Category: English

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Many a wise man or woman have said that Poker is an easy game, it’s gets kind of annoying to hear doesn’t it after the 10th+ deposit into your poker account.

Well I’m hear to tell you that in its core Poker is actually fairly simple but specifically Texas Hold’em. What I’ll show you in this article is a very simple points system which will ensure that you play a nice and tight game of Texas Hold’em. Please bare in mind that this strategy is intended for fairly low stakes ring games i.e NOT for tournaments although it could easily be adapted to fit almost any Poker variant.

It works by assigning points to the various cards in a deck as follows:

• Ace – 16 points
• King – 14 points
• Queen – 13 points
• Jack – 12 points
• 10 – 11 points
• All the other cards are given a points value corresponding to their number, i.e 5 is 5 points etc.
• If your two "hole" cards are of the same suit then that is an extra 4 points to your total.
• Additionally you get awarded an extra 10 points for any pair so 2 Kings would give you 38 points (14×2 + 10).
• If the two cards are one after the other, e.g 7,8 then give yourself 3 extra points.
• If seperated by 2, e.g 8,10 then add an extra 2 points to the total
• And if the two cards are separated by 3 then you can give yourself 1 point.

The next thing to understand is your position on the poker table, for the sake of this strategy I will assume you are playing on a longhand table which means there are 10 players in total, as opposed to shorthand with 6 people. This table of 10 players can be split into three zones, or positions. The first three seats to the left of the "Big Blind" form the Early position, the next three seats are in the middle position and the other 4 seats are referred to as the late position.

The strategy is as simple as this: For you to play your hand you need to have a certain number of points, these are as follows:

The points totals above assume that no one has raised the big blind, if they have then you should always assume they have good cards, it is a very dangerous strategy to think someone is bluffing and play your weakish hand against what you think might be their weak hand! In any case this strategy says that for you to play against someone who has raised then you would need an extra 4 points in each position, i.e 34 in Early, 31 in Middle and 29 in late positions.

If you follow this strategy on beginner to intermediate tables then it will give you a good start and over time you can start to add more sophistication to your play like trying to trap other players and occasionally trying a bluff but stick to this system until you are comfortable and winning money rather than constantly giving it to the other players.

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DOUBLE YOUR MONEY
Some video-poker machines have an option that allows you to risk the winnings on a hand for a chance at doubling your money. While many players believe that this is simply another ploy by the casino to take your remaining stake, it’s actually one of the best bets in the casino. It’s exactly 50–50 that you will be able to double your money. No house edge; no tricks. So what’s the catch?

You may double as many times as you wish, and because the odds are even, you’ll eventually lose. It’s a risk the casino is willing to take, but by examining the law of diminishing returns, it’s one that will be risky for the player.

While each decision is exactly 50–50, the odds of winning more than one in a row decrease sharply. After the first hand, you’re not gambling on the individual hands, you’re gambling on the sequence, and that is stacked heavily in the casino’s favour.

DOUBLE YOUR RISKS
From the Double Your Risk chart, above, you can see that the chances of winning your double diminish the more times you attempt to buck the odds against the sequential wins. The odds against winning ten in a row before you begin to double is less than one tenth of one per cent. Not very good odds, although the odds against winning any individual double down is 50–50.

Some players will try to suggest that the machine “”knows”” when you are doubling a high win. That’s nonsense. You can see that the casino wants you to try to double as many times as possible, but there is no need to rig the machines. You’re already bucking some pretty big odds for more than two in a row. The casino is very happy to offer you 50–50 odds on each bet. Try it at your own risk.

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The other popular wild-card video-poker game is Deuces Wild. Because it has four wild cards, it complicates the strategy that is necessary to succeed at the machines. Just as in other varieties of video poker, it’s important to note the pay table on Deuces Wild. But it’s not as easy as with Jacks-or-better. Casino executives have discovered several different ways to alter the pay tables that will alter the payout percentages.

DEUCES WILD PAYOUT PERCENTAGES
The pay tables above are just three examples of Deuces Wild games available today. The small variations in the pay table are the reason for the variation in payout percentage for expert play.

WORKING THE DEUCES
The object of Deuces Wild, obviously, is to obtain the wild cards to get those valuable hands. But what does it mean when you start off the hand with Deuces? Even in the highest paying version of Deuces Wild – at 100.6 per cent you will receive No Deuce hands 66 per cent of the time, which means that 80 per cent of your hands will be losers. Another 14 per cent will be the minimum three-of-a-kind winner, which is actually just a tie. So if you don’t get a Deuce before the draw, you will actually win only six per cent of the time.

When you get one Deuce in the initial hand – only 30 per cent of the time – 45 per cent of your hands will be losers, and another 38 per cent will get the three-of-a-kind push, leaving only 17 per cent that will actually win. Another nine per cent will be near-minimum winners as straights and flushes. Two Deuces in the initial hand – dealt only four per cent of the time – means that you must take every advantage of this hand, despite the fact that 70 per cent of these hands will wind up being flushes or lower. About one in four will end up as four-of-a-kind, and one in 98 will wind up as five-of-a-kind.

DEUCES STRATEGY
The following strategy is a little more complicated than the other two versions covered in this article. Some basic rules are not to play any machine that does not pay 5-1 for four-of-a-kind. And most important of all, even if you’ve got a shot at a natural royal, do not discard any Deuce!

1 Stand with any natural winning hand, except for a natural straight flush starting with Nine. Discard the Nine and go for the royal.
2 Draw one card to a straight flush.
3 Draw one card to a royal flush.
4 Draw two cards to a royal flush.
5 With two pair, discard one pair and draw three cards.
6 Draw one card to a flush.
7 Draw one card to a straight.
8 Draw two cards to a straight flush.
9 Draw three cards to a Queen-Jack, Ten-Jack, or Jack-Ten suited.
10 Draw two cards to a suited Six-Seven and a Deuce.
11 Draw one card to a three-card royal and one Deuce.
12 Draw one card to a four-card straight with one Deuce.
13 Stand on any winning hand with one Deuce. Break up a flush, straight or three-of-a-kind for any four-card royal flush, or four-card straight flush.
14 Draw one card to a suited Six-Seven or better with two Deuces.
15 Draw one card to a four-card royal with two Deuces.
16 Draw one card to four-of-a-killd with two Deuces.
17 Stand on five 10s or better with three Deuces.
18 Stand on royal flush with three Deuces.
19 Stand on five-of-a-killd with four Deuces.
20 All other hands discard everything but Deuces.

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“Building a poker bankroll
Many people consider that investing serious money into something that is a mere hobby for them doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, and they’re probably right. On top of that, recreational poker players never really get around to fully understanding the nature of the game and the way it’s supposed to work, and thus they’ll find it extremely difficult to turn it into a lucrative deal. I’ve heard people say you should never risk more money on poker than you can afford to take to the back of your garden and burn. That is just baloney. Every investment needs an initial push to get rolling, and online poker – for a player who knows how he’s supposed to milk it – works the same way.
Anyway, it would appear that nowadays one can start a lucrative poker career without making any sort of investment at all.
The online poker industry is so competitive nowadays that poker rooms would do just about anything to acquire new, active players. So much so, that some of these poker rooms will give players free real money upfront, with almost no strings attached (I said "almost" because you will have to fulfill the turnover requirements on your free money before cash-out). All you need to do is sign up to the poker room in question, and usually insert some sort of bonus ode which will automatically transfer the money into your real money account. After that, you can hit the real-money tables and start a-playing as if it were your own money. As soon as you’ve fulfilled the play-through requirement(s) you may cash out.
Don’t expect anything resembling a healthy bankroll though. These bonuses are not meant to make you rich, but rather to provide a start in online poker for those who may feel shy and not willing to risk anything. The free bankroll will usually be made up of a few tens of dollars, which will only really represent a potent bankroll in some of the lowest limits/stakes games (remember, you have to have about 300BBs in your bankroll a the limit you play at to be properly bankrolled).
That fact that it is indeed possible to start a real bankroll using a few of these free bucks has been proven by many, the mot notorious such experiment being that if Chris Ferguson who built up a $10,000 bankroll out of nothing on Full Tilt Poker without taking advantage of the Full Tilt rakeback deal either.
Certainly, you’ll need some very healthy skills and almost endless patience to come anywhere near his performance, but it is indeed possible in theory.
Despite that, playing on a free bankroll will present you with a series of drawbacks which will hit you pretty hard, especially if you’re a rookie. Being under-bankrolled can very well curve the efforts of a professional player, let alone a rookie. Also, the deal that you get with your free bankroll will usually deprive you of some of the best bonuses and recurring-edge offers (rakeback) that the poker room features for its paying customers.
Thus the rake will hit you much harder, and your "bankroll" will offer you last protection. As they say, looking a gift horse in the mouth though is not something reasonable to do, so you’ll have to make do with what you get.
When playing on a free bankroll, it makes a lot of sense to start out with STTs (Single Table Tournaments). These offer you much increased odds compared to cash games, and they protect your bankroll by completely eliminating the "being under-bankrolled" issue, and taking some of the bite out of the rake.
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Believe it or not, these days it is possible for a player to start from zero and make his/her way up into the upper echelon of poker aristocracy, or at least reach a level where he/she can make a living playing poker.

In theory, it’s rather easy too. Poker pro Chris Ferguson had a challenge on FullTilt Poker that he could make $10,000 without any starting bankroll, and sure enough he pulled it off, in much less time than people would’ve thought possible. He began by playing freerolls to establish a bankroll he could start with in real money games, then gradually worked his way up, until he hit $10,000. Now, there’s a poll on Full Tilt’s site where people can vote whether they want to see him attempt to reach a million dollars, or consider the challenge fulfilled.

Sure, I’m not about to argue how great an opportunity online poker is for get rich quick schemes with no investment required. After all, saying that not all people possess the qualities that made it possible for Chris Ferguson to pull off something like that, would be a huge understatement. No, you’re not going to find the going that easy, but still the chance to build up a reasonable bankroll and then to generate some extra dough is there for you too. And no, you don’t have to take the money you would’ve taken to the back of your garden and burnt, and invest it. You don’t need to invest anything at all. The competition among the hundreds of online poker rooms now populating cyberspace is for the benefit of everyday players like you and I. It gives birth to bonuses and loyalty offers that would’ve been considered downright foolish not more than 2-3 years ago.

In this respect, there are poker rooms out there that will literally pay you to play, in one form or another. One of the most accessible ways into the ranks of real money online poker is the free bankroll. Quite a few poker rooms offer their players real money, upfront, with no strings attached upon their arrival. Certainly, they won’t be able to cash the money out and be on their way, because that would be the equivalent of robbery, but provided one manages to fulfill the wagering requirements, it’s a great start. The free bankroll will instantly hit your real money account, and you’ll be able to play with it as if it were you own. Once you played it through enough times (you’ve generated enough rake) you’ll be allowed to cash your money out. If you handle things well, you may even end up with more money than the free bankroll you were initially granted.

Cashing out after a successful free bankroll adventure is always a good idea. Chances are, the poker room that provides the free bankroll will not provide the best on and off-table odds for you, but you can’t look a gift horse in the mouth, this will have to do just fine until you get your hands on the funds. Once that’s done, you’ll have a choice of where to invest it. Fist thing’s first: look for a good rakeback deal. Playing with reduced rake will not only make it easier for you to beat the games in the long-run, it’ll also earn you money at the end of each month or week. Playing as a poker prop will land you an exceptional rakeback setup (well above 100%), which can provide a huge push towards the real poker bankroll that you aim for.

Whatever you do, try to avoid cash games as long as you know you’re under bankrolled. Cash games are by far not the ideal choice for bankroll building for several reasons. On one hand, you’ll pay more rake than in a tournament, on the other hand, the nature of play at cash tables will not aid you one bit.
STTs (Single Table Tournaments) are the games for you at this stage. They give you excellent odds, a flimsy opposition (at a 10 handed table, you only need to best 7 players to double up on your buy-in) and they’ll be over in a reasonable amount of time, so they represent a very good return on your time investment too.
Start with lower buy-ins and gradually work your way up into higher-buyin STTs.

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