How to play HORSE using the right poker Strategy

December 9, 2011

Do you enjoy playing a variety of poker games? Do you play these games well? Then you may enjoy playing HORSE. This game essentially combines five different poker games, in order to create a fun and exciting game of HORSE. You will need to create a HORSE poker strategy to help you figure the best way to play.

HORSE is a game of rotation and in a tournament the game is usually changing constantly with the blind level. So if your blinds are 20/40 then you may be playing the game of Omaha 8. If the blind is 25/50 then the game may be Razz. When playing cash games, again the games can change accordingly. Once the game has started with one dealer and has come back to that same dealer it has completed one full orbit. The game will then go onto similar games such as Holdem and Omaha 8.

horse poker How to play HORSE using the right poker Strategy

When playing a full game of HORSE, the game will always be Holdem. The last round is always Stud 8. Players are allowed to leave any time they want to. If playing for cash or if they want to be in tournaments, they may not be able to leave until the end round with Stud 8. The game rotation follows the same pattern of H-O-R-S-E.

The rules for betting are basically the same. This means that players will need to know how each game is different and they need to know the rules in order to play the game correctly. Playing Texas Holdem in HORSE is simple. Each player will be given two cards face down and players will share the cards in the middle of the board that will make a total of five cards. This is a fixed betting game.

Omaha Hi-Lo is also simple to understand. Each player gets four hole cards. Two of these cards come from community cards in order to make a five card hand. Betting is done just like Texas Holdem.

Razz poker requires five cards with the low card hand being better than the high hand. The Seven Card Stud game is played a little differently. The players are given a total of seven cards; three of them are face down on the table. The betting is fixed and the first two rounds are low in betting.

The Stud 8 is actually a different game. Players must make the best from a high hand or a low hand in order to win. Once you develop your HORSE poker strategy you will be an expert in all of these games combined.

Winning a One-Table Poker Tournament

August 9, 2011

 Winning a One Table Poker TournamentWhen it comes to playing garage poker at home, you usually will find yourself playing with a group of people between 7 and 10 players. This is what I mean by a one-table poker tournament.

Now technically you could have 11 poker players at one table if it is large enough, but 12 is about the limit where you should break it up into a two-table tournament.

For the sake of argument, I will assume that we are starting with 10 players in this tournament. With 10 players, the winnings should be split 60% for first place, 30% for second place and 10% for third place. That means if the buy-in was $25, there would be a total of $250. The winner would get $150, 2nd gets $75 and 3rd place receives their money back. If you are starting with 8 players or less, you should not have a 3rd place payment; either make the prize 70%/30% or 65%/35% depending on your preference.

How to win a single table tournament

Now that we aren’t left with many options for new online poker tournaments. Most online poker players are going to have to go back to playing with their friends or join a small poker league. It is important to know how to play poker against a small group of people who you know. It is much different than playing random people online.

There are many different approaches that I’ve seen players use when trying to win the tournament. You will need a poker tournament strategy going in if you want to win more often. I am going to go through several of these methods and tell you the way I ultimately try to play every time.

The number 1 and 2 rules are: 1) Don’t play too tight! and 2) Don’t play too loose!

Every single time I see someone play too tight, they will eventually get pushed into an all-in situation when they don’t have much of a choice. Every once in a while, you just have to bet even if you get 7-3 offsuit 10 times in a row. As a rule, early on in a 10 person tournament, you should bet on at least 2 hands in the first 10 just to let the other players know you are there.

On the other end, people who play really loose might get lucky and build a big chip stack. However, more often then not I have seen these players lose a lot of money calling loosely on players who obviously have the hand won. Just a couple of these will turn the loose player into a really tight player pretty quickly.

Being Patient

Every time I have won a one-table poker tournament, it has been a combination of luck and patience. Since I play with the same group of guys each time, everyone knows how everyone else plays. This means you have to strike when you get a good hand and chase people out when you think they are going for a straight or flush.

You need the luck in order to win. This may not be true in a large tournament situation when you can bully other players you haven’t played before. But when you play the same players all the time, the odds are that someone is going to call you in situations they wouldn’t when you play online.

Having the patience to wait through a rough spell of starting hands is crucial to your overall performance. This also means that you don’t fall in love with a good/very good starting hand after getting rags 10 hands in a row. Getting an Ace-10 offsuit looks wonderful if you haven’t had a face card in a while; but you still need to be wary if someone aggressively raises the blinds pre-flop.

Outlast the Others

There comes a point in time when people are trying desperately to not go out. In a 10 person tournament, usually 1 to 3 people will be knocked out early. At some point in time, there will be several people who are hanging on and waiting to double up. There is a lot of luck involved in surviving this if you are one of the ones hanging on.

At some point, there will be a time where 3 to 5 players go out in rapid succession. This is usually when the blinds reach the 5th or 6th level. In our tournament, you use 3000 in chips to begin and 25/50 on the 1st level of blinds. By level 6, the blinds are at 200/400 and several players will be less than 4 big blinds away from busting.

If you are the player with a lot of chips at this point, you will want to bully the smaller stacks around. However, be wise when someone goes all-in before you bet. Fold it to them unless you have something good or unless their stack is very small (2 big blinds or less).

Getting in the Money

There will inevitably be someone who is hanging around in 4th place that is trying to sneak into the money. If you are this person, you have to get lucky because when you make your move, you will most likely get called.

People will tend to get cold feet when they aren’t in the money yet. That will usually leave the door open for you to steal blinds in the right situations. This will especially confuse the other players if you weren’t betting aggressively before.

Don’t get greedy, though. You have to be aware that someone else can sucker you in if you bet too aggressively. Be aware of people who just call your aggressive bets.

Winning the Tournament

Finally, you are in the money. This is the part where you need to get your second wind. No matter how late it is, you can’t think about hurrying things up. That is how you lose. When you are one-on-one or have the chip lead with 3 players, you have to be aggressive more often than not.

Raise more often then you normally would. You will steal the much needed blinds when you are at the max betting level (level 10 – 1000/2000). Be opportunistic and never get too attached to any hand. Don’t play your opponents games. If you win a couple of hands in a row where you show your cards, raise them no matter what 2 cards you get. Unless they have something excellent, they will only call.

The best case scenario for heads-up is getting your opponent into a situation where they are going to be blinded out. This will force them to play hands they wouldn’t normally. If your opponent goes all in with 3 big blinds or less, call them unless you have horrible cards. Not only will you get to see what they went all-in with, they will have to think about going all-in the next time.

I have been the winner of some epic marathons. If you are impatient and try to take shortcuts, more often than not you will come in 1st place. Luck plays a small part in the grand scheme. In most cases, to win the tournament, I need to get lucky at least once. What is far more important is being determined, focused and patient and not getting yourself into bad situations.

If you found this post educational, you should also read this prior post about multi-table poker tournaments

If you like playing poker, you should take advantage of some of the many poker bonuses that are offered online. Pokerstars marketing codes will not give you a bonus when you play Craps, nor will a Full Tilt Poker referral code for that matter. That will however get you rakeback of 27%. I am also hearing good things about this room so check out this expekt poker review.



No More Fast Cash Poker in the US?

April 19, 2011

I know that I haven’t been updating as often as I should; I haven’t made a post since before Christmas. But that was because of external factors that couldn’t be avoided. However, I feel like I need to freshen things up here since four of the largest poker sites had the hammer come down on them by the United States Government.

By now I’m sure that you have heard that Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet had their domains seized by the Feds and charges were levied against several of the executives of these online poker sites. Since then, Full Tilt and PokerStars will not allow players from the U.S. to play at any of their poker tables. Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet will not allow deposits or withdrawals from America players; however they will allow those with a balance in their account to play the “real money” games.

You might be asking yourself, “Is there any places left to go to play online poker?” The answer is Yes as I will explain below. The other question you may ask is “What’s to stop the government from shutting those sites down as well?” And I will try to clarify that issue as well.

Where to Play Online Poker

bovada poker screen No More Fast Cash Poker in the US?

I don’t believe that you will see a lot of the casual online poker players come back for a little while after “Black Friday”. But some people are bound to be curious and still want to play. It is just like smoking pot – Illegal or not, I need my fix!

One of the places that I have been playing at for a while is Bovada Poker, which was not affected by the decision levied against the online poker giants. Take a look at this previous post about Bovada’s Poker bonus.

Normally, I would see about 300 to 500 players online at any one time. This made them one of the smallest poker rooms before and kept them under the radar. Currently, that number has started to rise as refugees from PokerStars and Full Tilt start to find other places to play. I have seen the number of players jump to an average of 700 to 1000 poker players online.

Another popular poker site that is still allowing US players is Carbon Poker. I briefly played at that site a year ago when I did this review of Carbon Poker. You will find that the number of poker players on this site is comparable to Bovada. One thing I do like about Carbon Poker is that there are several different side games that you can bet on while you wait for the next hand to be dealt.

The final place I would suggest give a try is Doyle’s Room, which recently changed poker networks before all of this went down. Before the software change, I did not particularly like Doyle’s Room; but since the change there have been many improvements overall. You can take a look this Doyle’s Room review here.

PlayersOnly Poker

playersonly poker No More Fast Cash Poker in the US?

PlayersOnly is another website that is similar to Bovada. They offer more than just poker, including a casino and sportsbook. The poker software is hosted by PlayAces, which is a poker network that includes several other sites like PlayersOnly. Please visit Players Only Poker Bonus if you would like more information about Players Only, their poker room and the bonus money that you can receive for playing at this site.

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Keeping the Initiative in Poker

December 20, 2010

In poker then it can be very important to be in a situation where you can put in the last bet. This places your opponent into a situation where they cannot gain any fold equity and need to call and have the best hand.

Slipping into Sit and Go mode for a while, double your money SNG’s are becoming all the rage recently but yet it is important when maintaining your stack that you get in the last bet. So if it has been folded to you and you want to amass chips then shoving all-in is getting the last bet in a way.

poker initiative last bet Keeping the Initiative in Poker

How to Keep the Initiative

You have denied your opponent the opportunity to win the pot in two ways by shoving and calling and having the best hand and it is you that has taken the initiative. But this reminds me of one of the most important concepts in no-limit poker and that is the power of getting in the last bet. This is why three barrelling is such a powerful concept because the final barrel on the river usually means getting in the final bet.

Example of Keeping Initiative in a Poker Hand

Let us look at an example here from NL400 and it has been folded around to the button who raises and we have the As-Qs and re-raise from the big blind. The original raiser calls and we see a flop of 10-3-2 rainbow.

We race out and bet the flop and get called. So our opponent has made quite a substantial statement here by open raising and then calling the raise and also calling the flop c-bet.

We then bet the turn as well and that bet also gets called. Whatever comes on the river then I would continue the initiative and bet the river.

This is getting in the last bet if you shove all-in. A weaker betting line would be if you bet the river against a very good and aggressive opponent who then shoved all in.

Importance of Getting the Last Bet

This instance would be presenting your opponent with the opportunity to get in the last bet and place the pressure on you. This is why that if you start to commit to firing multiple barrels that you should commit and go all the way. You will see many strong online players who structure their betting so that they can get in the last bet.

There are very good reasons why this is and your opponent then knows that he has zero fold equity when you have got in the last bet and your opponent does not have the chance to come back over the top of you with a re-raise.

Many players are aware of how important it is to put in the last bet in tournament play and SNG’s but yet may not be aware of how important it is in cash games as well.

It is for this reason why you need to be properly bankrolled in cash games because you need to be more aggressive than you need to be at the lower levels of play.

Want to read more? Take a look at these simple tips for novice poker players.

Doyles Room Poker Bonus

November 8, 2010

doyles room logo Doyles Room Poker BonusBonuses are a big part of playing online poker. They allow you to gain access to even more cash and you will find that it is fairly easy to do so.

As long as you make sure you read the conditions regarding the bonus, you can be entitled to extra cash which can really help you out, especially if you are new to that online poker site.

doyles room bonus lobby Doyles Room Poker Bonus

Doyles Room makes it a point of offering some more than generous bonuses to their players which are easy to obtain. All you need to do is go to the Cashier in the Doyles Room lobby to receive them.

Doyles Poker Bonus

One of the great bonuses offered at Doyles Room is the Initial Deposit Bonus. This bonus is good for 110% of a player’s initial deposit and allows them to receive as much as an extra $550!

The great thing about this doyles poker bonus is it doesn’t require a player to do anything in order to become eligible for it. As long as they make their first deposit into their account, they will be able to receive this bonus.

doyles poker bonus Doyles Room Poker Bonus

New players will want to keep in mind, the more that a player deposits during their initial deposit, the more money they will get out of this bonus.

This is something to think about, a player may want to make sure their initial deposit is a large one so they can get a bigger bonus.

Beat the Brunson Team

Another great bonus opportunity for the players at Doyles Room is the Beat the Brunson 10 promotion. This one offers up generous bonuses along the way.

Players will be able to get at those bonuses by beating the players of the Brunson Team. It starts out with everyone being a target, for every player you take out you will get $10.

If you happen to take out one of the Brunson Team members, then you will get an amazing bonus of $500! The player who wins the tournament will also get $1000!

This is definitely one promotion which is packed full of great bonuses and a lot of excitement. Players can get in on the action every other Monday; full details are listed on the site.

beat brunson 10 Doyles Room Poker Bonus

Royal Flush Bonus

Doyles Room also has a Royal Flush Bonus. This bonus makes it even more exciting than it already is to win with a royal flush. Players already know how exciting it is to win with the highest hand.

However, now there is even more reasons for them to be thrilled. When a player wins with a royal flush at Doyles Room, they will also get a $1000 bonus!

Now you will get much more out of that royal flush win than simply bragging rights, you will have a large sum of cash in your account to go with those bragging rights!

There are many other great bonuses which are offered to the players at Doyles Room, making this a great choice for anyone looking for plenty of choices and opportunities.

Doyles Room is known for its generous bonuses and ample opportunities it provides its players with. Another great thing about this online poker site is that it does a great job of adding new bonuses often.

This is why players will want to make sure they stay updated on what is going on when they choose to play at Doyles Room; they don’t want to miss out on a new exciting bonus.

There are definitely a lot of chances for players to come up on extra cash when they enjoy poker at this fabulous online poker room. This is one of the things that have helped it to gain such a great reputation with the online poker players out there looking to get the most.

Make Cash Fast playing with a Bovada Poker Bonus

July 7, 2010

Online poker sites provide poker players with a way to get in on great poker games anytime they want to play. They also offer those who have wanted to learn poker a chance to do so in a less intimidating way.

There are many great things about online poker and one of them is the fact that online poker sites offer players with a large selection of promotions that they can have a lot of fun while they try to win some great bonuses and prizes.

bovada poker screen Make Cash Fast playing with a Bovada Poker Bonus

Bovada is one online poker site that knows how to put together great promotions that have a lot to offer the players who choose to play at their poker site. The promotions here are one of the things that so many players love about this site.

New players will be welcomed to the site with the opportunity to take advantage of a Sign up Bonus that is good for as much as 110%. The amount new players can earn by getting in on this bonus is as much as $1,100.

This bonus allows new players to enjoy playing on a very exciting online poker site while earning plenty of extra cash for themselves. This bonus is very easy for players to get in on and the site does an excellent job of explaining all of the details so players know exactly what they need to do in order to be eligible for it and to earn it.

bovada wsop poker Make Cash Fast playing with a Bovada Poker Bonus

Another great bonus at Bovada Poker is the Double Points Poker Bonus. This bonus gives players the chance to earn 2000 points on Bovada in a month. This is a limited time offer so any players who think they would like to take part in this bonus will want to make sure that they act fast so they don’t miss out on the opportunity. Players will be able to convert the points into cash, or they can use them to enter into one of the tournaments.

The Royal Flush Bonus is another bonus that the players here like to know about. This bonus provides players with the chance to become even more excited when they happen to be lucky enough to see that long awaited for royal flush staring at them. Not only will they be excited over the bragging rights and win that comes with a royal flush, but now they will also be able to walk away with 50 times the amount of the big blind. This bonus is good for as much as $200! This is one bonus that any player would love to be able to walk away with.

There is also a Bad Beat Bonus which gives some lucky unlucky players the chance to win when they lose. Players will want to read about this bonus in the bonus section of the site so they know exactly what they have to do in order to be eligible for the bonus and how to claim it. This is one bonus that can turn something that would have been bad into something much more positive.

Anyone looking for an online poker site that offers great bonuses will definitely want to make sure that they consider making Bovada the poker site they play at. Along with offering plenty of amazing bonuses they also have a lot of other features and benefits that will provide their players with a great time and a lot of chances to win even better prizes. Bovada’s poker network has done what it needed to in order to make it one of the more popular and well respected online poker sites out there.

Looking for more information about Bodog Poker? Check out this Bodog Poker room review.

Review of Carbon Poker

May 25, 2010

carbon poker review Review of Carbon PokerOnline poker provides anyone wanting to play poker with a way they can do it in a convenient and exciting manner. Online players have the opportunity to take a look around at all of the online poker sites out there and choose the one that provides them with everything they are looking for.

One great online poker site that players should take a look at is called Carbon Poker. This poker site has gained a great reputation from its ability to provide players with everything they are looking for.

Carbon Poker Promotion

Promotions play a big role in online gambling. The online gambling sites will offer a variety of bonuses and promotions in order to draw in new players and keep their current players happy and excited about remaining on the site.

New players to Carbon Poker will be able to take advantage of a more than generous initial deposit bonus which can give them as much as $600! There are many more great promotions for the players to get in on which can lead them to coming up on some great prizes.

Players will want to take a look at the refer-a-friend bonus, the VIP program, and all of the other wonderful promotions and bonuses they may be eligible for.

Two of the current promotions that Carbon Poker is currently offering are the $100K Freeroll and a $500,000 Cash Race.

The Race: $500,000 in Cash Prizes is the first promotion that Carbon Poker is offering. This is the same as many other poker races where the object is to play the most hands and get the most VIP points by accumulating the highest rake.

The $100K Freeroll qualifiers have been running since mid-April, but the main tournament is coming up this Sunday, 30 May at 14:00 (Carbon Time) – which appears to look a lot like Central Time or GMT-5. The winner of the main event will receive $20,000!

There are 5 daily qualifying tournaments that are all free to enter. Players in the top 25 will advance to the $100K Freeroll Qualifier. This tournament takes place this Saturday at 18:30 (Carbon Time).

You also have the option to make a deposit using the code 100MAYPK and you will receive a ticket to the $100K Depositor Qualifier that will take place on Saturday, May 29th at 17:00 (Carbon Time). The top 500 players from either of the Qualifier tournaments will receive entry into the main event.

Carbon Poker Features

carbon poker game Review of Carbon Poker

Games: Carbon Poker makes it a point to provide its players with a variety of poker games so they can enjoy the ones they want. The games at Carbon Poker include Texas Holdem, Omaha, stud games, 7 card, draw games, Razz, H.O.R.S.E., Badugi, and more. This allows online players to enjoy all of their favorite poker games at one great site.

Software: Carbon Poker goes out of their way to ensure that the players at their online poker site will have the best of everything and this includes offering them games run on great software.

carbon poker software Review of Carbon Poker

The software at Carbon Poker offers its players a great gaming environment that has awesome graphics which really bring the games to life. The games also run fast and don’t have those annoying bugs.

Customer Support: Another great thing about Carbon Poker is the customer support that they offer their players. The customer support here is excellent at getting back to the players right away so they can get the answers that they need.

Players can get in contact with the customer support team by email and the team will get right back to them. If a player has a question about the site they may want to try the helpful FAQ section before contacting customer support.

Site Navigation: The Carbon Poker site has a great look to it that does a good job of making players feel excited about playing there. It uses simple top link navigation and has a lot of useful content which can help the poker players, especially the new ones. This site is very user friendly and has been designed so players will be able to find what it is that they are looking for quickly and hassle free.

Deposit Methods: When a player finds a great online poker site that they would love to become a part of, they will also need to check and make sure that site offers them deposit methods that they will be able to use. Carbon Poker is one online poker site that makes it a point of offering many deposit methods to its players so they will be able to find one they can use.

The deposit methods here include credit card, NETeller, Moneybookers, EcoCard, Click2Pay, eWalletXpress, EntroPay, ClickandBuy, PaySafeCard, InstaDebit, GiroPay, NetCents, and eCheck. This gives players plenty of choices.