The Online Casino Gambling Blog

Hal Lubarky is a very good poker player, he placed 118th out of 335 players in the World Series of Poker in 2007 with a chip count of over four hundred thousand dollars at the end of it. Hal is special in his poker playing abilities even more so due to the fact that he is is legally blind. A poker enthusiast from a young age Hal found himself struck with a serious eye disease in the late nineties that left him unable to read the cards.

Hal fell into a great depression when he was forced to give up the game he loved but eventually was coaxed into trying an online poker game with a friend over his shoulder reading the cards to him. Soon Hal had discovered a new way to play the game he had loved. Hal progressed to live poker games and finally started entering tournaments. It was a red letter day for Lubarky when the gaming officials finally altered the rules so as to allow handicapped people to play in professional tournaments. To most players at last year’s tournament Hal is an inspiration. Hal is just happy to be able to enjoy his game again.

Poor poker etiquette makes a player seem like a rookie, interrupts the flow of the game and annoys fellow players. In some cases, poor etiquette gets players kicked out of the game and even the casino!

Being polite to the dealer and fellow poker players is the number one “do” of proper poker etiquette. However, before sitting down at a poker table, players absolutely need to know the some of the most important “dont’s.”

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If you are considering playing online poker you have a wide variety of choices in games and formats. There are ring games where you play for the actual amount of monies you start with and so you can win the stacks of what the others around the table have put up. Then there are the tournaments where you can really win HUGE amounts depending on the number of players in the tournament. Players in multi table tournaments are required to register for at least 5 minutes before the start of the game. Some of these tournaments are free of charge and they are called freerolls, others require a buy-in and a small start up fee. The buy-in is collected for the prize pool and the fee goes to the poker room as the participation fee. Players in these tournaments can range from fifty to three or four thousand players. These games can last as long as 12 to 18 hours straight.

Of course if you find yourself still in the tournament after 12 hours then that could only mean you are “in the money”, that is you are guaranteed to win some portion of the prize pool. If you win the tournament your winnings could be as high as 1 million dollars if not more. There are some poker rooms which offer these prize pools every Sunday. On other days the prize pools range from $1000 to even $500,000. There are usually hundreds of tournaments taking place every day with amounts to suit any budget.

After registering for an online poker tournament you will be assigned to a table and be seated randomly. Players all start with the same amount of chips usually between $800 and $3000 but the amounts may vary according to the tournament. Elimination from the game starts with the player who loses all his chips first and you will be redirected to another table as the players become less so that there are always a minimum number of players in every table. This happens to keep all the tables balanced, this continues until there is only one table left and this table is referred to as the “money table”. The elimination process become easier as the game progresses because of the increasing blinds after a set number of minutes which seeks to reduce your bankroll.

There are a few different types of tournaments in the multi table format of the online poker rooms. I mentioned the freeroll already but there’s also added events where the poker room adds an additional amount of money to the prize pool. Then there are the guaranteed tournaments meaning that the prize pool is guaranteed before the start, say at $10,000 or $1,000,000 or whatever level. The turbo tournaments can be quite fun as these are for impatient players who hate those players who take forever to play their hands thus frustrating the other players who will then go on tilt and lose. These tournaments have increased blinds at a faster rate, great if you don’t have much time to spare.

Re-buys and add-ons allow you to buy your place back into the game if you have been eliminated before a specific time. You also have the option of adding more chips to you stack again before a specific timeframe. There are also bounty features, in this game all players carry a bounty on their head of varying values and if you eliminate any of them from the tournament a special bounty bonus is awarded to you.

All in all online poker tournaments are not only great fun, but because of the amount of monies involved they could literally change your lives. It’s like winning a lottery or a mini lotto.

Bluffing is a major online poker strategy for all types of poker games be it Texas Hold’em, Straight Stud, Caribbean Stud or Omaha Poker. Players bluff because they want their other opponents to think they have a better hand. For your bluff to be a success you have to persuade your opponent into believing you have a better hand than they do. Inexperienced players are famous for bluffing, they do it regularly and they end up being bankrupt. So now you know bluffing doesn’t always work.

Experienced poker players bluff all the time and more often than you would expect. It’s easier to bluff when there are fewer people at the table because the odds are that a good hand is low. Experienced players know of this situation and will call you till the end. Therefore you should always know who you’re playing against or at least spend some time at the table first knowing your opponents before attempting to bluff.

Bluffing on the river is a good chance to take. The players with bad hands will fold and if you made it this far with out bluffing chances are that you have a good hand. Even if you don’t the confident attitude you adopt at this point makes a huge difference in the minds of your opponents who might have a low or mediocre hand. The bluff you are about to make is actually a semi-bluff. Waiting to bluff when you’re last and everyone else has checked is good also. You may need to be persistent in this bluff though, bet and raise a few times because this type of bluff is common and will be expected.

You are usually safe to bluff if you have won a couple hands in the games before because now they fear you. Hence the reason you will find some players being very aggressive when first starting to play at a new table with players they have never played against. They are hoping to pick up a couple of big wins and instill an element of fear in the others minds. These type of players are usually easy to spot. They will most likely fold when you raise the bet, but you should play this bluff the same way you played the winning hands.

In conclusion, when using these bluffing strategies think about the fact that the other player may know about them too. This will help them to sniff out your bluff so don’t overdo it. Always play against who you know if you want to be a successful bluffer or at least get to know your opponents first. Sometimes the run of the cards allows you to create an aura of invincibility early on. Example if you start with a couple of great hands and bet big and then show your hands at the end, win or lose, players will recognize you as someone who bets hard when they have a good hand. Hence when you have a couple of duds and do the same, you will more likely get away with it.