Ladbroke Poker – Case Study 1
Ladbrokepoker – This was one of the more damaging hands I was involved in on Wednesday. In the big blind, I had just got back from a toilet break in time to play my hand, and with two callers already, I checked with (8s,9s). The flop couldn’t have looked much better when it fell (5c,6h,7h). It could of course been a completely rainbow flop, but I certainly wasn’t complaining. The small blind checked, and I led out with a 300 raise into a 900 pot. This might seem a little strong, and perhaps it was, but I had been playing aggressive poker that evening and one of the players in the pot had already picked off a bluff of mine earlier in the tournament.
I was called by both players, and the King of hearts appeared on the turn. This really was not what I wanted to see with two flat callers on the previous betting round, but I led out with 300 to try and tempt a made Flush to reraise and let me know I was behind. One player flat called and the other folded. The river was a (3s) which wasn’t quite what I was hoping for. Part of me already knew I was going to be up against a Flush, and so I was hoping for a fourth heart on the river to make it an easy check on the river.
As it was, I made a final 500 bet which could only be reraised by a hand that was beating me. The bet was flat called in fact, by a weak Flush from a player holding (8h,5h). He had picked up an open ended Straight Flush draw on the flop, and was never likely to fold his hand at any point. With that in mind I really only lost a small amount compared to what I could have lost. Perhaps I shouldn’t have raised the final 500, but overall I got away lightly. Ladbrokepoker.com
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Pokeroom.com – The Journey of a Poker Player
Pokeroom – We all start in a similar place with poker. We sit down not really understanding what is going on, throw some money into a pot when we think we have something that looks connected in some way. My first "big" pot was about £8 in a live game with my cousin in Ireland. Just a few of us drinking beer, and a basic explantation of poker from my cousin whilst we walked to the hosts house. That was almost 8 years ago now and will remain in my memory, perhaps forever.
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We were playing Five Card Draw, and the hand that looked in some way connected turned out to be a Straight.
At one point in the evening I had to lend my cousin £10 and later on he lent me the same amount back after I had lost much of what I started with. by the end of the evening I had £5 more than I had started with and have loved the game ever since.
As many of us do, I would someday like to play a WSOP tournament, but there is no rush for me. Poker is a gradual learning process and entails a huge amount of patience and dediaction to have any sort of prolonged success at the game. For the moment I am relatively happy applying my skills to local live tournaments and small cash games.
For my game to improve further I know I need to progress to bigger games, and sometimes I think I might be ready for that when I have a very profitable evening. Despite this, I am happy to bide my time until I can make the correct decision most of the time and successfully make money at the game consistently. It is easy to feel you are a very skilled player and blame misfortune when you are losing more on average than you are winning. As I always say though, to be a talented poker player, you must first be humble enough to be critical of your own play, and be willing to berate yourself for the mistakes you make. www.pokeroom.com
Partypoker.co – Freerolls
www.partypoker.co.uk – This particular type of tournament is offered by almost every poker room online, and gives players the chance to build their funds up from nothing. That is easier said than done however, as there are often hundreds or even a few thousand players entered into each tournament.
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Chris Ferguson recently proved that it is possible to build an extensive bankroll by building on freeroll success when he turned $0 into $10,000 although it did take him many months to do so.
In terms of strategy, there are many bad habits that can be learnt by playing too many freerolls. If you are a new player that progresses from freerolls to real money tournaments, you will immediately find the way in which most players approach the game is different. You will not find multiple all ins with weak hands for instance. Players try to conserve and nurture their chipstack over the course of the game rather than take a pure gamble on trebling or quadrupling up.
Having said this, you can learn the basics of the game from freerolls, and you can also learn from the experience of having to outlast a few thousand players which you cannot find in cash games or SnGs. Playing a very big chipstack is also an enjoyable experience and one which can be found in the latter stages of freerolls. Partypoker.uk
Fulltiltpoker.com Review
www.fulltiltpoker.com has been among the finest poker rooms online for a long time now, and there are several reasons for this.
Their distinguished list of sponsored professional players are proof that if you are serious about your poker, Full Tilt are very adept at catering to your needs.
With a sign up bonus as good as most sites online, you will find a welcome boost to your bankroll waiting as soon as you have spent some time playing for real money.
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Personally, I enjoy the visual experiences of playing poker, and perhaps Full Tilt can work on this, but in almost every area, it is difficult to find flaws. Their help and support is quick and professional, ensuring players are well looked after. Both this, and transaction security are key to building a good poker room I feel, and Full tilt excel in these areas. As a result, player traffic is extremely good with tables filling quickly in most games.
The duel issued by Tom Dwan to the poker world is also taking place on Full Tilt which will do no harm in raising their profile further.
There are loyalty bonuses and excellent promotions on offer here too, which help players to maintain a bankroll moving in the right direction, and freerolls for any who wish to try the challenge recently completed by Chris Ferguson.
He turned $0 into $10,000 and although that took him a considerable amount of time, it is inspirational to poker players everywhere in my opinion.
Overall I feel that Fulltiltpokercom deserve their place among the best poker rooms online, and if they continue to improve they will surely remain there.
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Fulltiltpoker.com Review
First of all, I should mention some new improvements to www.fulltiltpoker.com that have been made recently. There have been updates to security aspects of the site (not that the site has had problems in this area). Details of these can be found on the homepage, but all in all, a little more security is never a bad thing. There have been new tournament types added to the schedule too which look very interesting.
Matrix tournaments involve four tournament tables being played at once against the same players, and money not being paid out for an individual performance on one table. Instead the payouts are based on the performance and results over all four tables. This is a positive way to play poker because it evens out the good and bad luck over the course of play on the multiple tables, to give a fairer representation of the best player.
Shootout tournaments have also been added to give an extra option for tournament types, and new betting sliders, late tournament registry options, amongst many other small tweaks have made playing on fulltiltpoker.com that much easier.
In other areas, fulltiltpokercom continue to offer an excellent service to their players, with competitive first time deposit bonuses, excellent customer care and strong player traffic. This drive to continually improve the service offered to customers is good to see I feel, and is essential to remaining at the top. Alongside all the other points that make Full tilt the first class poker room it has always been, these changes can only be a positive influence on www.fulltiltpoker.com.
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Pokerstars.com Review
In terms of the best points at Pokerstars, their variety of games on offer will always stand out as something which makes this poker room different from the others. With Omaha, Stud (with hi/lo), along with Holdem, Razz, 2-7 Triple and Single Draw, Five Card Draw, and even Badugi, you would be hard pressed to find anyone who cannot find their favoured game.
The excellent player traffic through the site helps with this too, as even the more obscure games will never be devoid of active players. In other areas, Pokerstars continues to excel, with great customer support and poker learning sections. Their extensive team of seasoned professionals bear testament to the fact that www.pokerstars.com remains one of the finest poker rooms to be found online.
Many tournaments are ongoing here as ever, with freerolls, large guaranteeds, and many other special promotional tournaments too.
Pokerstars is in my opinion one of the best sites to play poker on, and the vast number of players who sit down at tables there every day, shows this sentiment is not mine alone.
Added to this, they have managed to sponsor 6 of the final 9 players from this years WSOP main event which has helped raise their profile further still.
Overall then, a fabulous site without any clear weaknesses and with the same work ethic they have shown in recent years continuing, they should certainly be set to maintain that position. www.pokerstars.com
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Pokeroom.com – Case Study 2
www.pokeroom.com – This is another hand from my recent live game, and was a rather familiar one, as I picked up (K,K) for the third time during the tournament. We were engaged in a final table battle, with 6 players remaining, and I had shoved all in preflop about 15 minutes earlier with the same hand, only managing to pick up the blinds. My feeling with (K,K) is always one of fear, in that if you are called preflop, you are likely to be up against an opponent with an Ace in their hand, and so you are never quite secure.
On this occasion I decided to raise the big blind of 1,600 up and make it 5,000 to go. One player with a large stack then moved all in and after considering the possibility of him having Aces (he was risking it all against me as I had him covered with my chipstack), I felt I had to call. He turned over (A,K) and the flop came down (Q,2,7), I was soon worrying about the river though when a (10) fell on the turn, opening up the possibility of a Jack making him a straight. As it was, I had nothing to fear from the Jack, and it was my original fear of the Ace which proved correct. The Ace hit on the river and cut my stack down to a very weak 9,000. I do not feel I could have done too much differently though, perhaps if I had moved all in preflop he may have put the hand down, but I feel it unlikely given my loose table image at my local game.
Through some good play and aggressive moves I built my stack back up over the next half an hour, but I could not help wondering if I may have done better than my final place of 4th had this one not gone awry. www.pokeroom.com
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Ladbroke Poker – Recent Tournament Part 2
Ladbrokepoker – After a reasonable placing of 7th in an online MTT this evening, I still felt fresh enough to take on another of the same 50 player MTT variety. I got off to a good start early on, raising my chipstack from it’s starting point of 1,500, to a healthier 2,400 with some well timed bets and good reads.
Inching my chips further up to 2,800, I was involved in the following hand, with a player holding (9d,10d) and with 1,800 chips in front of him. I was in the small blind and was faced with a strong raise from our player two seats to my right. He made it 500 to go with the blinds at 50/100, and as the action was folded to me, I felt I had to take a flop with (Ac,Qs).
The flop then came down beautifully, (9h,As,Qd).
I checked, seeing no obvious danger to my hand and feeling that a player who had invested 500 preflop would feel compelled to try and force the issue with a bet. Again, everything seemed to be falling into place as he moved all in, and I instantly called.
Then the turn came…diamond…followed by the inevitable river, also a diamond, to give him his flush.
I did not let this hand get to me though and fought back well, keeping up the momentum of good reads and strong plays.
After managing to double through with (K,K), I started pushing my luck a little, calling a shortstacks under the gun all in raise, with (5,5) in my hand, and thankfully, it held up against (K,Q). I don’t think I was being reckless, I simply knew that to go deep in the tournament, I couldn’t afford to be passive.
Then, after reaching 6,000 chips I was finally eliminated in exactly the same 7th place as in my previous tournament.
I had a big stack of 11,000 on my left, and had been avoiding confrontation with him where possible, but for whatever reason, I suddenly decided to take a shot at picking up his big blind whilst holding (3,3). I raised too heavily from the small blind (2,500) and he fired back a reraise for the rest of my chips. I should perhaps have folded, but I felt I had invested enough to take him on in what was likely to be a coinflip. He did indeed have two overcards of (A,J), but an Ace came on the flop, and no miracle arrived for me. Ladbrokepoker.com
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