Royal Flush Poker

www.betfairpoker.com – As much as most of us love to play Texas Holdem, some are equally happy playing another poker variation, but whichever of these is the case, it is often one game that becomes the staple diet of the home game.
I have always felt that mixing the games up is a good thing in home games, as even when it comes to your favourite game, it still gets tedious eventually.

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The introduction of Omaha can often bring some extra action to the game, but if you really are set on playing Texas Holdem, you could look to change different aspects of the game entirely. Sometimes when playing Holdem, my friend and I have taken to dealing four cards each, and choosing the best two hole cards and discarding the other two preflop. This usually means stronger starting hands than usual without changing the actual game format. This is especially useful if you are playing heads up for fairly low stakes and need to make things more interesting.

In the past, I have also found that operating a ‘dealers choice’ game makes things far more interesting, although you would have to ensure that the players at the table were familiar with the games you wished to play. Usually this type of game involves the game being changed every one orbit of the table, plus one extra hand, so that the next seat along gets to choose each time.
Livening up home games is almost always a matter of introducing variance, although for some of the more stoic and resolute players, playing their usual game every time, is enough to keep them focussed. Betfairpoker.com

www.pacificpoker.co.uk – In a PLO tournament with rebuys, I find myself in the big blind and checking to see a flop of (3s,Qs,10c). I am holding (4x,Ks,7s,5x). With around 7 players still in the pot, there were enough chips in the centre to allow a reasonably strong pot sized bet if I wished to.

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The problem for me, was firstly, that I wasn’t drawing to the nut flush.
In Omaha when you are drawing to a second nut flush when 7 players have seen the flop, you should always be very wary. Aside from this, my next problem is that if I hit the flush on the turn, I have to still consider there were numerous players involved on the flop and for this reason, my flush is likely to be dead if the board pairs.

The 9 of spades did indeed hit on the turn, which was slightly better than I had hoped for. This was because it also brought dangers for a straight, giving me even more cause to attack the pot and force out any lingering players with two pair or a low set. I put in a pot sized raise at this point hoping to be called by either a smaller flush, or a straight. The remaining players folded bar one, who shoved the rest of his stack in, I had him easily covered and so I called. He showed the bigger flush with an ace, and I partly felt annoyed with myself for getting so involved when my flush draw wasn’t the best out there. Either way, I recovered well from this early setback and am still playing the tournament as I type, with a chiplead of 14,000.
So all’s well that ends well, as they say. Pacificpoker.co.uk

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www.32redpoker.com – In a PLO tournament I found myself dealt the following, rather interesting hand. My hole cards were (8s,8d,9d,10s). After calling a fairly small preflop raise, the flop then came down to give me another conundrum, (8h,9c,Jd). This flop was about as interesting as it could get without having flopped a completed hand, and the fact that there was no flush draw available either, gave me cause to open with a small raise. The reason I did this, was firstly to show some interest in the pot to my single opponent to try and sound out whether he had flopped a bigger set, or more likely if he reraised, the straight.

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I was hoping above all else, that if he did have the more worrying hand of the straight, he would be foolish enough to smooth call and let me see the turn cheaply. Unfortunately, he moved all in and I immediately felt he must have the straight. On the positive side though, that meant if the board paired I would almost certainly win the rather large pot that was building. Either way, I felt I had to call as I had quite a portion of chips commited already. My opponent showed his (Q,10,x,x) for the top straight, and sadly, no help arrived.

Perhaps the right choice may have been to fold in that position, but personally, I knew I would have a very large chip lead if I won the pot and could go on to make it to the money, and probably the final table without too much trouble. But the point was of course, I wasn’t playing to try and coast to the money when I called, I was playing to give myself a big chip lead and a shot at winning the tournament. I wouldn’t make exceptionally loose calls simply for this reason, but I felt that my open ended straight draw with a set, was enough to gamble with. www.32redpoker.com

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www.celebpoker.com – With a hand of (Ah,2h,5c,Ad) we are seated in an Omaha hi/lo tournament and have the second largest stack at the table. After the action is folded around to our biggest stack at the table who is close to the button. He makes a pot sized raise, causing the next person to fold, along with the button player. We are in the small blind, but should we reraise in order to isolate out opponent?

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Personally, I would not. this is because if a combination of cards comes down such as (4,5,6), (7,3,6) or any combination that gives me the nuts low, I would rather split three players chips two ways against the high hand.
The fact that we have a pair of aces in our hole cards here is good in some ways, as it gives us an outside chance of picking up the high half of the flop if my opponents do not hit the flop too well.

If another ace falls, then I increase my chances of the high half of the pot considerably, but mostly with this hand, my attention is on the low cards, and my potential heart draw. these are the two areas of my hand that are most likely to win me at least half the pot. The potential problem with reraising our big stacked raiser preflop is that if we miss the flop entirely with a flop such as (9s,Js,Qs) or something similar, we are in a very difficult position regardless of how strong our opponent may or may not be. In this instance, I have saved myself from being in a very difficult position.

With three players going to the flop, there is a better chance of splitting a reasonable pot I feel, and if the flop is unkind, I can still get away relatively unscathed. celebpoker.com

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www.partypoker.com – This week at my local live game I had a real chance to triple up early on, but as it was, a combination of my opponents playing their hands very strangely, and a mistake on my part, led to this chance passing me by.

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Early on, I had played fairly carefully, and gradually built my 6,000 stack up to 7,000 in the first hour of the game. Then, I found myself faced with a small preflop raise when I was holding (3,3). I called of course, hoping to catch a set, and the player on my left called too. Both players were loose and aggressive, and so I was delighted to see a rainbow flop of (4,3,K). At this point the original raiser fired out a sizeable bet of 1,500 chips, and I really felt that if I flat called, I could induce another bet on the turn.
I didn’t think he would have raised preflop with a hand such as (5,6), and there was no danger from the flush.
So with this in mind, I felt that slow playing the hand was the right choice, despite recently writing an article about how I hardly ever slow played hands these days.

Needless to say, I was taken aback when the player on my left moved all in for about 4,000 chips, and even more so when the oringinal raiser then immediately shoved all in for a total of about 6,000. Perhaps I spent too long thinking about it, or was worried about comitting all my chips this early, but mostly, I think I was just completely thrown off by the fact that all the evidence said I had completely misjudged the situation.

I should have reraised in the first place, but as it was, I eventually folded, feeling one player had to have a bigger set. Again, I was then shocked to see our original raiser who had made the second all in move, turn over (6,6) for second pair. The player on my left then turned over his (A,J) for top pair. I ended up down to about 5,000 in this hand, but I should probably have been stacking up my 16,000 or so.
Ironically, (A,J) was then the hand that finished my tournament later on when I walked into (Ad,Kd) after getting shortstacked.

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