All this talk of cutting back and retrenching has got everyone in jitters… understandably… this is people’s lives we are talking about!

Everywhere you look there is someone talking about cut backs, which is not surprising after all the excess of the past few years, actually if we really think about it has not just been the last few years, but a long extended spell of the good life.  Now we have to just buckle down, accept the situation and get on with having less.

Whilst I realize that companies are not earning as much, due to reduced sales and turnover – so they have to cut back on spending to reduce cost and prevent overall loses.  It makes sense to cut back on expenses, but one of the first things that they look at is getting rid of people.

What I can’t understand is why did they hire the extra people in the first place?

Do these same companies ask themselves why they are not selling as many products?  Why do people not want our stuff?  Is it too expensive?  Are there better substitutes?

Let’s take Ford Motor Company as an example…they have just reported a $14.6 billion loss for the year…. Wow…. that’s huge.  Does anyone know just how much $14.6 billion is?  That’s like the entire budget of a small city!!!  And these guys running Ford have made a loss that big!!!!

Do they ask themselves why people don’t like our cars?  Do they do anything about changing and adapting to give the consumer what they want?  I’m not sure, but they are very quick to announce cut backs and reductions in staff.

Same goes for the government, members of Congress do they listen to what the majority of their voters want?  We want to play online poker and not feel like we are committing a criminal act!

Anything wrong with that request?

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.

The online casino game development has been incredible over the past few years.  If I think back to the earlier days of online poker and what it has become today, the change and rate of change has been outstanding.

Online casinos have popped up everywhere, one of the biggest problems that users have, is which one to choose.  A good place to start your search is Microgaming Casino Company, they launched their first internet casino way back in 1994, so they know their stuff.  And now, they have grown to over 100 gaming casinos and 40 online poker rooms – quite incredible growth.

But what I like about the Microgaming Casinos Company is that you have a great choice of casino games in one place.  Together with reviews and promotions, so you don’t have to spend hours searching the web, it is all in one place.

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

I was really interested in what my young nephew had to say about online directories.  As I have so often wasted time whilst being led down the wrong path, during my “online quest” for something and then spent ages, desperately clicking away in pursuit of my elusive prey.  Once he had stopped teasing me, we had a really informative discussion around the topic.  I will think about removing the “Know-it-all” title, pehaps I was a bit harsh on the little fellow (who is now taller than me…).

I wanted to know if it could work the other way round - if you could list your business in a directory.  And of course you can.  The best move is to submit your site at a Free Submission Directory.  Well what a great way to advertise your business, at no extra cost.

And, its also a great place to find new poker sites.  To network in our networked world!

So now I have a new tactic to save time during this year’s “online quests” – online directories.

So there I was sitting at the Christmas table, talking away about how long it took me to search for gifts.  When my know-it-all young nephew, interupts with, “Uncle Mike why didn’t you try an online directory?”

“A what?” says Uncle Mike, who thought he knew it all…

“A web directory, like DMegs for example, gives you a great way to search for top sites and blogs”, says the young know-it-all with a smirk on his face.  Lucky for him he was on the otherside of the table and out of striking distance!  They start out small and child-like and then suddenly at the next Chrstmas they are taller than you and know more than you.

Anyway I did check out the web directory and the infuriating thing is that he was right, it is a great place to start looking and to narrow down your search topic.  It also has an incredibly wide range of topics – and on the ”latest sites” page there was a review of the latest top online poker sites.  So they must have their priorities right!

Whenever you sign up for a rakeback deal, there are a few factors that you need to assess in order to determine the true value of the deal. While there are countless articles out there about how to assess sign-up bonuses, the same cannot be said about rakeback deals. Not all rakeback deals are the same. The same deal will yield very nice revenue for one type of player, and not be nearly as profitable for another guy.

A rakeback deal’s value should always be sought in the way the poker room in question calculates rakeback. Sure, whether or not the sign-up bonus is subtracted from rakeback also matters, but in the long run, the method used to calculate rakeback is much more important. Here are the different types of methods used by poker rooms to determine a player’s Monthly Gross Revenue or MGR (rakeback is directly dependent on MGR, so rakeback will be calculated in the same way as MGR – depending on which deal you chose).

The dealt rake method takes the total value of the rake taken off a given pot and distributes it equally among all those players who have been dealt into the hand. This way, you’ll be amassing MGR and you’ll be earning rakeback even on hands that you do not generate rake on. This method offers a quaint advantage to tight-passive players who do not like putting money into the pot, while it seriously undermines the efforts of a loose-aggressive, action junkie who ends up generating rakeback revenue for his/her opponents.

The contributed rake method is a little more accurate in determining exactly who contributes money to the pot. The rake is still divided equally, this time however only those who have actively played the hand (put money into the pot) will be eligible for MGR allotment. This rake calculation method eliminates the advantages the dealt method provided for “rocks”. Loose aggressive players will still end up generating MGR for others though.

The weighted contributed rake method is the only one which is truly “fair”. It only allots rake contribution to those who put money into the pot, and it considers how much money each of these guys actually drop. If they put more money into the pot they’ll get more MGR, if they do not put money into the pot, they get zilch. This way, loose aggressive players will only generate MGR for themselves, the same way everyone will be fully responsible for their own MGR.

Of course, the rakeback percentage offered is also important in the assessment of a deal, but make sure you check the rake calculation method and hold it more important because you may get a nice percentage on a deal which you just cannot get rolling.

Ultra-high rakeback percentages usually come with poker prop deals, but these carry far more obligations for a player than any regular rakeback deal.

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.