Can I win more by playing a tight game or a loose poker game?

You will undeniably hear two theories from your poker buddies or perhaps the so-called poker pros. Let’s have a look first at the tight poker players. All players including yourself will find it hard winning, if the entire table is playing a tight Texas holdem’ game. What could happen if you have a table full of tight Texas holdem’ players is the poker players will end up exchanging the smaller pots back and forth to each other. Meanwhile the casino hotel is raking in heaps of your hard-earned poker money, and that of your competition. So now you may say, is it better to play loose? Well, in this situation the better poker players are going to lose a smaller number of hands, but at the end of it all nobody is going to succeed.

How can I improve my poker playing in the long run?

The answer to this question is as straightforward as a piece of paper and a pen. A terrific plan to learn a lot about your playing technique and strategy, is to keep some sort of record of your poker playing. It’s possible to write down this information during the Texas holdem’ game, and then transfer it to a database on your home computer. This can also help you learn about your opponents playing style, and what is the best tactic to defeat them.

Should I use the same strategy for every poker tournament?

If you consider that playing predictable poker is a winning tactic for playing poker, then you should think about altering your Texas holdem’ strategy. The Texas holdem’ pros have the same opinion that varying your Texas holdem’ playing method is the best way to confuse and puzzle your poker competitors. You should test a number of methods, find the ones that work for you and alter them for each Texas holdem’ tournament.

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According to the 2006 WSOP bracelet winner, Jamie Gold, he would be happy to be remembered as the top bluffer in the poker world. But if his last tournament is any indication, his wish may not come true any time soon.

The setting is the 2007 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic held at the Sin City Bellagio Hotel Casino in 2007. Featuring $50 - $100 blinds and a $15,000 buy-in, Darrell Dicken is hanging on in the tournament for dear life. The seat 4 player has just raised his bet to $300, a pretty small raise with only one player taking the bait. “I put him as being weak,” Jamie said, “I was thinking about raising, but instead I just called with a 10-3 of hearts to see what would happen.”

Jamie was thinking that Brad Booth would make some kind of move, which he did. He re-raised to $1600 from the big blind. Gold had the idea that Booth had a passable hand, but he was in a good position to make a move taking into account the quantity of dead money in the pot. Dicken ended up folding, and the unknown in Seat 4 called Booth’s raise.

Now there was more than $4000 in the pot, so Jamie went ahead and made it another $4000. He was thinking, only if someone else had aces or kings there would be no chance they would make that call. Jamie’s strategy was to make a sizeable move on the flop, as long as no ace was dealt. The second part of his strategy was to get Booth to fold, which he did. Booth folded with pocket queens.

Out of the flop there was an ace of ace-6-5, two clubs. The player in seat 4 checked and Jamie bet $2000. Jamie’s primary thought was to make him think that he had clubs. Seat 4 tossed out a $10,000 chip, but didn’t say anything thus changing his raise into a call. Jamie’s thought was that seat 4 in all likelihood had an ace, but you have to look after it in case he hits his set on the following card.

A 2 of hearts appeared on the turn, and Jamie quickly folded to what he was thinking was a top pair kicker. Seat 4 laid down a king-jack off suit. Seat 4 tricked Gold by bluffing with a superb hand, he made an excellent poker play and continued with the bluff all the way through to the finish.

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Texas Holdem’ used to be a game accessible only in Las Vegas Casino Hotels or from electronic poker machines, but now it is more popular than ever in Las Vegas, Nevada thanks to the internet and TV.

The popular Venetian Casino, is now betting on this new trend with its new audience-participation show called “The Real Deal!” in its showroom located in the Venetian Resort and Casino, debuting in October.

This new idea will combine comedy and game show elements to entertain its live audience. The audience will also be able to participate in the famous Texas-Holdem’ alongside the top poker players. Many prizes are available for the audience including a chance to win 1$ million.

In “The Real Deal!” the audience members will play with players like Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu. Around 10 of the world’s top poker stars have already signed up for the show. The audience will be able to play along with the 90 minute game thanks to handheld, wireless, touch screen devices located on each seat.

“People who take a vacation in Sin City casinos want to play poker games,” Negreanu says, “but obviously they can’t play in a top poker tournament with the players like Doyle or Phil Hellmuth. But, in this show, they actually can.” At the start of the show, six audience members will be chosen to sit at the poker table on stage with two pro poker players. Each audience member is then involved in the action by being dealt a unique poker hand on their devices. Everyone in the showroom is then involved in the action with big-screen monitors located on stage.

The show’s creators say that you don’t have to be a poker player to participate in the poker game. There are other ways to enhance your point total, that doesn’t involve the game of poker necessarily. Betting on the suit of the next poker card or trying to guess which state a particular audience member is from, are just some of the ways to come out a champion in poker in this game.

The shows producers are also betting on the charisma of the professional poker players to create some great moments. Poker players such as Scotty Nguyen, the flamboyant five-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, definitely has an idea how to entertain the crowd and is a sure bet for some great TV moments in this new poker game show .

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Shortly after the opening of last week’s charity celebrity poker tournament to aid the Paralyzed Veterans of America, Ben Affleck goes all-in with a flop of Ace-Nine-King and two diamonds. He squirms when two of his rivals call the bet. He yells “Re-buy”, but the turn is a seven of hearts. Affleck is upset when a jack of diamonds is dealt on the river. He took the hand seriously even though there was no real cash at stake. This is just the kind of thing that Affleck and several other online poker enthusiasts are lobbying for.

Over $100,000 was raised for the paralyzed victims, but this was not the only function of the poker event held in Coors Field. Members of the Poker Players Alliance are working very hard to legalize internet poker in the United States. As part of their agenda, they are pushing to repeal the 2006 legislation Congress passed which bans U.S. Banks and credit card companies from processing transactions related to online poker websites.

John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, is optimistic about the direction that the new congress will lead this decision. Pappas says that the alliance is pushing for a licensed industry, just for online poker, and not for all online gaming. Pappas is interested in having a safe, regulated industry that all Americans can enjoy. The group is fighting for the rights of people and the privacy they deserve in their own home.

“There are misconceptions about poker and about online poker,” poker pro Andy Bloch said in between hands during the charity poker game. “Some people think that online poker is gambling like a slot machine, and it’s not.”

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