Royal Flush Poker

Omaha and Holdem are widely known to be the two most favoured games at site like www.celebpoker.com, and the amount of tournaments dedicated to each game in the World Series illustrates this.

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There are obvious differences between the two games, but if you are competent at one game then picking up the rules of the other should be relatively simple. Actually going on to master Omaha or Holdem at celebpoker.com after learning it’s basics though, is somewhat more difficult.

Holdem begins with two hole cards where as Omaha requires four hole cards to begin with. This paves the way for much stronger hands being made as the board cards are dealt and can see larger pots being built as a result. In Holdem poker strong starting hands are considered to be two very high cards such as (A,K) or (A,Q) and pairs too.

Suited cards are a bonus at www.celebpoker.com, but they hold much more weight in Omaha especially if you have two cards of one suit and two of another.

This greatly increases the chances of a flush being made, and numerically connected cards improve the chances of a straight being made.

Often in Holdem hole cards will be folded preflop, but in Omaha I feel there is much more benefit in seeing a cheap flop if possible.

This can be used to great advantage at celebpoker.com if you are strong at knowing when to get away from half made hands, and when the odds are right to call. For the most part I feel these are the most important things to bear in mind, although just with any new variant of poker, playing as much as you can to expand your understanding, is always the best way forward.

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Reading a player online is always going to be slightly more complicated than in real life poker simply because you cannot see the person you are attempting to read. Regardless of this there are still some very strong indicators of an opponents strength to be found in their betting patterns. Being aware of how players around you are reacting to situations is very helpful to making your read of a player, if a player bluffs and shows their cards afterwards for instance, make a note. Similarly if a player is folding their hole cards almost every hand, be very careful if they raise into a pot, they are likely to have been waiting for a premium hand to get involved with.

The simple fact is that whether you are playing a live tournament or an online tournament, a player always raises for a reason. There is always a story behind every pattern of raising in a hand, the tough part of course is deciphering exactly why they are raising or calling, but you can read this just as well online as in a live game.

As well as studying your opponents betting patterns, if you put in tester bets and re raises, you induce reactions in your opponents betting pattern, this further supplements the ideas you are forming about the strength of their hand.

To summarise I would say that there are certainly more ways to read opponents in live poker, but it would be foolish to think that just because you cannot see your opponent, you cannot read the strength of their hand either.

There always ways which you must utilise to build a picture of where your hand stands, and you can do this with online play almost as well as with live play.

When the point approaches in a tournament where the money places are, there is a natural instinct to tighten up your play to ensure you do not get knocked out before the money. If you have a short stack then I can agree that this is the correct thing to do, because you do not have the strength to use peoples tighter play at this point against them to increase your own stack. So if you are going to move in and attempt to double up, you may as well wait until you have cashed if possible before trying to move in.

With an average sized stack, it is tempting still to lose a few chips in blinds to make sure you make the money. But you do have the power to lean on some short stacks and improve your position. If you can do this without risking everything in front of you then this is a positive way forward, but as always, play the cards as you find them. If you find yourself dealt pocket aces or another extremely strong hand, you can move all in against anyone preflop quite happily. Such clear cut chances to double up, cannot be passed up regardless of how close you are to the money.

If you have a large chipstack then the period of time approaching the ‘bubble’ is when you really should be moving up a gear and exploiting players fears of finishing in that last spot before the money.
However you choose to play in this latter part of the tournament, it is always important to be aware of when this position approaches and look to use it to your advantage if at all possible.

Getting involved in a pot with a weaker hand simply because it doesn’t cost you too much can be very tempting sometimes, and can often reap rewards too, but this certainly isn’t always going to be the case. The problem with getting involved with weaker hands is that often firstly, it will quite likely be a multi way pot, with more danger if you hit part of the flop. And secondly if you make somthing like top pair it becomes a little difficult not to lose chips with the hand when you may well be out kickered, or have your hand beaten entirely.
With this in mind you can see how it is easy to get yourself into trouble in this way. But if you are one of those players whose strength is in reading whether their hand is good enough or not, then this type of play isn’t quite so fraught with danger.

The obvious advantage to taking cheap flops is of course when you hit flops as well as you could have hoped and you are left silently thanking the players for letting you in cheaply. Also you might pick up and then complete a big draw on turn or river which gives you a chance to make a semi bluff at the pot too, giving yourself an extra chance to win. Either of these instances can give you a very nice pot, especially when the pot is a multi way one, and can make taking cheap flops a very worthwhile gamble when you have the opportunity to.

Personally I would advise getting involved cheaply if possible, but always be wary, and trust your reads implicitly.

Layne Flack was born in South Dakota in 1969 and took an interest in cards from a relatively young age. This led him to begin working in casinos when he was old enough and Layne was soon getting involved in poker games after work. As his ability at playing poker grew, his work at casinos began to take more of a back seat.

Under the guidance of two previous main event champions, Layne became a serious force at the World Series.
In 1999 he took down his first bracelet in the $3,000 Pot Limit Holdem Event and followed this three years later with two World Series event wins in 2002. The very next year Layne claimed another two bracelets bringing his total to five, in just four years. A barren spell followed however at the World Series for Layne, and he did not win another event for five years until very recently at the 2008 WSOP when he claimed his sixth bracelet in the Omaha $1,500 Pot Limit Event.

Added to this impressive bracelet haul, Layne also has a WPT title and three final table appearances at the World Poker Tour. If it wasn’t for some personal turbulence in his life in 2004, perhaps Layne could have expanded further on his already impressive record. Over his career so far Layne has won almost $4 million in live tournaments alone and is one of only a few players who hold six or more World Series bracelets.

For me, Layne is definately one of the best unsung players on the circuit and really doesn’t get the recognition he deserves. If he manages another double bracelet winning year at this years WSOP though, people really will have to sit up and take notice sooner or later.

Johnny Chan was born in China in 1957 and belonged to a family who were in the restaurant business. They moved to Texas when Johnny was a child, and had aspirations of him continuing the family business. By the age of 21 however, Johhny had different ideas and headed to Las Vegas after not completing his management training.

By 1985 Johhny managed to win his first World Series bracelet in the $1,000 Limit Holdem event and has gone on to amass ten bracelets to date, in Holdem, Omaha, 2-7 Draw, and Seven Card Stud. Two of these bracelets were the main event in both 1987 and 1988 and were it not for a young Phil Hellmuth defeating him when it got to heads up in 1989, he would have won an unprecedented three back to back main events.

His most recent bracelet came in 2005 and his estimated tournament earnings to date are over $6,000,000.
As well as being very adept at tournament play, Johnny is also an excellent cash player and one of the true legends of the modern game. He has appeared in and been very successful in, numerous televised tournaments and continues to compete in many major events each year.

Johnny has not added a WPT title to his collection as of yet, but it is surely only a matter of time before this changes. He also has a book published on poker strategy and writes regular poker columns for magazines.
Johnny is widely considered to be the greatest threat to Phil Hellmuths record haul of eleven World Series bracelets, and may yet draw level with him this year as he has so far enjoyed a strong start to this years ongoing World Series.

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When looking solely at PacificPoker.co.uk there are a few good points from the outset. The first time deposit bonuses are of a reasonable amount although they do have larger bonuses in other betting sections onsite.

A first time deposit bonus of 25% cash is offered for a deposit up to $100 in contrast to 100% in the casino section does appear to show that the site is not largely a poker orientated one and concentrates more broadly on other areas.

This however doesn’t necessarily mean that playing poker on www.pacificpoker.co.uk holds any less enjoyment, and in relation to bonuses and offers, Pacific Poker doesn‘t look too bad. There are often gauranteed multi tournaments onsite which can be as large as $20,000 on weekdays, and there are usually larger gaurantee tourneys of up to $80,000 over the weekend too.

Players with a slightly smaller poker bankroll can win their seats in such events through satellite tournaments if they feel the buy in is a little above their means.

After making the first deposit at Pacificpoker.co.uk, a player is offered one beginners tournament per day for a week which contributes towards a better all round first time bonus package than it first appears. So although the first time starting bonus may not be the most competitive on the net, if you feel yourself to be amongst the stronger players around you should be able to bump up your bonus package in this weeks worth of tournaments.

The layout of the site looks quite good too, and there are ongoing ‘bad beat’ and Royal Flush jackpots in operation. All in all this adds up to a good poker playing experience at www.pacificpoker.co.uk

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It is well known in ladbrokespoker.com that (2,7) off suit is the worst starting hand, the reason that lower cards such as (2,4) aren’t considered worse is that you have better straight possibilities with this type of hand.

Despite this being the case Joe Hachem managed to win a World Series main event with (7,3) off suit and Doyle Brunson did the same thing on two separate occassions whilst holding (10,2). So do these type of seemingly weak hands really lose as often as you might think against a strong hand such as (A,K)? I decided to deal out one hundred boards with (7,2) off suit against (A,K) off suit, twice over, and averaged the two results to find out.

The Ladbrokes Poker odds calculators in these circumstances will tell you that (7,2) should win around 32.2% of the time, (A,K) should win 67.3% of the time, and the other 0.5% resulting in a tie. My results read as folows: (2,7) wins 35% of the time, (A,K) wins 64% of the time and 1% results in a tie. Although these results don’t conclusively prove or disprove anything, they do show a slightly higher trend of (2,7) winning and (A,K) losing, than you might expect, but this isn’t enough of a difference in percentages to warrant closer inspection I don’t think, we can safely say that the expected odds do work out the way they should, when it comes to real ladbrokespoker hands being played out. Ladbrokespoker.com

The key point to remember as a poker player is that (2,7) does have a chance against most hands if you have two live cards, but it certainly isn’t a hand you want to be involved in an all in showdown with if you can help it. The more you stick to the stronger hands the higher the percentage of the time that you will be victorious over your opponent.

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Hoyt Corkins was born in 1960 in Alabama, he has always worn his cowboy type outfits at the tables and his nickname has become "cowboy" as a result.

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He started learning poker at a fairly early age from his father and went on to begin competing in the World Series some years later, gaining his first bracelet at the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event in 1992. A really good place to practice poker is at pkr.com.

Afterwards Hoyt underwent some personal turmoil with divorce proceedings and retreated from the spotlight of the poker circuit for over a decade.

He reappeared in 2003, immediately winning over a million dollars at the World Poker Tour, this was followed by a second place finish in 2004 which earnt him almost $300,000 in prize money too.

2005 saw Hoyt take second place in the WSOP "Tournament of Champions Freeroll" and another $325,000 and 2006 saw some good tournament results also, but it was last year at the World Series that Hoyt matched his achievement from all those years ago and picked up his second bracelet and over half a million dollars.

Already Hoyt has begun the year well in 2008, finishing second in the WPT world poker open to take his live tournament earnings in total to around the $3.7 million mark. www.pkr.com

Hoyt is a man of a very quiet demeanour but has a very strong style of play and likes to go into pots raising, as you can tell by his results since his return to the circuit, he is a formidable opponent in any tournament he chooses to play in.

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