Pokeroom.com – Case Study 1
www.pokeroom.com – After being dealt (K,K) in the early stages of a Holdem tournament, I raised double the big blind, 400. There weren’t many players going to the flops, and so I felt this was probably enough to isolate one player. I found my caller in the big blind, and the flop came down (K,3,4).
I really didn’t see much point in raising the pot, as it was very unlikely that my opponent had a King, and so if he had caught any other part of the flop, it was more likely to be a vulnerable middle or bottom pair. I didn’t feel my opponents range of potential hands included (2,5) but perhaps (5,6) suited was a possibility. Either way, I checked to him and was happy when he bet out as I had hoped, a 400 raise. Considering that he only had about 1,000 remaining in chips, I decided I should reraise to 800. Our opponent then folded his hand, and I was left wondering if I had made the right choice. There was no flush draw out, and perhaps he would have bet out again if I had called and let the turn card fall.
In some ways though, I feel his bet of 400 was the only real shot he could afford to take at the pot due to the size of his chipstack. Only the straight draw had me in any real potential trouble, and so I would have been perfectly happy if he had reraised all in when I reraised his initial bet on the flop. You might say that I would have been better off raising into the flop in the first place of course, but I do not think I would have achieved anything other than forcing him to instantly fold.
Slow playing in general can be dangerous due to the fact that you might allow your opponent to outdraw you, but I certainly feel there is a place for it when your instinct tells you that your opponent will put out a tester bet if you check. In this way, you can expand the pot, put in the aggressive big raise, and not have to give away a free card. But your judgement of whther your opponent will bet out once you check, is the key. Pokeroom.com
Partypoker.co – Case Study 2
Partypoker.co.uk – With a hand of (10,10) in late position, you raise the pot to three times the big blind, and only the player in the small blind calls. The flop then comes down (10c,Jc,Qc). You can safely say that as players, we love to make a set with any pocket pair on the flop, but it is not often that we also find ourselves seriously concerned about the other board cards on the flop. We know that our situation is precarious, but we do have a fairly strong hand at this point.
If we make a raise here, it is very unlikely it will force out a sizeable flush draw or open ended straight draw, and so with these as our main concern, perhaps raising is not the correct choice. A reasonable raise might be enough to convince your opponent to fold a top pair or two pair, but some players might still reraise you with a nut flush draw, and they probably will do with a hand like (A,K).
Personally, in this situation, we do not want our bet to look like a tester bet, and so I wouldn’t bet first, I would check to my opponent, and if they choose to bet, then reraise.
This type of play looks much stronger and shows a lack of fear on your part, so your opponents response that follows will give you much more information about their true strength. If they have a straight or flush already, I would expect them to come over the top with another reraise, and if they have neither of these big draws, they will probably fold. If they check behind your initial check, they could be slow playing something big, but at least in this case, you know that the board pairing will probably win you a big pot even if they do have, or complete, their straight or flush. www.partypoker.co.uk
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Fulltiltpoker.com – Defensive Play
www.fulltiltpoker.com – Recently, I was reminded of how I can be vulnerable to particular types of plays during a heads up cash game with a good friend of mine. We have always played in such a way that we set the antes at a level which does not change throughout the game.
With this type of heads up game, it is always my instinct to go on the offensive and try and pick up pots. The difference though, is that in a heads up tournament situation, there is always a nice preflop poit built through the blinds being high, but with our heads up cash game, this is not the case.
This particular friend of mine knows my natural disposition to attack pots heads up, and so plays more defensively, waiting for me to walk into trouble. This is often successful against me, especially as my opponent liked to slow play hands and smooth call with relatively strong hands.
This caused me to gradually lose money by trying to pick up one too many pots through sheer aggression, but I knew there was also a weakness to be explotited here too. All I needed was a situation where my opponent had a fairly strong hand, but allowed me to see the turn and river to hit a big draw. This is always a situation we want in poker, but I really felt I could make the most of such a situation in this particular game, as my friend does not much like to fold strong hands.
After we had been playing for about four hours, I finally managed to end the game when I made a full house against my opponents straight. I could have been forced out when I had a single pair on the flop, but my opponents habit of smooth calling backfired as I caught the turn and river perfectly. fulltiltpokercom
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Pokerroom.co.uk – Lucky Escapes
pokeroom – In poker, there are often times when we find ourself looking back on a hand and wondering quite how we managed to escape the hand with a chipstack still intact. These type of hands are usually ones in which you had to make a very good fold, and so perhaps ‘Skilled Escapes’ would be more apt.
I remember one particular hand having been dealt (J,J) and seeing a flop come down of (Js,10c,9s). My initial raise which was a strong one, was after some thought, flat called. Immediately though, as the (7s) came down on the turn, I had a strong feeling my opponent had been waiting on some sort of draw. I put out another raise, only to be faced with a large reraise. I folded the hand, and my opponent was kind enough to show his spade flush.
Another hand which stands out in my mind was when I had (Q,Q) only to see a flop of (3,3,3) come down. My opponent had (A,3), the turn brought a Jack, but I still somehow managed to make a great fold on the river (8) to preserve half of my stack.
Sometimes in these situations, there is more luck involved than judgement, as multiple players get involved in a pot forcing you to fold a hand you would otherwise have called, and lost all your chips with.
This is the nature of poker I suppose and the intertwined moments of logic and blind luck can seem to conspire for, or against you at any given game.www.pokeroom.co.uk
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pokerroom.co.uk review
There is much to like about Pokerroom I feel, with excellent customer support options being a significant plus point. Support is offered 24/7 by phone, e-mail, and lobby chat outlets. There is a loyalty bonus scheme offered here too, along with a very nice looking tournament schedule, and the transaction security aspects of this poker room are of the highest standards.
Visually the site is quite pleasing too, and there are many games on offer to keep players onsite happy. Specifically, the games on offer are, Texas Holdem, Omaha, Seven Card Stud, and Five Card Draw. Strangely, Blackjack is also listed as one of their poker games, although this particular game is not a poker variant as such. The other games on the menu would certainly be enough to keep me happy though, and I like their promotions too. Qualifiers to the Aussie millions are found at pokerroom currently, giving the chance for the more serious players to plot their path to one of the most prestigious tournaments on the calendar.
Qualifiers are accompanied by gauranteeds, bounty tournaments, and their imaginative creation known as ‘cannonball tournaments’.
Forums and strategy sections onsite give a good outlet for player help and information of all varieties, and adds to the many things that help to make www.pokeroom.co.uk the site that it is. All in all, a good site to play your poker on I feel.
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