Poker Goddess's blog

Vital Poker Phrases 5

It will be tough to read strategy for flash Texas Holdem rooms if you do not understand the lingo, so I will continue defining key poker terms in today’s article. In reality, there are so many poker terms that even certain pros don’t know all the definitions!

My next term is “Mexican Bankroll”, a bunch of $1 bills sandwiched between two $100 bills. I know that this term won’t really help you crush the games on Tiger Gaming, but it was such a funny term that I couldn’t resist defining it!

Our next definition is for the “nuts”. If you have the nuts during an Ultimate Bet for Mac tournament, it is saying that you have the best possible hand. One thing to keep in mind is that the nuts on one street might not be the nuts on the next. For example, QQ is the nuts on a Q45 flop, but if the turn is a 6, it is no longer the nuts.

If you used free poker training when you first learned the game, you probably learned that you want to avoid being “outkicked” after the river falls. It is important to strive for the highest kicker possible because the kicker is the tie breaker if two players have the same pair. If you have AQ and you flop a pair of aces, the queen in your hand is your kicker.

The term for the letter P is “polarized range”. If you are playing with a Full Tilt referral code and someone states that they think your range is polarized, they are saying that your hand is either extremely strong or incredibly weak.

I recently took advantage of Bingo codes and gave the Bingo games a try, but I found that they weren’t even close to as exciting as playing poker. If you have yet to give poker a try, you are definitely missing out! My earlier articles should help you get started, and then be sure to check back in a month for another key terms update.

Common Poker Terms 4

Nice to see you again! I am about to define more terms that will matter as you strive to beat the games on Mac poker sites. I must admit that I am having fun going in order according to the alphabet. At the very least it prevents me from sitting here for minutes on end trying to decide between all the poker terms in the dictionary.

For the letter “I” let’s define ICM, which stands for Independent Chip Model. If your main game is sit & gos on a Lucky Ace Poker download, it is mandatory that you know ICM. It assigns a cash value to your chips when there are less than 10 players remaining in a tournament.

The letter J does not have a lot of variety when it comes to poker terms, so we will just go over “jam”. If you have some free poker training and the instructor says that a jam is optimal, it is equivalent to saying that going all-in is optimal. You can use it in place of “shove” or “push”.

The next word I will mention is “kill”. If you decide to take a break from your Bingo codes in favor of poker at the local brick-and-mortar, there is often a kill game going on. When someone wins two pots in a row, they are required to pay an extra blind the next hand. A full kill is twice the size of the big blind while a half kill is 1.5 times the big blind. People that do not like the tough games in online poker rooms might enjoy kill tables since they can stifle hyper-aggression.

When someone raises or calls “light”, they are doing it with a hand that is usually second best. Pretend that you are using your Everest Poker download and you receive 86 in the small blind. Someone that opens frequently in late position pops it up on the button, and you elect to 3-bet since you know he is usually raising a wide range here. He is probably raising light in late position, and you are reraising light in return. You will find these situations on a regular basis on poker sites.

We have gone through another four terms just now, so that is it for today. In a few weeks I will keep going with the alphabet, starting off with the letter M. This gives you plenty of time to practice your game. If you are looking for a new site to play on, give Full Tilt a try. 赶快到我们的Full Tilt Poker下载页面，下载Full Tilt Poker大厅程序，赢取600美元现金奖励吧！

Common Poker Terms 3

Today I am going to continue with poker phrases you would benefit from learning when you play Mac poker. You will recall that I was going through the alphabet and I had left off at E.

Whether you prefer tourneys or cash games on your Bwin Poker download, it is important to know about “effective stacks”. If two players are heads up, the maximum either of them can bet is the amount of chips in the shortest stack, also known as the effective stack. If Mike has 1,400 chips and Anna has 5,000, the effective stack is 1,400.

The next term I would like to describe is “flip”, an idea you might encounter while playing with friends on Tiger Gaming. Basically the players involved in a flip agree to go all-in preflop with whichever cards are dealt to them. A flip can also be used to describe a 50/50 situation, usually when players are all-in preflop. For instance, if you play MTT poker on your Everest Poker download and you have JJ vs AQ all-in preflop, this could be called a flip because you will win the hand around 50% of the time.

For the letter G, I chose the phrase “gutshot”. A gutshot is any straight draw with just 4 outs. For instance, if you take a break from watching poker videos and get dealt 78 in a ring game, you might feel frisky and decide to play it. You open limp on the button and the flop comes down 9J2. The straight draw you have is called a gutshot since you only have a straight when a particular card comes, which is four outs. The word gutshot is interchangeable with “inside straight draw”.

The next term we will learn about is “hero fold”. It is a hero fold when you reluctantly lay down a strong hand. Pretend that you are in a cash game on your Titanpoker download and you are playing with someone that you have never seen raise before. You peel 45 and get a 678 flop, but instead of just calling your bet, your passive opponent raises. Choosing to fold this hand after a single raise is a good example of a hero fold. It may seem nitty, but unlike Internet slots, poker requires hard thinking and sometimes big laydowns are prudent.

That’s it for me today, but I will start off with the letter "I" when I write another entry in a few weeks. In the meantime, be sure to play lots of hands and get lots of practice. If you haven’t already made an account at PokerStars, I highly recommend it. ¡Aprende de los profesionales y mejora tus habilidades, todo con solo descargar PokerStars.

More Terms to Learn

A while back I went over a number of common poker terms that you might want to know as you are working towards beating the games while playing Mac poker. I am going to do the same thing for my next few articles. To make it more organized, I will try to go through all the letters of the alphabet and pick one word for each letter. Let’s go!I hope you are as excited as I am ;)

For my very first word, I will explain the term “ante”. This is a very important word for those that play a lot of tournaments on a Full Tilt download. An ante is a bet that all players must make before they receive hands before the flop. The ante is usually around 10% of the big blind, although the amount varies.

You will already know what a “bluff” is if you watch poker on TV. When you bet or raise in a way that causes your hand to look stronger than it actually is, you are bluffing. Doing this can make players fold hands that are better than yours. To see some very brave bluffs in action, I encourage you to watch a few high stakes poker hands on US friendly poker sites.

For the letter C, let’s look at “chip dumping”, something that your poker site should be looking out for if it is one of the best US poker sites online. Chip dumping occurs when someone intentionally loses their chips to someone else. This can occur when two people are colluding in a tournament or cash game, but the seriousness of the situation becomes apparent when you consider that chip dumping can also be used for money laundering. Now you know why money poker sites want their security team looking out for suspicious activity on the tables.

When reading articles on beating Daniels Room poker, you might need to know about “dirty outs”. You have a situation of dirty outs when cards that improve your hand improve an opponent’s hand even more. As an example, say you are grinding ring games on a Bwin Poker download and have an open ended straight draw on a board with a couple hearts. If you make your straight when a third heart comes out, this out could be dirty because someone that had a flush draw has a hand that beats your new straight.

That is it for today, but I will be back sometime in October. In the meantime, maybe you should do some research on PokerStars rakeback. See you next month!

Common Poker Terms

In a previous entry I mentioned poker tools that are able to help you out as you study and learn more about Mac poker sites. The first thing I recommended was an online poker dictionary because it’s difficult to read in depth poker articles without knowing the most important poker terminology. The one problem with my suggestion, though, is that so many words will be listed that you'll have no idea where to begin! Because of this, I’ll go ahead and highlight a small number of the poker terms that I think are most important for someone starting up on an Everest Poker download or any other poker site download. Memorize these terms first because they are the most important ones to know.

The terms that I deem most important were already mentioned in earlier entries, so read my older articles if you haven’t done so yet. Make sure you understand “bankroll management” and “variance” very well because they will be vital for your success in poker. When playing on your poker flash website, you might be the victim of a lengthy downswing. That’s why you need to have a healthy bankroll.

At the beginning a new player should also learn about the “rake”. The rake is the portion removed from every pot or prize pool by the site or establishment hosting your poker game. For instance, if you play some no-limit hold em after getting a Full Tilt Poker download, your table will be raked about 5% of each pot. Each site or casino has their own rake percentage, and there is usually a maximum amount that can be raked per hand.

Another important term to learn about is “position”. Previously we considered the importance of your cards in the poker hands order article, but we didn’t talk about position at all. If you are last to act post flop, you have the best position at the table, and good position is as important for winning pots as the strength of your cards. When you’re in position, you can play hands that you normally wouldn’t play while out of position. When you play Internet slots, it usually doesn’t matter which machine you choose. It’s a different situation when you are playing poker versus other people, however.

I suggest looking for the term “outs” in an online poker dictionary before trying out any flash Texas Holdem site. If you’re playing in a pot and you feel you don’t have the best hand, you should determine the cards that could fall on later streets that likely would improve your hand to the best. These are what you call your “outs”.

Look up the phrase “fold equity”. When you’re trying to win a pot, you should remember that it’s possible to win hands if you bet and your opponents fold. This is what is known as fold equity, and it is very important because it’s a way to win pots without necessarily having the best hand. If you ever try your hand at high stakes on a PokerStars download, you will see that the most successful players use this idea quite frequently.

If you read advice columns on the internet regarding poker, you’ll probably come across the term “nit”. Players are described as nits when they play very few hands and are afraid to gamble. He will rarely put himself in a spot where there is a chance he will lose.

Before I conclude the free poker training in this particular entry, I will explain the term “all-in”. Most common in tournament poker, you are betting your entire stack if you go all-in, and to call, your opponents must call the amount in your stack or go all-in themselves. If you receive a call and fail to win the showdown, you are likely out of chips and you must re-buy (if the game allows it) or leave the table.

When I am back next time, I will list a few more terms that I think are important for you to know. In the meantime, study these terms carefully and see if you can find some strategy articles that use them. Be sure to come back in a couple weeks for my next article.

Poker Training Sites: SitnGo Grinders

Today I’m going to tell you about a training site that specializes in Sit-N-Go (SNG) tournaments. SNGs are tournaments that start with a predetermined number of people rather than at a predetermined time. For example, players can elect to enter a 9 player SNG, and when the tournament has received 9 participants, it starts. SNGs can be have anywhere from 2 to 180+ players in them. Most poker sites, including Mac poker sites, have SNGs available.

SitnGoGrinders.com focuses on SNG strategy. Because SNGs always have a set number of players along with rigid payout structures, they play differently from regular tournaments. SitnGo Grinders has a wealth of SNG information on their site including videos and articles, and their instructors are proven winners in online casinos for USA players. It won’t cost you an arm and a leg to join the site, either. There is no sign up fee and the cost per month is around $20. If you sign up for a year at once, you’ll pay $10.75/month for the first year and then $10 for subsequent months.

SitnGo Grinders is a relatively new training site, so their video catalog hasn’t reached the size of some of the larger sites out there. They are currently releasing around a video per day, so their video selection will continue to grow. As it is, though, their selection is quite good, especially for someone new to SNG strategy. People interested in 6 max SNGs on money poker sites will find hundreds of videos to choose from, as will those interested in multi-table SNGs. Full ring and heads-up SNGs combine to around 200 videos, which is less than the other categories but still not too shabby.

Many of the instructors play on PokerStars, one of the top Texas Hold'em sites on the Internet today. These players really took advantage of the PokerStars bonus code and VIP program because most of them are either Supernova or Supernova Elite players. This proves that they are true grinders of the game, which makes sense due to the name of the site! You’ll find that the videos feature all sorts of buy-ins so that both beginners and veterans can benefit from the site.

If you’re a cash game player on a Full Tilt Poker download, you will want to stay away from this site as they feature strictly SNGs. If you’re a multi-table tournament player, you won’t have any videos targeted to your game either, but you might still find the site useful for learning MTT endgame. Even though you can’t learn alternate forms of poker on SitnGoGrinders.com, it’s still an excellent site given its prices. If you’re a SNG player, it’s safe to say that you’ll greatly benefit from the in depth strategy that they offer.

Poker Training Sites: Poker Pwnage

So far I’ve mentioned two training sites that focus on cash games, so today I thought I’d talk about a site that makes poker videos for tournaments. Poker Pwnage is one of the newer training sites on the market, and they came with one intention: to make poker videos for tournament players. For full access, you’ll pay a $35 activation fee and then $24.99 per month. This is more than at GrinderSchool but less than at Cardrunners.

If you play the tournaments on a Virgin Poker download but you keep having to reload, it might be time to look into Poker Pwnage. They have over 300 online poker videos, and all of them were made by some very successful tournament poker players. If you’ve been following this year’s World Series of Poker, you might know that two of their instructors have made final tables so far. Adrian “Chardrian” Dresel-Velasquez cashed for $43,000 in a Limit event and David “GhettoFabolous” Randall cashed for $270,000 in a No Limit event.

If you prefer Sit-N-Go’s over MTT poker, you’ll also be happy with Poker Pwnage. There are videos for buy-ins from $10 to over $100, and you’ll get to choose from standard full ring, short handed, and heads-up. There’s a lot of stuff covering basic strategy, but the site also offers some out-of-the-box thinking. Even if you’re a fairly seasoned player, you’ll still have something to take away from the videos here.

You will not find a lot of videos for cash games, so you shouldn’t bother with this site if you’re even remotely a cash game player. They have a mere 5 cash game videos as of today, and who knows when the next one is coming out. If you play mostly Razz on a Full Tilt Poker download, you should also forget about this site. They feature strictly Hold Em, and it doesn’t look like they plan to change this anytime soon.

Really though, there are so many training sites that feature almost exclusively cash games, so it’s really nice to know that Poker Pwnage has something for the tournament players. When you subscribe to the site, you can be confident that the advice you’ll receive will be from a tried and true professional with a solid win rate. After you watch some of the videos, hopefully you won’t have to make another poker deposit on Tiger Gaming ever again!

Poker Training Sites: Cardrunners

Last time I talked about GrinderSchool, a training site that produces poker videos for beginner players. Today I will talk about Cardrunners, probably the most well known and respected training site on the internet today. The site was founded by Taylor Caby and Andrew Wiggins, and since 2008 they’ve been partnered with Full Tilt Poker. The site features a large variety of poker videos for low stakes, nosebleed stakes, and everything in between.

If you make an account at Cardrunners, you’ll be able to access a limited number of free poker videos, but you’ll need to pay a membership fee to view anything worthwhile. If you are still nursing a small bankroll, you might find the fees rather high: there is a $100 sign up fee, and then you pay $30 per month. If you’re serious about becoming a better player, you’ll find that the membership fees are worth it. Right now there are over 1800 online poker videos available for streaming and download, and every week at least seven more are released.

As with GrinderSchool, the strength of Cardrunners is in their cash game coverage. They have an amazing selection of videos for No Limit Holdem 6-max due to popular demand, and their No Limit Holdem Full Ring selection has gotten better over the past couple of years. If you play Texas Hold Em hands in Heads-Up or Limit games, you’ll also have a very good selection of videos to view.

If you’re a Sit-N-Go or MTT poker player, Cardrunners won’t be your first choice because their specialty is definitely cash games. That’s not to say they don’t have a lot of tournament videos because they have plenty, and you’ll find them at both low and high stakes. For people that play tournaments occasionally, Cardrunners is a good choice because they still have plenty of videos for tournaments and Sit-N-Go’s to go along with their top notch cash game selection.

If you’re into Rush Poker Omaha and you’re looking for some Omaha videos, Cardrunners has some of the best videos out of all the training sites right now. This is also true for other less popular games like Stud and Draw. You’re obviously not going to find a large variety of videos like you will for Hold Em, but Cardrunners definitely has the best selection of videos for other games out of all the training sites out there.

Once you’ve gotten some good practice with real money poker sites, Cardrunners is a great choice if you’re willing to pay for some high quality training videos. They’re definitely a top choice for cash game specialists, and if you want to learn a bit about tournaments, they’ll have something for you too. Overall, you can’t go wrong with putting your money into a Cardrunners membership.

Poker Training Sites: GrinderSchool

You’ll recall that a number of weeks ago I mentioned a few important poker tools that should help you get better at the game. We learned that it’s wise to take advantage of a few free poker videos because they’re an effective way to become a better player, and they’re free. If you’ve already taken this advice and found a bunch of free videos, you might be wondering what to do next once you’ve exhausted the free video market on the internet. By now your bankroll should be growing, so it’s time to invest a bit of money to grow even more as a player. My next few articles are going feature some of the poker training sites out there that you can sign up for if you think that poker videos are the best way for you to learn.

 

Today I’d like to talk about GrinderSchool because it caters to low stakes players. For as little as $10/month, you can receive access to over 600 online poker videos by players that have proven they can beat the games. They release 7 videos per week, and while most of them feature No Limit Hold Em, around 4 per month are either Pot Limit Omaha or mixed game videos.

 

The cash game coverage for No Limit Hold Em is excellent at Grinder School. They feature plenty of 6 max and Full Ring poker videos of a variety of stakes that new players can really benefit from. Heads-up players and Limit players might need to wait a little bit longer to see more videos catering to their games. There are a few of each, but perhaps not enough to make it worth it for players that specialize in those types of games. The same can be said for those that want videos for Omaha or other less common types of poker like Stud.

 

Have you been frequenting the Rush Poker tournaments on Full Tilt lately? Tournament players also have a good selection of videos, most of them by some really excellent players. The videos feature buy-ins that start as low as $2 and go all the way up to $55, and most of the videos are part of a 3 to 9 part series. If you’re looking to play in some higher buy-in tournaments, you can also watch some satellite videos.

 

If MTT poker isn’t your thing but single-table tournaments are, you’ll be very happy with GrinderSchool. The founder of the site made most of the videos, but they recently hired a couple new high quality instructors. The buy-ins featured in these videos start as low as $1 and go up to $33, and you’ll find both beginner and advanced concepts being covered.

 

Overall, GrinderSchool is an excellent site for beginner players trying real money poker sites. There is no sign up fee, and the monthly cost is very low to suit those with small bankrolls. If you’re looking for mixed games, you are better off elsewhere, but No Limit Hold Em players will be very happy with their investment when they see the video selection at this training site.

Implied Odds

I brought up the idea of pot odds last time, and today I’d like to continue with a similar theme and write about implied odds. We showed last time that employing a correct poker hands order should often give you the edge postflop, but there will be times where you will have to put your money in even if you’ll lose a large percentage of the time. You’re bound to lose a few of these pots, and I already mentioned that this is why I stress bankroll management. Implied odds will have a theme that’s similar in the fact that we’re also putting our money in with a worse hand. With pot odds we do it because it’s mathematically correct. With implied odds we do it because of future expectation.

To see what I mean, let’s go back to the example of flopping a flush draw from the last entry. We were playing a tournament on a Full Tilt Poker download and we flopped a flush draw. This time, though, imagine that our opponent doesn’t push and makes a smaller raise instead. We saw in the last entry that we can only call raises that are less than 500 chips to have the pot odds to call, so this appears to be a bad deal for us. A little extra information, though, might turn this into a winning situation. Imagine that he has 1,000 chips behind and we know that he will call the rest on the river no matter what. To keep the math simple, let’s also imagine that he is sure to check the turn all the time. This sets up a situation in which it becomes correct to calculate implied odds rather than pot odds. Since we know that he’s going to either bet or call his remaining 1,000 chips on the river, you can consider that the pot is 2,000 rather than 1,000. 600 to call divided by 2,000 in the implied pot gives you 0.30, and since you’ll hit your flush around 33% of the time, the call is profitable here.

It should be clear that a poker odds chart combined with pot odds and implied odds will provide an important advantage over others. An inexperienced individual can lose money in multiple situations when he has a draw. One option is that he might call with incorrect pot odds while on a draw, and without any implied odds, this is a losing play in the long run. Or maybe he’ll have a draw and his opponent will be giving him great implied odds to call, but he won’t do so because he sees that the pot odds aren’t there. Whether you’re playing ring games or MTT poker, it’s important that you utilize both pot odds and implied odds to make as much money as possible when you have draws.

I would like to end on a cautionary note, however. Occasionally those new to the game will think that it’s okay to call in all situations when they are taught implied odds because they are overly optimistic regarding their opponent. When you’re counting future bets, you must be absolutely sure that you are actually going to get them. For example, say you’re playing poker hands in a live brick-and-mortar game and you hit a set of sixes on the turn, but you also believe it has given your opponent a flush at the same time. When he raises your bet, you realize that you’re going to have to hit a full house on the river in order to win, so you start calculating your implied odds. When you are considering future bets, you must realize your opponent might be less willing to put in a lot of chips with just a flush on a paired board. If you assume that you’ll get paid off when you actually won’t, you’re going to make a lot of incorrect calls which will severely hurt your bottom line in the long run.