Poker Strategy

Poker Tips and Tactics

It’s been said that poker is easy to learn but hard to master. Mastering any poker game is a fun and challenging goal. In the poker strategy section, you will find many resources to help you become a winning poker player. This page features general poker advice and strategy as well as links to poker strategy and tips for other poker games.

The basics of solid poker strategy involve many concepts that you must combine to become a consistently winning player. The following concepts are crucial to learning poker strategy:

• Tight play
• Aggressive play
• Random play
• Taking advantage of opponents’ mistakes

Keep these concepts in mind as you develop as a poker player. These strategic concepts are like the colors on an artist’s palette: the basic colors are the same, but the artist’s use of them is unique and stylistic.

Some Poker Strategy Considerations

Decisions for the New Poker Player

Decide whether you want to play poker to win or to play for fun. To play at a consistently winning level requires both time and effort. In other words, it takes work. There is nothing wrong with playing poker for fun, but there is no reason to plan to lose, even when you are playing for fun. However, deciding which type of poker player you want to be before you start will make your decisions and sessions easier.

Make Good Decisions – the Results Will Follow

Even the best poker players in the world have losing sessions. Don't make the mistake of expecting to win every time you play. Your goal should be to play to the best of your ability in every session. If you do, the cards and winnings will take care of themselves as you improve.

Many players make the mistake of judging their poker playing ability based on the results of each session. Your goal should be to make the best possible play every time. The closer you come to this, the better your results will be.

The Mathematics of Poker

Poker is a mathematical game, and it’s a game of incomplete information. That may sound complicated, but it really isn't. On a very basic level, winning poker starts with the selection of which starting hands to play. If you enter the pot with the best hand more often than your opponents do, you will win more times than your opponents.

Beyond Starting Hands

Starting hand selection is fundamentally important, but it’s only one piece of the poker strategy puzzle. Once you have mastered solid starting hand guidelines and understand how they change by your position at the table, the next area you should work on is your play for the rest of the hand. The area that separates professional players from amateurs is that professional players tend to play much better than their opponents during the remainder of the hand, after the starting hand decisions are made.

This is especially true concerning the decisions made at the very end of every hand. These skills involve calculating pot odds, recognizing betting patterns, bluffing, and using position. The years of practice necessary to master the middle and end game play are well worth the effort, because even small improvements in a player’s abilities can have a tremendous effect on that player’s lifetime winnings.

Avoiding Tilt

Another meta-skill that should be part of a winning player’s poker strategy is avoiding tilt. Your opponents will use your emotions against you, but only if you let them. Emotional play results in poor decisions and lost money. Tilting and steaming can happen to anyone, and sometimes the only cure is a break from the game. That’s okay; the game will still be there ten minutes from now. In fact, it will still be there tomorrow.

Sportsbook Poker

Summary of Sportsbook PokerSportsbook is an established online sports book and casino operator. Their poker room, however, was launched only a few years ago on the Cake Poker network. In 2010, it took all its players and moved to the Merge Gaming network, instantly improving the player volume there. In Texas Hold’em, most levels have good "liquidity" with cash games running 24/7 and a tournament section with lots of players.
This is one of the few poker sites that still accept US players after the stricter legislation (except for certain states.)
Sportsbook Poker recruits a fair share of its players from their casino and sports book, resulting in many inexperienced players at the tables. The games are often loose and passive. The deposit and withdrawal options have been enhanced to normal industry standards. Remember though, that some e-wallets do not accept US players.
For in depth information about the site, here’s a full Sportsbook Poker review.

Promotions and Bonus Information

If you prefer tournaments, Sportsbook Poker has great variety on offer. In fact it's one of the best poker rooms in this aspect, with over $5 million every month in guaranteed prize pools. It is also known for its WSOP giveaway promotions, giving players the chance to win a seat in the Main Event for free. If you want to avoid the crowds at the freeroll satellites, it’s also possible to qualify through $10 buy-in sit-and-gos.
Also, don’t forget to take advantage of the generous Sportsbook sign-up bonus. To get our exclusive bonus offer, please use this Spotsbook Poker bonus code when signing up: PJ1000PK
There are lots of special tournaments and player points can be converted into cash prizes, loyal players can participate in recurring sweepstakes and Sportsbook Poker players get to play a monthly $100,000 freeroll – very good value!

Poker Traffic

The Merge Gaming network has grown fast since launch, but remained one of the smaller networks until Sportsbook and PlayersOnly moved in. At Sportsbook Poker US players are allowed and during American peak hours (usually around 7 PM PT) there are always ring-games available at most levels and the tournaments are very well visited.

Software & Graphics

After moving to Merge Gaming, Sportsbook Poker moved from one of the least attractive poker clients in the business (Cake Poker) to the latest and most up-to-date solution available. It's a basic but highly usable poker client with all the features you expect from an online poker room.
The old ugly avatars are gone - instead you get a minimalistic but efficient overview of all the action. You also have the option to upload an avatar image to represent you at the table, much like PokerStars and others.
Overall, the Sportsbook Poker download software runs very smoothly. The in-game statistics provided are very comprehensive and useful, as are the instant hand history function. You have the opportunity to take notes on your opponents during play, and all the hand histories can be exported to Poker Tracker and similar statistics tools.

Game Variety

The poker variations offered at Sportsbook Poker include: Texas Holdem, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, 7-Card Stud, 7-Card stud Hi/Lo, 5-Card Stud, Razz, 5-card Draw, Triple Draw, Badugi and several mixed games. In other words - there are lots of options, but the less common games are not always populated. Most of the traffic is found in the Holdem and Omaha games as expected.

Several daily tournaments with substantial guaranteed prize pools - sometimes with added value - are held at Sportsbook Poker, and there is always action to be found in the sit-and-go section. There are satellites to big live tournaments, such as the Irish Open, with buy-ins starting at $5, and a really exciting invention: cash game qualifiers!

Unfortunately, all multi-table tournaments are played out in Texas Holdem. Also no big problem for most players.

More About

Since its start in 1996, Sportsbook.com has been a leading player in the online gaming industry. Twice has it been named the "Best US Sports Book" by eGaming Review (2005 and 2006).

Sportsbook has set most industry records that you can imagine, from largest turnover to most active users and highest number of bets made – at fifteen bets per second! The company has been talked of on CBS 60 Minutes, CNN, ESPN, Wall Street Journal etc.

Huge numbers of people come to Sportsbook to bet on sports or horses, play poker or enjoy the thrill of blackjack and other casino games.

The latest craze is called Fantasy Sports (or owner simulation). Participants pick line-ups of players in various real-life sports and accumulate points depending on the players’ real-life performance.

Twenty million Americans join in this new fun, competing for bragging rights or even cash.

Poker Game

At PokerStars, you can enjoy all of your favorite poker games with thousands of other players twenty-four hours a day. The greatest benefit to you is that you can always find full tables in any game at just about any limit you want to play.

Here is a list of the poker games available at Poker Stars.

Texas Holdem Poker Games

Available in limit, pot limit and no limit action, Texas Holdem is the game that our three World Series champions were playing when they won the crown. By far the most popular game in today's poker world, we have hundreds of ring game tables running right now as well as hundreds of tournaments every week.

Omaha Poker

Omaha Holdem is similar to Texas Holdem in some ways, but the players receive additional hole cards, and the hand must consist of 2 and exactly 2 cards from the players' hole cards and 3 and exactly 3 cards from the board. (As opposed to Texas Holdem, where the hands can consist of any combination of board and hole cards.)

Omaha High

Omaha High poker is a popular variation of poker in the European nations, especially in pot limit action. PokerStars offers Omaha in both limit and pot limit for all of our players around the world.

Omaha Hi/Lo Poker

Arguably the second most popular poker game in the world today, Omaha Hi/Lo, or Omaha Eight, is offered in limit, pot limit and no limit action.

Seven Card Stud Games

Until the recent surge in popularity of Texas Holdem, Seven Card Stud was the most popular poker game played for many years. You can still find plenty of options at the Seven Card Stud tables at PokerStars, available in a wide range of limits.

Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo Poker

The split pot version of Seven Card Stud, Hi/Lo offers a unique twist to this classic game. Available in limit action, if you like Seven Card Stud or Omaha Hi/Lo, look into the Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo tables.

Also be sure to check out our Poker Game Rules and Poker Hand Ranks if you have any questions about how any of the above poker games are played.

Razz (7 Card Stud Low)

If you think you can never make a hand, Razz is the game for you. This version of seven-card lowball allows you to shoot for the absolute worst hand and still win.

HORSE & 8-Game Mix (Mixed games)

HORSE (Hold'em, Omaha, Razz, Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud Eight-or- Better) is the collection of games that allows you to prove how well-rounded a poker player you are. If you get bored playing one game all the time, try out HORSE to round out your skills. We also offer 8-Game Mix, which is the same as HORSE, but also includes rounds of No Limit Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha and 2-7 Triple Draw.

Five Card Draw

Five Card Draw is the game most people grew up playing around their kitchen table. This classic game will get you back to your poker roots and maybe make you some money in the process.

2-7 Triple & Single Draw

Deuce to Seven Triple Draw and Deuce to Seven Single Draw are lowball games that force you to make the worst possible low hand.

Badugi

Badugi is a form of draw poker, where the object of the game is to make the best low hand from the four cards you are dealt.

Need for Speed: Shift

Green light, full throttle!

After since Need for Speed: Underground Tuning and lapping at the forefront of NfS were series, the series goes to Need for Speed: Undercover back to the more or less worthy tracks. Normal road cars and expensive Edelkarossen measured from now on on closed tracks, always on known locations. To compete in a race to the more or less normal weighing need to be revamped anyway.

Voyage Puzzle

Discover the amazing beauty of the world's most famous sights with a new original match3 game.

Street Fighter IV

Martial Arts 

 
What really brutal sounds, is a championship fighter. No particular fighting style, everything is permitted. Thus, the participants fight in a suspicious event. Many well-known participants are obviously passionate about it as Ken, Ryu, Blanka, Abel, Seth and Mr. Bison, but also expand the repertoire of new fighters, such as spherical but nimble Rufus. This is not the story the main element - it comes through sequences for each character at the beginning and end of the tournament more like a bonus encore so - but the martial Kloppereien.

The Sims 3

The family problems going into the third round of The Sims pull back in and the neighborhood will open. Where there was an addon needs of the Sims are already in the main program has become mobile. The most impressive new feature is that the Sims now its time not only at home or spend unattended at work, but them the world ... the neighborhood is your oyster. Be it a trip to the beach or a short shopping trip, a visit to the cinema or a picnic in the park
No load time separates the public meeting of your own home. Accessible by either car or walking the Sims every point in their little town and there are certainly many ways how to kill time after work. A visit to the stadium - a concert or football game ever guest appearance in the village - or training courses or even a fishing trip. While the work may be seen the Sims still is not.