for a chip-leading pot with 6 people left. If you win, it’s very likely that you’ll go on to win $1,000. If you lose, you’re going out for just under $100. That’s a $900 swing, or to put it another way, 180 buy-ins.

I’ve been in this position. I was playing someone with pocket tens, and they hit a ten on the river. Then another player showed their hand with a ten in it. They hit a one-outer to effectively cost me the best part of a thousand dollars in equity. So, what was my takeaway here? Did I stay calm? Not at the time. Do I still recall how it felt? Absolutely, it stung like a wasp on a hot summer’s day.

But taking a look around me helped. I was sitting at a laptop I owned, in a house I could afford to rent, with food and comforts all around me. Getting some perspective isn’t easy when you’re in the moment, but it can help you immediately focus on the game as just that – a game. You’ll still have whatever you had before you set aside the buy-in. Losing at cards will happen, losing at life is, for some, inescapable. Gratitude is the pathway to bad beats hurting less.

2. Understand the Odds

What is a bad beat in poker terms? For such a popular expression, the actual boundaries of qualification for the phrase to be justified are blurry, to say the least. If you qualify a bad beat as a committed pot where you are the favorite with all your chips in the middle, and then the other player overtakes your hand to win, then you’re going to experience bad beats a lot of times, possibly over and over in the same tournament or cash game session.

If you get your chips into the middle with aces against kings pre-flop, then getting beaten is an outrageous piece of bad luck, right? Well, not really. You’re a 4:1 favorite before the five community cards, which means one time out of five, you’re meant to lose. That’s not the case in every hand, of course, but to truly appreciate the odds, you’ve got to look at the long-term picture.

If you can understand the odds for situations you’ll frequently find yourself in, then the individual bad beats won’t feel so impactful. They should start to become more of a consistent pattern and part of a larger truth, that poker is essentially one long game. Over time, luck will even out.

That’s the certainty of probability added to time, or rather the sample size of your situation getting bigger over time. If you can find peace in bad beats through understanding the chances of it happening again over time, things can really improve. Before you thought of it in those terms, what were the chances of that happening?

3. Put Bad Beats to Work

One of the biggest gifts we can give you about bad beats is almost not looking at them as bad beats. If you’ve just been one-outed, we can appreciate that sounds pretty crazy. But it’s not. If you never get a bad beat, you never check the odds, look at the perspective you have on the game of poker, or appreciate a bad beat.

That’s right, we said A-P-P-R-E-C-I-A-T-E. Here’s the twist: if you don’t get it in good, then you can’t be bad beaten. If you’re the outside chance, then you’re the one doing the dirty. That should feel better, right? Wrong. It only feels better when you win a bad beat, and since you got it in bad, you’re going to lose most of the time. You got a bad beat? That means you got it in good, meaning you’ll be winning most of the time.

That feels better already, doesn’t it? Phil Hellmuth once said, “If there weren’t luck involved, I would win every time.” While The Poker Brat might have been stretching the truth a little, he has a point. The bad beats hurt the 17-time WSOP bracelet winner because he tries to put himself in positions where he’s the favorite. Without fortune, poker would be like chess, a game based entirely on skill.

While this would still be interesting, it would hardly make it one of the most popular and entertaining games on Earth. As Rick Bennt once said, “In the long run there’s no luck in poker, but the short run is longer than most people know.”

4. Find Your Focus

This is one piece of advice that you may well have heard before, but definitely need to hear again. Regaining your focus after a bad beat can be a difficult, sometimes dizzying experience. So many emotions flood your senses when you face a bad beat that processing them can be very tough.

Someone else is raking in your chips, for a start. They’re overjoyed at having won a big stack of chips through luck alone. Their feeling is euphoria. Despondency is a natural opposite that you must welcome into your system, process, then overcome as quickly as possible. In order to do so, you may well struggle to find a mental foothold, but the image of trying to place your feet on solid ground after falling is an apt one.

A bad beat can feel exactly like that. You’ve climbed the mountain, gone your opponent all-in and at risk with the worst hand, then they make a set with their underpair, and you ask yourself why you worked so hard to put yourself on that pedestal.

Picture yourself up a literal mountain. You’re about to reach the peak when someone comes up behind you and trips you up. Hey, maybe it’s even the wind or uneven ground. But it’s not like you tumbled all the way to the ground. You’re still up the mountain, you’re still climbing.

Even if you busted a tournament or lost a cash game session’s buy-in, you haven’t lost everything. Pick yourself up, stand your ground, learn what you can do better, and accept that you fell, but now you’re back on your feet and going to keep moving forward.

5. Post-Match Analysis

All the other ways you can get over bad beats deal primarily with the physical or mental senses that are knocked off balance after you are dealt a dose of bad luck. Rebalancing focus, leveling your emotions, appreciating your privilege. Each of those deals with improving your overall mood. That’s very important. It will aid you in the long term in dealing with bad beats. But there’s something else you need to hear, and you’re not going to like it.

You might have made a mistake. Even in a hand where you were bad beaten, there are ways you could have changed the course of the hand. Let’s use an example here and adjust where the chips go into the middle. Let’s imagine that you have 25 big blinds and are holding pocket jacks. The chip leader – your enemy in the hand – has pocket tens. In the first scenario, you shove pre-flop, they call and hit a ten on the river to knock you out of the tournament.

Bad beat, huh? Awful luck, and you need to go into all those recovery scenarios you’ve already read about. Now imagine that instead of shoving pre-flop, you plan a ‘stop and go.’ You know that the chip leader likes to flat call with middle-ranking pairs a lot of the time and almost never plays ace-high. When the flop lands A-4-2, having three-bet rather than shoved pre-flop, getting a call, you then shove the flop.

Pocket tens now don’t look so good for the chip leader, and he folds, never getting to the river, never hitting the ten, and losing a substantial pot to you instead. You just rewrote a bad beat. The good news is that in almost any scenario at the poker table, there’s a different way to play it.

Maybe you don’t know the chip leader’s ranges as well as we just described. Maybe it’s aces against kings. Not every bad beat can be avoided. But some can. Admitting that to yourself and considering different ways to play out the scenario you just endured is elite-level thinking. So why not do it?

6. Perform a Ritual

“If you’ve come this far, maybe you’re willing to come a little further.” Do you know who said that? It wasn’t a poker player, but a character in a movie. Still need another clue? It’s perhaps the most popular movie of all time. Well done at the back with your hand up; it’s the line that Andy Dufresne writes to his friend Red when he is guiding him from prison parole to the mystical Zihuatanejo on Mexico’s Pacific coast.

We say the same thing to you now. If you’re prepared to take our advice, then we’d encourage you in the direction of a ‘recovery ritual.’ Many athletes practice this. Think of the tennis player who bounces the ball seventeen times before he serves. Or the footballer who taps his helmet three times before waiting for the snap. Elite athletes have rituals, so why not poker players? It turns out they do.

Often these will center around breathing, cognitive tricks, and positive affirmations. Mindfulness, yoga, and other breathing exercises can assist you in doing this too. Whatever your ritual, it’s worth remembering that this needs to be something you can call on wherever you are. If you’re at home playing online poker, then performing ten star-jumps and reciting the words to Viva La Vida might work for you.

At the live felt in a casino, this same ritual could lead to you being escorted from the premises, especially if they’re not a Coldplay fan. Maybe it’s to breathe deeply three times, consult a few words of encouragement on your cell phone, and clench and unclench your toes. That’s what Bruce Willis does in Die Hard when the plane is coming in to land. If it’s good enough for Bruce, it’s good enough for us.

QUICK TIPS:

7. Focus on the Next Hand

If you want to overcome a bad beat quickly in poker, then playing the next hand well as quickly as possible can sometimes be the answer. Investing the chips might be painful, but that immediate switch of focus on new cards and possibly new opponents is a naturally cleansing thing for a poker player. Right back on the horse, you could win the next hand, of course, but you might also distract yourself successfully enough to process the bad beat’s emotional hit without realizing it.

8. Know When to Fold ‘Em

Kenny Rogers once sat on the set of a mocked-up train carriage surrounded by antiques and with a straight face, told us that we needed to know when to fold them. This is simplistic advice in the music video for The Gambler, but while the slightly Wild West-tinged guidance should come with a heavy dose of salt, there is some truth in it. If there’s the potential for a bad beat and you’re not sure how to play a hand other than to put yourself in the firing line of it, it might be worth folding the cards and walking away. Just don’t hit the whiskey bottle like the old man in the Kenny Rogers song.

9. Stay Calm and Walk Away

If you’ve tried everything else in our guide to overcoming bad beats and still need a solution, there is only one that remains, and that is to walk away. Pick up your remaining chips if you have any, keep your dignity, act polite and friendly, and leave the table. The renowned poker writer Tommy Angelo once said, ‘Quitting is the easy part. The hard part is standing up.’ You have to leave the felt and commit to pressing the quit button to do so. Sometimes it really is the only sane choice.

10. Check Your Account(ability)

Do you have a special poker-playing friend in your life who you can unload a bad beat on and get great advice delivered in a sympathetic manner? If not, then you should try to find one, but we’ll spin this on its head and suggest that you should be the friend you’re after. Then whoever you help is more likely to be there for you when you’ve just bubbled a poker tournament, lost a cash-game buy-in, or lost with aces against pocket deuces again to the same guy who did it one orbit ago!!!! It always helps to share a problem, and it can be so much easier to dissect it with someone next to you.

Conclusion

Dealing with bad beats in poker is a challenge that every player faces at some point in their journey. However, by keeping perspective, understanding the odds, putting bad beats to work, finding your focus, and following a recovery ritual, you can not only weather these storms but also use them to your advantage.

Post-match analysis and seeking accountability from fellow players can further enhance your skills and resilience. And, remember, it’s crucial to stay calm and know when to walk away when the going gets tough. These strategies not only improve your poker game but can also have a positive impact on your overall outlook on life.

So, the next time you face a bad beat, take a deep breath, regroup, and get back in the game – because the journey is often more rewarding than the destination.

Pocket52 Poker Sports League Season 5 – Bigger and Better Than Ever!

Pocket52 Poker Sports League Season 5 – Bigger and Better Than Ever!


Posted by Laksh Pal Singh on 2023-08-23 at 9:41 PM

Pocket52 Poker Sports League Season 5 - Bigger and Better Than Ever!

That was what the Poker Sports League management promised us this year, and that is exactly what was delivered. This edition of PSL was grand in many ways, and I’d first like to thank everyone who made this event possible.

Nitesh Salvi – founder and CEO of Pocket52, title sponsors of PSL, Pranav Bagai, Siddharth Mishra, and Prajit Gambhir, the three musketeers who started this wonderful concept of PSL and have worked endlessly over the last five years to grow this mind sport!

Prajit, you legend. God only knows how many roles you have at PSL! From being COO to the auctioneer to commentary to ensuring that the show goes on every single time, big shoutout to you, brother, and to Vidur also for making sure every pre-show and every stream was super smooth. Sid and his production team, wow, man, I don’t even know what to say. You guys are so good at what you do! This year the production team of PSL has really outdone themselves. From every reel to every Instagram story to every update, I have to say the content was fabulous.

Obviously couldn’t have done it without your ever-so-talented team! Dashank, Madhur, and Pandey Ji, big shoutout to the three of you for doing such a great job and just being awesome people in general. I’m really fond of the entire PSL team and of course the man himself, the mastermind Pranav Bagai for making this happen on Jio Cinema- working day in and day out to achieve his vision for poker in India.

I want to thank all the owners for supporting this league every single year and spreading their love and passion for poker. This league would not be possible without you!

 

The Experience

Pocket52 PSL Season 5 was something else only. Everyone together on land in the same resort under the same roof, with no hassle of going onto the ship, everyone bonding and interacting.

Personally, for me, the highlight was interacting with the qualifiers from all teams, it’s really nice to talk with someone when you know they look up to you and whatever you’re saying has an impact on them.

It was really heartwarming to meet the Massani brothers, these boys were the heroes of PSL, and that’s another story to tell. Taking a domestic flight for the first time, these two brothers have come from Bhopal and won all our hearts. What gems of human beings, so much confidence, so much energy, I just loved it, to be honest. I had a great time with all my friends and all the other captains who I’m so close to off the felts!

The competition was heavy, and everyone was so passionate and into it. So yeah, GG to my boys – Dirty (Dhaval Mudgal) and Shardul (Parthasarathi) for also taking podium finishes, I had already told Shardul I was going see him heads up and win this time.

Big shoutout to Gaurav Sood, one of the best poker players in India, for playing the finale like an absolute boss man and ensuring I’m shitting myself on the rails while he’s reducing the chip deficit. Love you, Mozzie unlucky one, and you’ll be back stronger we all know it.

Shoutout to Romit (Advani) and Vaibhav (Sharma) for being fantastic team leaders- you win some, you lose some, and I am sure we will see you guys in the top 3 next season!

Now coming to my team, oh man, I don’t think I’ve ever felt such a sense of comradery and team spirit in my life. PSL adrenaline just hits differently. I’ve played a lot of tournaments in my life and hit a lot of one-outers for big money, but I’ve never jumped the way PSL made me jump and shout and scream, and it’s a different kind of excitement altogether.

Bringing a team format and making an individual sport a team game is honestly a genius concept! I would like to thank my team owners, Mr Puneet Mehra, Mehul Shah, and Rishi, for trusting me to lead this team again despite a not-so-great performance the previous year. Special shoutout to their families as well, Toral ma’am Divyansh and Prerna, for cheering on the Mumbai team and making sure our rail was the loudest and full of energy. Really happy that Mehul and Rishi also came down and really felt it with the team and were involved and there from start to finish.

Speaking about my team, I want to say I’m so proud of you guys – every point earned by each of you was crucial to us winning and reaching the finale. I remember the day we reached Goa and had our first team meeting, I was really impressed with Puneet sir because he gave a really inspirational team talk on Day 1 itself, which had a big impact on our team. I have to say one thing about my team, though, everyone was really into it, The togetherness and team spirit was really evident, and I think from Day 1, we manifested the win when we took that picture near the trophy.

Humaara wildcard kaisa ho, Alok Birewar jaisa ho! I think the best decision I made this PSL, other than my obvious retentions of Akshay Nasa and Honey Bijlani, was to sign Alok as my wildcard. I knew Alok wouldn’t do it for the money; he wanted to play PSL, he loves strategizing, he was railing every table every tournament, his team spirit was unparalleled, and the best in the league, so kudos bro I’m proud of you, and you did a great job.

Akshay Nasa, my player, said I am born ready when I asked him if he was going to play the finale. Our strategy was simple, get 250 BB in the finale, send Nasa, and ship it!! Shoutout to Ankit, our 2nd pro, for a great performance joining Nasa in the finale, and also getting the ever so-crucial points in the live MTT, but also for declaring that we’ve won before the league even started.

Honey Bijjlani, for doing more work than the captain, bhai this team would not have won without you, I openly state that you are going to be retained every year for Mumbai Anchors. Nitin Gulati for his passion for this team, getting merchandise and hoodies made for the entire team, thank you, bhai! Simran Malhotra, my fellow Pocket52 team pro, for never disappointing me, for being the number 1 woman player of the league, and for her spirit and love for the team.

Dhirendra Kumar and Avinash Tauro for being on top of things, speaking to the new boys, railing watching the stream making notes, top top performance guys. And of course the new boys Shravan and Nikaas, who I couldn’t believe, played live poker for the first time. They both killed it and got super important points for the team. Every single point contributed by each of you was crucial to this team’s success.

It was a rollercoaster of three days, with ups and downs and highs and lows; the excitement and energy were high, and it was the best three days of my life. Humne bahut chipkaaya, 3 straight days chipkaaya, but you gotta spike to ship, and there was no way Mumbai was not winning this season. Also, a big shoutout to my first mentor and dear friend Sahil Mahboobani for top-notch performance and taking down the Player of the Series, so happy for you, bro!

Lifting that trophy was a great feeling and something that’ll stay with me for life, I hope to recreate many more memories with PSL and Mumbai Anchors!

GG everyone, until next time!

Aaamchiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Mumbaiiiiiiii

Poker with friends app: how to choose the right one?

Poker as a social game is a great alternative for those who want to enjoy competitive poker without having to bet real money. This helps to avoid worrying about other aspects such as bankroll management, since the continuity of the game does not depend on the chips you have within your reach.

The social aspect of poker has led many to look directly for an alternative to encourage interaction between players without the pressure of betting money. And Pokerhub is one of the best alternatives for an all-round experience, with the best of competitive poker and cashless poker.

What is the best way to play online poker with friends?

There are many ways to enjoy online poker with friends, but the best way is to do it in an environment where clubbing is greatly facilitated. Because through a private club, it is much easier to access the gaming tables that lead directly to playing games with friends.

By restricting access to authorized persons only, the possibility of playing with unknown users is eliminated. This is also possible in the case of public clubs or free tables, but it is a different kind of experience.

Typically, those looking to play online poker with friends on an exclusive basis tend to associate with their friends in a club that is run by the group itself, making the experience much more tailored to what each individual prefers.

This has a direct impact on the variety of tables, game types, rules, limits and variants set at each table, making it much easier to tailor the parameters of the game to what the group really wants to find.

How to play online poker with friends?

The steps to do so are really simple, especially on Pokerhub. Because one of the hallmarks of its app is its accessibility, being able to access both with user credentials and in guest mode without registration, streamlining the steps to access the selection of tables in the club.

Using Pokerhub is really simple: just download the app, register or access in guest mode, collect the rewards (they are awarded daily after the first 24 hours) and find your club, search for a new one or create another one from scratch. It allows you to diversify groups to be able to associate each one with specific preferences, and you can add a name to each one and a different avatar to distinguish them.

Pokerhub is a poker app designed to enjoy poker with friends. Everything in it revolves around the social component of the game, including rewards, which can be used to buy loot boxes and various prizes to give you an edge in a game. Although it contains micropayments, Pokerhub has a fair and consistent reward scale, with daily rewards to reward the loyalty of its community.

More and more people are interested in enjoying a non-public poker experience with friends. This makes it easier to have control of the community and establish clear guidelines in terms of game modes, game types and other parameters.

Want to enjoy the best poker app to play with friends? Don’t miss it:

Private poker app to play with friends: why you should try it?

Play poker with friends on PokerHub: what are the advantages?

As a poker app for playing with friends, Pokerhub stands out in several ways:

  • Total accessibility. Pokerhub is an app designed to be easy to use. This helps you to have all the possible options at your fingertips, both for those looking to join a table instantly and for those who want to shape their own circle of players. What’s more, as soon as you log in, you’ll be able to learn the basics with an interactive tutorial, so you can try out all the options when you download Pokerhub for the first time.
  • Easy to use. Its controls are designed so that every option for interacting with your friends both on and off the poker table is at your fingertips. You’ll quickly become familiar with everything the app has to offer, so you’ll be able to take advantage of all the possibilities as soon as possible.
  • Unlimited possibilities. Pokerhub gives you the experience you’re looking for, whatever it is. When you enter you can access public poker tables, search for a club, create your own, access your club’s private tables… And you can enjoy the games either by logging in, with your user credentials, or in guest mode, which allows you to access the game directly without waiting.
  • Strong social component. Everything is designed for you to enjoy poker at its most social and interactive with other members of the community, especially with your friends. But remember that private games are only part of the Pokerhub experience. Part of the fun is that your social circle expands, and thanks to the organic traffic that Pokerhub boosts, you will be able to meet new players who are looking for the same thing as you.

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Casino Bad Reichenhall DE ✔ Slots, Poker & More Live Games

You will not be disappointed if you visit the Casino Bad Reichenhall games. The operator has prepared the most popular casino entertainments, competitions, and tournaments. Learn where you can get a bite and drinks while taking a break from gambling.

Casino Bad Reichenhall – History & Details

The story of Spielbank Bad Reichenhall (Casino Bad Reichenhall) began in the 1950s when the casino opened its doors for the guests of the bathing resort.

After its nationalisation in 1961, the casino got its second chance in 1988 when it was completely rebuilt and a spa was added. If you intend to visit, then you will need the following information:

đŸŽČ Name Spielbank Bad Reichenhall
(Casino Bad Reichenhall)
⭐ Type Casino, Bar & Restaurant
🎂 Established 1955 (Rebuilt in 1988)
😎 Operator Bavarian State Ministry of Finance and Homeland
✔ License Government Licence
🎰 Casino Slots, Video Poker, RNG Table Games
Roulette, Blackjack, Dice52
Poker Tournaments
🎁 Promotions Package Deals, Discounts, Casino Card, Gift Cards
đŸ„© Restaurants Warsteiner Boulevard
🍾 Bars Ocean’s Club
đŸŽ™ïž Entertainments Live Music, Family Celebrations, Company Events
Sport Mastercard, Visa/Visa Electron, V PAY, Maestro
🎁 Extras Free Self-Parking, Wi-Fi
đŸ—ș Address Wittelsbacherstraße 17, 83435 Bad Reichenhall, Germany
☎ Telephone +49 8651 95800
💬 Social Media YouTube, Facebook, Instagram
📧 Email [email protected]
🌐 Website www.spielbanken-bayern.de (in German)

As it is clear from the information above, you may come to play at Bad Reichenhall casino, and you will receive more than you have expected from a land-based gambling venue.

This Bavarian brick-and-mortar casino has a bar, restaurant, and an amazing atmosphere equal to the experience at the best online casinos in Bavaria.

Licensed and Regulated Bavarian Casino

The German province Bavaria has nine casinos managed by the State Lottery and Casino Administration in Munich, part of the Bavarian State Ministry of Finance and Homeland.

Casino Bad Reichenhall in DE is also licensed by the government authorities and according to the German gambling laws.

Legal Gambling Age & Player Info

Players who are used to the top online casinos in Germany for 2023 always wish to better their gambling experience, so they head to the land-based gaming locations.

Before enjoying the Casino Bad Reichenhall games, players must prove that they are 21+ years old. People of 18+ years can enter only accompanied by a person over 21 years.

There is free entry to the casino, restaurant, and Ocean’s Bad Reichenhall bar. The dress code is casual, but shorts, running, and yoga pants are prohibited.

Cheating & Gambling Crimes

Any brick-and-mortar gambling venue and Germany’s best real money online casinos take gambling crimes seriously. If you try to cheat, steal, money laundering or another crime at Casino Bad Reichenhall, you will face the legal consequences.

Bad Reichenhall Casino’s Games

The games at Casino Bad Reichenhall for German players cover the most popular entertainments known at the best high roller casinos in DE, but here, they are spread over a 6500 square feet casino. The common room opens at noon every day.

Slots & Electronic Gaming Machines

Most space on the casino floor is taken by the 90+ state-of-the-art electronic gaming devices. The multi-game machines offer bets ranging from 0.50€ – 500€, and more.

Here, you will find poker, video poker, jackpot games, blackjack, roulette, and more. The Casino Bad Reichenhall slots include some of the hottest titles at the top online slots sites for German players

Popular Roulette Variations

Roulette Wheel and Chips

Players’ favourite Casino Bad Reichenhall roulette variations are French Roulette and American Roulette. They are available for live casino play and virtually.

Just like at the Germany’s top online roulette sites, players are free to place small bets like 1€ or go into big stakes gambling with wagers of up to 12,000€.

Dice 52 & More

The list of Casino Bad Reichenhall games includes a variety of entertainments available at the best German gambling sites. An excellent example is the Dice 52 casino game, but there are also bingo, lotto, scratch cards and more.

Blackjack at Bad Reichenhall Casino

The most available way for German players to play ’21’ is at the best blackjack sites in Germany. If you have a few free hours, we recommend the real casino blackjack experience with stakes between 5€ and 500€.

Poker Games & Poker Tournaments

Ace King Poker Hand

You may not know this, but at Casino Bad Reichenhall, you can enjoy a lengthy list of poker games, including Bavarian Stud, Bavarian Texas Hold’em, Seven Card Stud Poker, Texas Hold’em Poker, and Texas Hold’em No Limit.

To join the games, check the poker tables’ working hours, choose a game, buy in, and play. The prizes vary, and the bets are as wide as at the best poker sites in Germany.

The casino and poker rooms are visited by beginners, casual players, and the best German poker players. Anyone can join them at the table and pick the tricks of the trade.

Most experienced and pro poker players come for the various Casino Bad Reichenhall poker tournaments like the Casino Bayern Poker Championship. If you are good enough, you can leave with prize money of up to 100,000€.

Promotions and Extras

There is an extensive list of promotions, bonuses, and extras at Casino Bad Reichenhall for German players. Players used to Germany’s best online casino bonus offers will recognise the gems in the brick-and-mortar location.

The most popular extra is the Casino Card with ChipCash function which can be used on slots and electronic gaming machines. Feed the card with up to 250€ and start paying for the games at the machines instead of with coins or chips.

There are special promotions for first-time players, events, and special occasions. The most popular bonuses are gift packages, vouchers, or discounts for parties and celebrations.

Bad Reichenhall Casino’s Foods & Frinks

Bar Drinks Cocktails

Playing at a land-based venue or at the best live online casinos in Germany might make you tired and hungry. The difference is that the brick-and-mortar casinos have bars, restaurants, and more fun options like those:

  • đŸ„© Warsteiner Boulevard Restaurant has been Casino Bad Reichenhall restaurant for over 25 years. The menu offers German, Asian, and many international dishes you can eat almost anywhere in the casino.
  • đŸ· Ocean’s Club is Casino Bad Reichenhall bar locals and visitors love to visit for a drink or late-night snack. The DJ and live acts break the silence of the night with pop, rock, jazz, and more.
  • đŸŽ¶ Events & Specials: Casino Bad Reichenhall DE is perfect for all family, company or other gatherings and celebrations. You can book the bar, terrace, restaurant, or all of them to make your party unforgettable.
  • đŸ›‹ïž Hotels & Accommodations: pick between Wyndham Grand Bad Reichenhall Axelmannstein, Avalon Hotel, Amber Residenz Bavaria, or the other hotels located in Bad Reichenhall.
  • đŸŒČ Relaxation & Nature: spa centres, medicinal baths, salt springs, Lake Thumsee, and beautiful nature make Bad Reichenhall the preferred relaxation destination.
  • 🏰 History & Culture: there are many historical buildings, castles, and historical landmarks. Check the ‘Cultino’ program and visit the town during the Philharmonic Christmas, Mozart Week (the last week of March), or another holiday.

Considering all the above, it becomes clear that even if you visit Bad Reichenhall for its casino, you can have an amazing and unforgettable experience visiting the local attractions, cultural sites, or walking in nature.

FAQ

The German Casino Bad Reichenhall has been known to players since the 1950s and still delights with top-notch gambling entertainment. We collected and answered several questions to help you decide if this is the venue for you.

*ïžâƒŁ Where is Casino Bad Reichenhall?

There are always many paths leading to any land-based gambling venue. When it comes to Casino Bad Reichenhall, you need to know that it is in the city of Bad Reichenhall, Germany. You can reach it by car and public transport or even walk if you are already staying at the nearby hotels.

*ïžâƒŁ What games can I play at Casino Bad Reichenhall, Germany?

The brick-and-mortar casino does not disappoint with its slots, table games, and poker selection. The highest number of Bad Reichenhall casino games are taken by electronic gaming machines. There are roulette, blackjack, and dice games, but many players visit to participate the poker tournaments with incredibly high prizes

*ïžâƒŁ What bonuses can German players get at Casino Bad Reichenhall?

Besides the unforgettable gaming experience and the potential winnings, players can get a variety of promotions at Casino Bad Reichenhall DE. There are vouchers, gift cards, discounts, and other extras available to anyone over the age of 21. Upon entry, enquire about the current bonuses and decide which ones to use.

*ïžâƒŁ Can Germans drink alcohol while playing at Casino Bad Reichenhall?

There are many extras at Casino Bad Reichenhall for German players who have spent much time on the gaming floor. Rest in the casino’s bar, restaurant, or terrace where you can enjoy fun and food in Bad Reichenhall. You can also enjoy the city’s lovely nature, spa, culture, and historical sites.

*ïžâƒŁ Is Casino Bad Reichenhall in Germany legit?

All operators who wish to offer their services to players in Germany must have government-granted gambling licence. The Casino Bad Reichenhall licence for DE is active, and the venue is regularly inspected and monitored according to German gambling laws. Independent game auditing companies monitor for fair play.

*ïžâƒŁ How old do I have to be to play at Casino Bad Reichenhall?

The Casino Bad Reichenhall in Germany has few requirements for gamblers. The most essential information for players you need to know is the legal gambling age of 21. Players enter the casino for free, and the dress code is casual. Remember that all cheating attempts are frowned upon, and violators are dealt with accordingly.

*ïžâƒŁ Are there slots for German players at Casino Bad Reichenhall?

The gaming floor offers many electronic gaming machines, including slots, video poker, RNG blackjack, and more. Browsing through the Bad Reichenhall casino slots, you will see popular titles, jackpot games, and slot machines handpicked for German players. The multi-game machines allow players to choose from up to 20 slots without changing seats.

*ïžâƒŁ What roulette games are offered at Casino Bad Reichenhall?

The roulette options at Casino Bad Reichenhall include French Roulette and American Roulette. Germans and visitors over 21 can take a seat, pick a lucky number, place a bet, and wait to where the ball will land.

*ïžâƒŁ Is there PvP poker at Casino Bad Reichenhall in Germany?

One of the greatest attractions in Casino Bad Reichenhall for German players is the PvP poker games and tournaments. The list of games includes variations of Texas Hold’em and Stud Poker. The tournaments are scheduled, and any player over the legal gambling age can sign up and play to win the first-place prize.

*ïžâƒŁ Can I play blackjack at Casino Bad Reichenhall DE?

The Casino Bad Reichenhall games selection would not be complete without Blackjack tables. Check when the tables open and take a seat because everyone is invited to try their luck. Most players prefer to wager a few Euros, but there is a high-roller option where the bets can go up to 500€.

l’influence du poker dans l’art

Le poker est devenu un jeu si populaire dans la culture de nombreux pays qu’il n’est pas surprenant qu’il soit capable d’exercer une influence sur une grande variĂ©tĂ© de disciplines et d’activitĂ©s. Il est difficile de rencontrer quelqu’un sur cette planĂšte qui n’aurait jamais entendu parler du poker ou mĂȘme qui n’y aurait jamais jouĂ© ou du moins assistĂ© Ă  une partie au cours de sa vie. Et plus compliquĂ© encore serait de trouver une personne qui n’aurait jamais vu quelque chose liĂ©e d’une maniĂšre ou d’une autre au poker. L’expansion du poker online et des tournois de poker en ligne a aussi eu son importance pour dĂ©velopper le poker et l’introduire dans les foyers d’un grand nombre de personnes.

Le plus Ă©tonnant est que les cartes ont rĂ©ussi Ă  trouver leur place jusque dans les Ɠuvres d’art, et qu’elles ont eu une grande importance dans la carriĂšre de certains peintres trĂšs connus et d’autres qui le sont un peu moins. Sans chercher bien loin, il suffit de citer le sĂ©villan Diego VelĂĄzquez qui, au musĂ©e Dali de Figueres, dispose d’un hologramme d’une de ses Ɠuvres reprĂ©sentant des joueurs assis autour d’une table et jouant au poker. Bien qu’il soit impossible d’y identifier les mains de poker de chacun des personnages, il paraĂźt clair que le peintre espagnol a Ă©tĂ© marquĂ© par ce jeu lors de son passage aux États-Unis oĂč il s’imprĂ©gna de la culture de ce pays.

Passons maintenant du mondialement cĂ©lĂšbre VelĂĄzquez Ă  un qui l’était un peu moins : Cassius Marcellus Coolidge. L’artiste new-yorkais a dĂ» suivre une route tortueuse avant de pouvoir se dĂ©dier entiĂšrement Ă  la peinture, mais il laissa en chemin une sĂ©rie de peintures merveilleuses appelĂ©es « Chiens jouant au poker ». Cet ensemble de toiles est sans aucun doute l’Ɠuvre artistique la plus fameuse en relation avec le poker et, aussi bien aux Etats-Unis que dans le reste du monde, elle a eu de gigantesques rĂ©percussions. Il n’y aurait rien de surprenant Ă  avoir chez soi une reprĂ©sentation d’un de ces tableaux, bien qu’ils datent dĂ©jĂ  de plus d’un siĂšcle.

Celui que l’on connaissait sous le surnom de « Cash » peignit ces tableaux en 1894, dans l’idĂ©e de reprĂ©senter les goĂ»ts de la sociĂ©tĂ© nord-amĂ©ricaine de la fin du XIXĂšme siĂšcle et qui se poursuivront durant tout le XXĂšme siĂšcle. Le poker a fait forte impression dĂšs son arrivĂ©e sur le nouveau continent, et c’est aux USA qu’il se convertit en une vĂ©ritable religion, avec des hordes de joueurs talentueux essayant d’amĂ©liorer leurs capacitĂ©s et leurs stratĂ©gies au Texas Hold’em. La variante la plus connue et la plus populaire de cette discipline n’est Ă©trangement pas celle reprĂ©sentĂ©e dans les Chiens jouant au poker. Marcellus crĂ©a cette sĂ©rie de seize peintures, dont neuf sont Ă  l’huile, pour la campagne publicitaire d’une marque de cigarettes.

Le Draw Poker est le protagoniste de cette sĂ©rie de toiles, un jeu appartenant Ă  ces autres variantes de poker moins connues. Dans cette version, les joueurs disposent chacun de cinq cartes en main, et c’est avec celles-ci qu’ils devront rĂ©aliser la meilleure combinaison possible, Ă  quelques subtilitĂ©s prĂšs. C’est une maniĂšre de jouer qui est souvent considĂ©rĂ©e comme plus amateur et idĂ©ale pour les joueurs ne maĂźtrisant pas encore tous les codes du Texas Hold’em et du poker en gĂ©nĂ©ral. C’est une façon d’apprendre Ă  jouer au poker assez basique avant de passer ensuite Ă  des tactiques plus Ă©laborĂ©es.

Dans le tableau « A Bold Bluff », nous voyons comment un des chiens mise une grande quantitĂ© de jetons alors qu’il ne dispose que d’une paire de 2 tandis que le reste des convives le regardent avec incrĂ©dulitĂ©. Dans celui intitulĂ© « Waterloo », nous pouvons voir comment un des chiens est anĂ©anti de dĂ©couvrir qu’il aurait pu gagner la partie avec sa main s’il ne s’était pas couchĂ© juste avant. Et dans « A Friend in Need », nous observons un bouledogue donnant sous la table un As au chien Ă  ses cĂŽtĂ©s afin de complĂ©ter son carrĂ© d’As, la reprĂ©sentation-mĂȘme de la triche (premiĂšre image).

Le carrĂ© d’As apparaĂźt aussi dans « Pinched with Four Aces » quand un des chiens, dĂ©tenteur de ce carrĂ©, parvient Ă  en battre un autre qui semble alors se retirer de son siĂšge. Et sans aucun doute les plus sĂ©rieux, dans cette sĂ©rie qui a plutĂŽt tendance Ă  tendre vers le comique, sont « Poker Sympathy » et « Stranger in Camp » oĂč nous voyons comment un carrĂ© d’As est neutralisĂ© par la quinte flush de son adversaire (image ci-dessus). Tout comme « His Station and Four Aces » oĂč tous les chiens sont assis autour de la table avec des habits rappelant les mafias nord-amĂ©ricaines de l’époque, car ce n’était pas qu’au poker que Cash souhaitait faire rĂ©fĂ©rence.

Les Chiens jouant au poker sont devenus si fameux qu’ils sont apparus dans de nombreux films, sĂ©ries tĂ©lĂ©visĂ©es et dessins animĂ©s. Dans des comics de Marvel, il est possible de trouver des cases qui sont directement inspirĂ©es des tableaux de Coolidge, si ce n’est que les chiens sont ici remplacĂ©s par des super-hĂ©ros. Dans Snoopy aussi, on peut voir le personnage principal jouer au poker autour d’une table avec ses amis. Tandis que dans Les Simpson, non seulement le chien de la famille apparaĂźt dans une scĂšne en train de jouer avec des collĂšgues canins (image ci-dessous), mais en plus un tableau de Chiens jouant au poker apparaĂźt aussi dans un Ă©pisode spĂ©cial d’Halloween.

Le poker a donc rĂ©ussi Ă  trouver sa place dans l’art, dĂ©montrant que ce jeu est, en lui-mĂȘme, un art Ă  part entiĂšre.

Psikologi dalam Kehadiran Poker & Meja

Sekitar 31 tahun yang lalu, saya ingat dengan jelas diberitahu bahwa saya harus pergi tidur dan bahwa orang dewasa (dan sepupu saya yang lebih tua) akan memainkan permainan bridge yang serius. Saya mengamuk dan pergi ke kamar sambil menangis.

Saya berusia lima tahun, dan tidak dapat memahami mengapa saya tidak diizinkan untuk begadang, sementara sepupu saya yang berusia tujuh dan sembilan tahun diizinkan untuk bergabung dengan orang dewasa di meja kartu. Meskipun usia saya masih muda dan berjuang untuk mempertahankan 13 kartu, saya telah mempelajari aturan bridge dan sudah memiliki keahlian dalam permainan kartu.

Musim panas berikutnya, dan di semua musim panas berikutnya, saya diberi kesempatan untuk berpartisipasi dalam permainan jembatan itu. Seiring waktu, saya mendapatkan reputasi dalam keluarga sebagai salah satu pemain yang lebih agresif. Sebagai jembatan, tim yang berhasil menjadi tunas dan mencapai grand slam atau slam kecil (di mana Anda dan pasangan Anda memenangkan semua atau hampir semua 13 ‘trik’) diberikan sejumlah besar poin.

Meskipun ada hukuman karena gagal beralih ke slam, saya sering percaya bahwa potensi imbalannya lebih besar daripada risikonya, yang membuat anggota keluarga yang lebih berhati-hati kecewa. Maka, lahirlah seorang penjudi.

SEORANG PENJUDI LAHIR

Alex Livingston dengan keluarganya berpegangan tangan

Tumbuh dewasa, bermain bridge selama berjam-jam setiap musim panas dan berkompetisi dalam turnamen catur nasional memainkan peran penting dalam membentuk identitas masa kecil saya.

“Sebelum menganggap diri saya sebagai pemain poker, saya mengidentifikasi diri sebagai pemain kartu, dan bahkan sebelum itu, saya melihat diri saya sebagai pencinta permainan. Saya selalu tertarik pada game yang melibatkan pemikiran strategis, dan yang paling membuat saya terpesona adalah aspek psikologis dari game tersebut.”

Saat bermain bridge, saya menemukan diri saya sama tertariknya, jika tidak lebih, dengan mengamati bagaimana lawan saya bermain dan gaya unik mereka, daripada hanya berfokus pada teori permainan konvensional. Meskipun membaca buku tentang teori jembatan cenderung membuat saya bosan, saya tidak pernah bosan mendiskusikan gerakan potensial dengan rekan satu tim atau lawan saya.

Saya terus berusaha memahami perspektif dan alasan mereka, selalu ingin tahu tentang pendekatan apa yang akan mereka ambil dalam situasi tertentu. Misalnya, saya sering merenungkan mengapa bibi Laura tidak memilih opsi kemahiran ketika tindakan agresif diperlukan.

Ketika saya menemukan poker bertahun-tahun kemudian, keingintahuan psikologis ini berperan dalam cara saya mendekati permainan. Saya selalu terpesona oleh outlier permainan, pemain yang tidak mungkin ketatatau tidak mungkin longgar – mereka yang tampaknya benar-benar mengabaikan kesadaran posisi, dan mereka yang sangat berhati-hati kemungkinan besar dibentuk oleh faktor-faktor yang ada dalam hidup mereka bahkan sebelum mereka belajar cara bermain kartu.

Saya selalu mencoba untuk memahami dan menilai seseorang terlebih dahulu, dari perspektif kemanusiaan mereka, dan kemudian mencari tahu bagaimana “tipe karakter” itu akan bermain kartu.

Pertumbuhan Permainan

Beberapa faktor telah berkontribusi pada lonjakan popularitas poker langsung baru-baru ini dalam beberapa tahun terakhir. Faktor penting pertama adalah rasa bosan yang banyak dialami selama pandemi Covid-19. Selain itu, kemunculan streamer poker dan ketersediaan game streaming dengan taruhan tinggi telah menarik perhatian para penggemar.

Selain itu, operator poker telah terlibat dalam persaingan yang ketat, berusaha untuk menawarkan rangkaian turnamen yang unggul dengan hadiah yang dijamin lebih besar. Perlu juga mempertimbangkan pengaruh dari crypto booming, yang telah memberi pemain profesional dan rekreasi sarana keuangan yang meningkat.

Sebagai hasil dari ledakan poker ini dan proliferasi permainan di saluran media sosial, ada banyak diskusi seputar peran pemain profesional dalam menciptakan suasana meja yang menyenangkan. Mereka diharapkan memiliki kehadiran meja yang positif, terlibat dalam aksi, bermain dengan kecepatan tinggi, memiliki keterampilan percakapan yang baik, dan berkontribusi pada dinamika sosial permainan secara keseluruhan.

PERMAINAN SOSIAL Poker

Alex Livingston tertawa bersama Dario di Main Event Table

Sementara banyak yang berpendapat bahwa kualitas-kualitas ini sangat penting untuk pertumbuhan poker jangka panjang, yang lain berpendapat bahwa poker adalah permainan zero-sum, bahwa tidak semua kepribadian tertarik pada obrolan ringan atau bersosialisasi di meja, bahwa beberapa orang (termasuk profesional) membutuhkan lebih banyak waktu untuk berpikir, atau bahkan banyak profesional yang bersosialisasi dan memberikan tindakan sebenarnya palsu dan / atau manipulatif.

Sebagai seseorang yang selalu tertarik pada aspek sosial dan psikologis permainan, saya pasti berada di kubu yang percaya bahwa membuat permainan lebih menyenangkan (apa pun artinya bagi Anda) akan membuat poker lebih baik dalam jangka panjang.

“Bagi saya, tujuan jangka panjang saya tentu saja mencari nafkah dengan bermain game, tetapi saya lebih suka menikmati lingkungan saya saat melakukannya.”

Ini tidak berarti saya pikir setiap profesional memiliki tanggung jawab di arena ini – dan saya tahu bahwa untuk beberapa introvert atau mereka yang berasal dari latar belakang online, sebagian besar dari ini tidak akan datang dengan sendirinya. Setidaknya bagi saya, saya menemukan bahwa memberikan tindakan dan memiliki kepribadian yang ramah di meja adalah sama-sama menguntungkan. Bagi banyak orang nonprofesional, mereka tidak berharap menang dalam jangka panjang, dan salah satu tujuan utama mereka adalah bersenang-senang.

Bagaimana saya berhasil Memasukkan Psikologi di Poker

Kenikmatan inti terletak pada berpartisipasi dalam permainan di mana pemain tidak hanya terlibat dalam gameplay tetapi juga secara aktif membina suasana sosial yang penuh dengan tawa dan persahabatan. Terlepas dari investasi finansial saya dalam permainan, saya menemukan kepuasan besar dalam tindakan bersosialisasi.

Selain itu, dari sudut pandang strategis, alasan terbesar saya menikmati jenis permainan ini adalah memungkinkan saya untuk memanfaatkan dan mengembangkan apa yang saya anggap sebagai bagian terkuat dari permainan saya – pemahaman psikologis saya, dan kemampuan saya untuk menyesuaikan diri dengan tipe lawan yang berbeda.

Dengan melibatkan lawan saya dalam percakapan tentang kehidupan sehari-hari mereka, mendorong batas mereka dengan 3 taruhan berturut-turut, dan menggunakan berbagai teknik ukuran taruhan seperti taruhan rendah dan taruhan berlebihan, serta menampilkan tebing dan tangan yang kuat, saya dapat secara efektif mengekstraksi informasi berharga dari reaksi mereka.

Saya selalu terbuka untuk mengungkapkan banyak tentang gaya bermain saya sendiri selama satu tangan, menaruh kepercayaan pada kemampuan saya untuk menyesuaikan diri dengan cepat atau memanfaatkan informasi yang diperoleh untuk keuntungan saya.

Pelajaran Hidup Dari Meja Poker

Saya memahami dan menghargai bahwa beberapa profesional tidak akan merasa seperti ini, dan mereka memiliki hak untuk bermain dengan cara mereka sendiri dan berperilaku di meja. Tetapi sementara saya secara pribadi membenci politik permainan pribadi, saya juga memahami alasan mengapa uang tunai bergerak ke arah itu, seolah-olah saya adalah pemain yang kalah, saya setidaknya ingin bersenang-senang dengan kerumunan yang bersama saya.

Bersandar pada aspek psikologis permainan dan menyadari sisi-sisi yang dapat diperoleh hanya dengan memahami kepribadian lawan Anda dengan lebih baik dapat melayani tujuan meningkatkan tingkat kemenangan Anda dan membuat lingkungan di meja lebih menyenangkan bagi semua orang.

Lihat pemikiran Alex tentang dunia poker setelah menempati posisi ke-3 di Acara Utama WSOP 2019:

Kesimpulan

Sebagai seseorang yang dibesarkan dalam permainan kartu, saya mengembangkan daya tarik untuk gaya dan pendekatan yang unik dari sesama pemain. Keingintahuan ini terbawa ke poker, di mana saya menemukan pentingnya memahami lawan di level yang lebih dalam. Saya sangat percaya bahwa membina lingkungan yang menyenangkan dan menarik dapat berkontribusi pada pertumbuhan jangka panjang dan kenikmatan poker.