I’ve read my fair share of poker websites, poker blogs and poker journals.  Ice-cold Poker is written by Sub-zero a poker pro from the United Kingdom.  I enjoyed the posts and the different perspective from somoene that shares the same passion for the game of poker, yet lives in a completely different country.

Most of the posts start with a quote from someoene famous – I like that approach it gets you thinking about life!  Which reminds me I must get a book of quotes so that I can use some from time to time.  Good one!!! Sub-zero keep it up, awesome poker journal, a bit chilly but I warmed to it after a while.  Really enjoy your posts describing your poker experiences.  Coming from a poker pro… they are very informative for the general poker public out there, trying to improve their game all the time.

Its High Stakes poker time again, down at the Golden Nugget.  An eagle feather brought protection, and boy did Barry Greenstein need it.  Half a million in the pot (the second biggest pot in the history of High Stakes poker), Greenstein and Tom Dwan go head to head, they decide to go all in.

Dwan has a pair of aces and thinks he has the hand.  Greenstein goes with a gut feeling that he can win it.  He admits after the game that mathematically Dwan was favored to win, but he goes with his gut feel, gets a lucky nine on the turn and manages to pull it off with two pair – jacks and nines.  Against a pair of aces (Dwan didn’t get lucky and was not able to add to his starting hand), thats brave poker play, even with an eagle feather to protect you.

“Aces over rated Doyle…”, not sure if it was a statement or a question from Elezra.

“Nice hand….”, whinces Dwan… ouch that has to hurt!

“Math is idiotic” is what he says not only to raise funds for the children’s charity – Children Incorporated, but also because sometimes in poker, math is idiotic.  So if you’re feeling generous and want to give to a good cause, go to the site and just send 20 bucks to their charity drive.

The saying, “math is idiotic”, comes from his son Joe who says he is a ‘feel player’, he doesn’t pay attention to the math, if he feels its right he does it!

Not sure that I would personally endorse the saying “math is idiotic”, I prefer to learn my poker odds and take no chances.

Either which way, watch the clip it sure is entertaining poker play!

Had an interesting texas holdem poker hand, play out the other day, which I thought was worth talking about…

Got a six, eight suited in my started hand, which made me sit up and think hello, lets see how this works out…

I guessed one other player had a pair at best, but would they get more???  Now what do you do in this situation?  Most times you have to go for the straight or flush, if you’ve got two in your hand already.  It depends on how the rest of the cards come and how this either favors you or the other players.

Flop helped me out for a change and I managed to get my straight with a lucky river card, but it was pretty touch and go for most of the time… A hand like that pushes you to the end and makes you commit chips!  There was no way I was backing out, so I got lucky!

There was some great excitement in Spain.

Some delegates of the EiG Expo in Barcelona were raided by the Spanish police right in the middle of the land poker tournament.  The tournament turned out to be illegal due to some changes in the Catalan laws.

Though no one was arrested in the case, the Spanish police confiscated all of the poker equipment used for the tournment.

The EiG conference and Expo takes place in Barcelona on a regular basis.  This time it was a real hit, although if you were a poker player in the tournament, you may not have thought so.  Its probably best to check with the officials first, or at least be up to date with the laws of each particular country!

Lots of representatives of online casinos and poker gambling sites made the trek to the Spanish city to see exhibitions, witness new product launches and take part in discussions.  Little did they know that there would be some extra entertainment on the side!

The situation with the poker tourney being illegal, was explained as a matter of mis-communication.  The tournament organizers are reported to have been unaware of the law change.

If you wish to play poker effectively and win, you should set an aim for yourself every time you sit at the table.  Unfortunately, the majority of players focus on money, rather than on their game strategy.

It is nearly impossible to base your aim on winning lots of money, because of the continuous swings in any poker game it is really difficult to have the game under your control.  When you see that you are losing, you are try to win your money back as fast as possible without thinking of the way you’re playing.

Actually, the best thing you should do is to practice consistent playing – consistency should be your major aim.  If you think of how much money you’re going to win or whether fortune will smile on you in the session, you won’t get a favorable result.  It is better to be consistent in your game and benefit over the long run.

Consistency is among the characteristics that distinguish winning players.  To play with good cards doesn’t need much skill.  But, all your abilities in the game of poker become apparent when you are playing bad cards or you are in a bad patch.  In any case a gambler must mobilize his/her forces around his/her strategy and play the best game of poker possible, given the cards that they have.

At times even a beginner can play like a pro, but without consistency they won’t go far.  When their hands are good they win lots of money, but when their cards turn bad they lose.  This often happens with online players, since it is very easy to blow in virtual chips.  To learn to play with consistency, you need to manage your play like a businessman. Think about your money like an investor who treats his finances carefully and wisely.  Resulting in maximum profit for his investments.  In poker like in business you must always have enough funds to cover your expenses. With wise usage of your funds you should not worry about the bad beats or any unsteadiness. And, then you’ll be able to concentrate only on your play.

Playing consistently is certain not to give you a hundred per cent victory, though it is sure to increase your chances to be a winner against less consistent or inconsistent opponents.

Happy New Year everyone, good luck and good cards for 2009!

My good friend Sam, pulled me aside at our New Year’s gathering, and wanted to know more about Omaha poker. He had started out playing Texas Holdem a year ago. Then, last month he decided that he needed a new challenge so he switched to Omaha. He was getting knocked down…

“Mike, I don’t get it, what is a good starting hand in Omaha?” he asked. “I used to make a bit of money playing Holdem, but I’m getting slaughtered at Omaha”.

Players that are converting to Omaha, often forget that the four hole cards have a huge affect on the odds. There are a lot more cards in play, so there are a lot more chances of making winning hands. The difference between a good hand and a weak hand is much smaller in Omaha compared with Texas Holdem poker.

So to answer Sam’s question – take a look at my website if you want to know a good starting hand. But don’t put too much emphasis on starting hands because a seemingly weak hand before the flop, can very quickly turn into a winning hand.

Starting out at Omaha is tough, you get knocked down often. But hang in there because once you get the hang of it there are rich rewards. Good Omaha players take advantage of weaker players after the flop.

Phew we had a heated game last night.  I was playing in one of my favourite little places where I like to sneak-off for a game once in a while.  I usually play with some of the regulars that I know fairly well and I suppose you can count me in as a regular, although I don’t go there all the time.  Its one of those places where you just feel comfortable and the level of play is within your limits.  We’ve got to know each other over the years and I can pretty much second guess all of their moves – last night was different!

It started off quiet, I had a few average hands but nothing special.  Then around midnight, Will, or “Wicked William” as I will now refer to him from now on, starts upping the game.  Totally out of character, Will is usually a conservative player that doesn’t take too many chances.  Well our friend, Will starts with some “all-in” betting.

“What are you doing?” was the reply from us (actually the choice of language was worse than this, but I will keep it clean for the sake of the blog…).

“I’ve got an All in poker hand” says Wicked Will. 

“Yes whatever, big fella,” came the reply.  “Lets see what you really have?”

Whereupon Will cleaned the table.  And he did it three times last night!  Luckily I didn’t commit myself too much and I managed to not lose too much, but some of the other players were not so lucky.

After threatening “Wicked Will” with his life…it turns out he has found some great tips from this website, all in poker hand, he’s been using their software and it’s improved his game.  I can’t promise you anything, and I still think he got lucky (maybe I’m just a sore loser), but it worked for “Wicked Will”.  Some of their stuff looks really useful, odds calculators you may have seen before, but these odds calculators look interesting.  I liked their coaching software and I think this is what changed Will’s game and gave him the edge.

Some useful tools like these can really up your game.  Seemed to work for Will.  And now his investment is paid for….hmmmm

Many players don’t understand that Texas Hold’em Poker like other casino games is a game of of math. Understanding the math of the game is very important to playing winning poker in a casino. You can have the identical hand and one time it will be correct to call and the next time it will be correct to fold. How can that be? The answer is the pot odds ? what any experienced online casino poker player uses.

Poker players get their money in the pot when the pot odds justify making the call and pass when the money in the pot is not enough to call. The relationship between the amount of money in the pot and the cost of calling a bet is known as Pot Odds.

Many low limit and higher limit Texas Hold’em players have no concept of pot odds and how it can affect their profitability. They only look at their two cards to see if there is a chance that they could win. They don’t understand the reasoning for playing drawing hands against a large field of opponents. Some hands that are profitable against many players will be a loser or break-even hand with fewer players in the hand.

Omaha is a game that appears very similar to Texas hold’em, but in fact is quite different. The additional two cards and the restriction that players can only use three board cards creates an entire new array of strategies relevant to Omaha. A beginner who assumes that Omaha and Texas hold’em are essentially the same game is headed for disaster.

Omaha is Not Hold’em: Bluffing

One mistake that players comparing hold’em to Omaha make regards bluffing. While bluffing in limit hold’em is difficult because of the fixed betting limits, bluffing in Omaha is that much harder. The reason for this is that with so many cards in play, someone usually has the nuts or close to it by the river. If you move all-in in a pot-limit Omaha game on the river and someone doesn’t have the nuts, you’ll probably win that pot. Unfortunately, unlike in hold’em, if you’re facing two or three opponents at the end, one of them probably does hold that boss hand.

Omaha is Not Hold’em: Position

While position is important in Omaha, trying to manipulate the table so that loose players are on your right and tight ones on your left, as you might do in hold’em, is more trouble than it’s worth. It will be easy to see from the flop whether it is worthwhile for you to continue with the hand, so knowing what your loose player will do, while important, is not nearly so important as it is in a game like no-limit hold’em.

Omaha is Not Hold’em: Results

If your Omaha results are not as good as your hold’em results, there has got to be a reason. Ask yourself what elements of strategy you are bringing over from your Texas hold’em games and if they really apply to Omaha. If they do not, you’ll want to lose those ideas and replace them with ones that are more Omaha specific.