Question #1: an awful player just gave you an horrible bad beat online. He took a monster pot when he caught a runner-runner to make a flush with his 7-3 of hearts, cracking your pocket kings. Do you:

A) Type “NH” in the chatbox and let it go, secure that your superior play will get the money in the long run, grateful to have such bad players in your game.

B) Type “NH” in the chatbox while screaming a string of colorful expletives at your computer screen, which if your opponent could hear, would cause him to passionately defend the virtue of his mother.

C) Keep playing in this game much longer than you ever wanted for no other reason than you desperately want to “get back” at the player who sucked out on you.

D) Quit the game, immediately close out your account, and tell everyone who will listen that this particular poker website is rigged against you.

Question #2: you’ve had a very bad session. It started out with a series of horrendous beats and then got even worse. Somehow you’ve hung in there, and after many hours you’re almost back even. Now you’re tired, hungry, and supposed to meet a friend for dinner in thirty minutes. If you leave now you will have just enough time to make it. Do you:

A) Quit and go meet your friend knowing that the game will still be there tomorrow.

B) Tell yourself, “Just one more hand,” then leave forty minutes later, hoping that your friend won’t mind too much when you show up late.

C) Tell yourself, “Just one more hand,” then leave three hours later, calling your friend and making up some lame excuse why you couldn’t make it.

D) Forget about your friend, forget about eating, forget about everything except camping out at this game, determined not to leave until you’ve won all your money back – even if it means losing all your money.

Answer: If you have answered A to both questions, well done, you have a lot of potential as a poker player. If B, you are still OK. You know how to control your emotions but sometimes they still manage to resurface. If you said C, you cannot make money at online poker. For D, forget it, and go first visit a psychiatrist.

The fact that a poker site is happy to dish out bonuses should go a long way to actually convincing people of how good the site is. After all, if you were to spend some time on a site, you should start to get a feel for what the site is like and how good it is for games. If a site is bad, they are less likely to offer good bonuses because bonuses allow people to play on a site for not a lot of money.

Party Poker lets you see the substance

A poor online poker site would be better served in being as flashy and as promotional as possible while promising massive prizes and tournaments. This may be a way to get new players to sign up to the site while depositing a decent sum of money. Once that money is in the account, most players will likely play until it’s gone, so the site has a winner on that score. However, if a site is poor, the players won’t come back, so you can see that the bonus offered by Party Poker is a good way for a confident site to show what they are all about.

Party Poker lets you experience all the games

With a good first impression created by using a Party Poker bonus code before you even set foot onto the site, it is likely you will be bowled over by the poker and gaming options that you will find on that site. There are a whole host of poker games to choose from but no matter what style of poker game suits you best, you will find it here. This is why the Party Poker bonus option is such a good one, because it provides an introduction for all poker players, not just the ones that like a certain type of game.

Party Poker can also give you a great start when it comes time for tournament play. Being involved in a tournament is a great way for poker players to really test their skills and to have fun taking on their opponents. Knowing that you have to overcome your opponent is quite a thrill when playing and this is where a great deal of kudos is given to a successful opponent. Beating the cards is one thing but beating multiple opponents is something that all poker players love.

But it is not just a fun game played with luck, it takes skill, a lot of skill to make yourself a top poker player. You have to know the rules, the odds, when to make a big bet, when to fold. Also position is one of the most important things. How do you learn all this fast and while playing? The answer is: use poker calculators and tools to help you improve your game and get insight into other players. Some of these tools just calculate what the best next move is on the table. But most of them also track players and tag them so you know what you are up against.

Magic Holdem is a great poker odds calculator, with over 100 poker rooms supported. Customize it by adding or removing the stats that you want to see. A lifetime license costs only $119,90, or you can get a free license when signing up with a poker room they promote.

Texas Calculatem is one of the best poker odds calculators, with more than 100 online poker rooms supported and already more than 50,000 users worldwide. Know your odds and get advice on your next move with this clean and easy looking tool. One year license goes for $69,95, or use a one year free license when signing up with one of their featured rooms.

Poker Crusher is another amazing poker calculator. After opening Poker Crusher you have information on millions of hands, it displays icons next to each player’s name saying their style like shark or fish. They have very useful introduction video on their website. You can buy one license from $4,95 to $29,95 a month, and they have a free 5 day trail available.

Sit & go Shark gives you real time stats and hints on how to play any sit-n-go. It can be used on any type of sit-n-go tournament and has over 20 supported poker rooms. Get a one year license for $49,95 or for free by signing up to Party Poker on their website.

Holdem Genius is another great poker odds calculator, where you can see your hand strength and related odds in a blink. You can customize how you want to use it, and they have over 120 rooms supported. One year license goes for $99,85 or it is free by signing up to one of their promoted poker rooms.

If psychiatrists, who should certainly know better, can make this mistake, just about anyone can. I have done it countless times. I put someone on a high pair or a flush draw, then discount or even ignore other possibilities and I do not change my mind when later streets provide more information. This sort of thinking has cost me lots of money over the years and still continues to do so.

This tendency is particularly important when reading hands: “Do not put undue emphasis on your opinion of your opponent’s hand. I know many players who put someone on a certain hand and play the rest of the hand assuming he has that hand. Great players are the ones who know how to constantly reevaluate their assumptions as each hand unfolds. They think deeply at each step and try to see if their initial idea is correct or if they have to modify it.

This is taking the method of reading hands too far. Instead you must put a player on a few different possible hands with varying degrees of probability for each of these hands. This is called a range and as the hand progresses you can normally narrow that range given the new clues.

The specific techniques for making these judgments are covered in a number of newer books. Newer because 5 or 10 years ago poker writers did not elaborate much on these hand ranges. Now I am just trying to make you aware of how natural it is to fall into this trap. It is not natural to think of many possibilities. It is much more natural to put someone on a hand, then have the courage of your convictions. But, if you want to read cards accurately, you must continuously fight this human, but destructive way of thinking.

I had a good session at pokerstars yesterday. I know it must seem odd that I win virtually every hand there. You might think: “Is he just trying to pump himself up?”. Well, there is that.

The truth has more to do with the fact that I only order hand histories when I can’t see my opponents cards. One of the many nice things about online poker is that you can request to see a hand that makes it to the river but isn’t tabled. Of course, when I lose a showdown I nearly always see my opponents cards. There are of course exceptions in multi-way pots. I only have easy access to the hands which I’ve won and my opponent didn’t have to show.

Yeah, have I walked through the bowels of society to rid the world of players possessed. Seriously though. What does possess player to play the way they do? Ok, check-raising the turn with 88 when there are three overcards isn’t the worst play in the world. And calling the three bet isn’t totally nuts. But when the four-flush hits on the river and you have none? Well I guess a rivered set might just be good enough one in 12 times there. Either that or my opponent just got a new gig. Be gone! In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!

You never know what goes through the mind of your opponent when you play online poker. He may be drunk or on tilt for all we know, but sometimes they really make amazingly bad play, and the key is to have the patience to wait for these golden opportunities to make money playing online poker.

He is a young 22 years old Canadian player named Jonathan Duhamel. Indeed in recent years all WSOP main event winners have been very young male 22 to 24 years of age, showing how online poker has forever changed the face of poker as we used to know it. Indeed the oldest player at the final table was 37 years, and most others were less than 30.

This is the largest poker prize every year and the most prestigious of all live poker tournaments, this year in its 41st edition. Jonathan Duhamel defeated a field of 7,319 players to take possession of the humongous first prize of $8,44 million.

The most famous player at the final table was Michael Mizrachi, who was chip leader for a good period of time. But when his stack took a big hit when he doubled another player with a dominated hand, this was the beginning of the end and he finished 5th for 2 million dollars and change.

With only three players left, there was a big stack, a medium and a short stack. And in what sometimes happens in such situation, the two largest stacks put all their chips in the middle in one hand. This is always a great moment for the shortest stack when he sees the big guys battling each other instead of trying to grind him out. After all the difference between second and third place is worth $1.4 million, a costly price for making a mistake.

But this is what Cheong the chip leader at the time did when he ended up playing his A7 versus Duhamel’s QQ. After this hit, it was just a matter of time for him to take the direction of the rail, leaving Duhamel a 6 to 1 chip leader over John Racener, who got over $5 million for his second place.

Later I started another session. I fired up my usual 4 tables of $10/$20 6-max on Pokerstars and as usual had some ups and had some downs. I got up $1008 at one point and when I ended the session, a mere 10 minutes later, I was only up $588. Still a great session. Running good is sweet.

I was a little bored waiting for Monday Night Football and the Red Sox game to start so I thought maybe I’d play, but playing out of boredom hasn’t been very successful for me in the past so I just went on games grid and sat at a $75 NL table with my buddy. I then proceeded to move all in about 80% of the time. My buddy limped in first position and there was like one more limper, and I had 66 in the BB.

I said to myself “I’m pretty sure you’re trapping me”, as he isn’t dumb enough to limp in without the intention of calling my all in, as it’s what I’d been doing the whole time. However, since I was moving all in every hand I obviously was not in this for profit and tough poker, I was just trying to kill some time and have some fun, so I went all in anyway. He instantly called, as did some moron with $20 and A8o. My friend had KK.

Long story short I flopped a set. Later I had 74o in first position and I decided to mix things up a little and just make it $9 to go rather than going all in. Two callers and I said to myself, “I’m just gonna go all in on the flop here real quick”. The flop is AJ4 with 2 spades and I go all in. Both people call. First guy has AKs and the other guy has 95s. 95s has a flush draw. So I’m in trouble.

Anyway the turn was a brick and the river was an off suit 4. Last fun suck out was me pushing all in for about $275 with 92o, AJs calls me with about $60 in his stack, and I nailed two pair and he missed his flush draw. I told them all how much better I was than them and left the table with about $300 after a few of my pre flop all ins lost and such. It was fun. My net profit was about $120.

Game theory is the mathematics of strategy. John Von Neumann, a Hungarian born mathematician, is considered the father of game theory. The sometimes poker player was inspired by the game to develop this branch of mathematics in the late 1920s.

Game theory studies decisions made in an environment where various participants interact. It takes into account the variety of choices that each person has at each point in the process and determines optimal behavior when weighed against the costs and the benefits of each action.

Unless a one-player game, a player’s choices will be influenced by the actions and behaviors of other participants. The games studied by game theorists consist of a set of players, a set of moves, or strategies, and a specification of the payoffs (benefits) for each combination of strategies.

Games fall under different categories. Poker is a zero-sum game. This means that the total value of the game stays the same or goes down. Zero-sum games provide benefit to only some players and always at the expense of others.

This is game theory in a nutshell. The main point with regard to poker is that each player should play depending on how the other players play. And may also play on how he thinks the other players will play based on his representation of how they are trying to optimize their profits.

In other words words the mathematics of game theory go like in a self-feeding loop, where the behavior of others will change our behavior, which in turn changes their behavior. In fact this is what the top pros master well, as they understand intuitively very well how they can play in a way to induce others to make mistakes.

Most of us feel that in poker there are only the cards, but if that were true participants in poker tournaments could be children or scholars. Texas Hold’em Poker tournaments differ from other games such as video poker because we play against other players and not against the house. In addition poker is more than just a card game and understanding the intangible aspects makes the difference between amateurs and professionals.

Focus and observe: Becoming too involved in a poker session and losing your head completely are mistakes to avoid. Pay attention to everything around you. Watch and listen carefully to your opponent to see his body’s posture and his face’s expression when he speaks. Many players talk in a relaxed manner but play with more tense movements. If observation alone does not give you too much of an edge over your opponent, you can apply aggression to test his reactions.

Psychology: There is of course a psychological aspect in the game of poker. By playing aggressively, you can intimidate the most passive of your opponents, so that you easily force them to fold when it is preferable to reduce the number of players involved in a given hand. Bluffing and deceiving are also very important and you must understand well the opponents using a lot of these types of bullying. Find their weaknesses as it is certain that at some point they will make a mistake. Such opponents offer better profit opportunities than the conservative rocks who only bet with a strong hand.

The extra-sensory perception: This skill comes with time and can help a player at times when he has nothing on which to build. A player who has developed this type of technique feels comfortable using his instinct even if it may seem a bit risky. For instance if your opponent makes a bit bet at the river, he would often be bluffing to try stealing the pot. Instincts may help in such scenario, as your subconscious could have noticed something you are not aware of.

Math: Mathematics is an essential element in poker because of the ability to assess the likelihood of whether certain situations with a large pot will conclude in your favor or not. Using odds and probabilities is crucial so that you can maximize profits and minimize risks and bad calls. If you base your game on odds calculations and not on your emotions, you will play closer to optimal poker.

In many articles on poker, you probably read that large pocket pairs like AA or KK should be raised or reraised almost always except in special situations. The basic theoretical idea is that you really want to limit the number of opponents in order to avoid luck to hit a garbage hand and destroy your beautiful hand.

What about middle pairs? Indeed, too many players are really struggling to fold their mid pocket pairs in the range from fives to tens. Such hands can be very strong to raise or call for set mining at the flop, but will be hard pressed to cope with serious aggression. This is very theoretical and an untold number of factors must be taken into account, but it is usually very difficult to defend this type of hand after a 3-bet, for example. You will likely be in a coin flip situation, or worse if your opponent has a pair just above yours.

The case of strong aces. While hands like AK or AQ are obviously strong for any poker player, remember that you do not have in any case a made hand and that you will need to hit the board to beat your opponent. I do not of course mean that you no longer play these hands, but that you must know to fold them if needed.

Indeed, after a raise or a 3 bet for example, unless you have a perfect knowledge of your opponents, it is usually very difficult to make 4-bet or to make a simple call with this kind of drawing hand.

In poker you need to understand situations and one of the most important skill is to know to fold. Fold or raise is a good approach. Either be the aggressor with such hands that have both fold equity and drawing potential, or fold if you are under the impression that your opponent has you beaten and will not fold easily.