Lucky Streak Poker

www.pokerstars.com – In my younger days, I could happily sit and play poker all day long, and never tire of it, and although my interest has never faded as such, I do find my mind tires quicker than it used to. Perhaps it is the fact that I am having to think more carefully about my play these days, but it seems easier for tiredness to affect my play.

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I do personally find that changing the game I am playing will help to stimulate my interest and provide a break from Holdem, and I feel that learning such new games is very helpful to developing poker skills too. If you are a player who sits online playing tournament after tournament, and find results aren’t going your way, I would suggest not playing quite such a packed out schedule. Although some players are certainly better than others at maintaining constant concentration, it can be quite draining and have an effect on our decision making for most of us.

Singular tournaments which go on for a long time are not so much of a problem I find, as the constantly approaching, money paying places, will always spur me on to play better. If you enjoy playing tournaments more than cash games in general, as I do, it can sometimes be difficult to make yourself sit at a cash table. It is worth trying though, as this can help keep you motivated too, as you always have a numerical display of your success in money, right in front of you. the fact that you can stand up and leave the table when th cards start running badly for you is also a refreshing change sometimes.

www.fulltiltpoker.com – In poker, it is not often that you make a hand strong enough to not have to worry what card hits on the river, and so there is almost always good reason to raise in order to protect your hand. I’m sure we have all heard the stories of players who had a good hand, and all of a sudden their opponent hits their dream card on the river and shoves all in.

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The reality of this situation is not that the person with the good hand was unlucky, they simply didn’t recognise the potential dangers and raise to protect their hand well enough. If we take an example of flopping a two pair with (Q,K) on a board of (Q,K,J), less experienced player might be tempted to check and hope someone else raises. If the raise never happens, and several players see a turn of an Ace, Ten or Jack, you could have just got yourself into a lot of trouble.

Although it is not ideal to pick up small pots with big hands, the fact is, that you will be far more happy doing that than letting players see two more cards and getting outdrawn. It is obvious enough that the way in which you raise to protect a strong yet vulnerable hand, is decided mostly by the texture of flop, but you are always better off playing it safe I feel.

Some hands are less vulnerable than others, depending on the flop, but remember that if you raise, and you do get a caller against your strong hand, you end up building a big pot, and if the opponent folds you have picked up a smaller pot. But either way, this is a win/win situation.

www.vcpoker.com – With christmas approaching, I have only been involved in one live game this week, although technically that did branch out into a secondary Omaha game, in which I again did better than the Holdem tournament. As far as the Holdem game went, it started off well, as I gradually built my stack from 6,000 up to 9,000.

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But after a few draws that missed, and some opponents making all in shoves after I had opened with a raise preflop, I had slipped back to 5,500. One of the players at the table had shown pocket threes on two occasions, after shoving all in preflop and forcing everyone to fold, and after looking down at (7,7) and raising to 1,500, I had a feeling what would happen. The reason I raised so much was because the blinds were reasonably sized, and I wanted to pick them up uncontested. This wasn’t to be however, as the player who had pushed with pocket threes twice already, came over the top and shoved again. I really felt I had no choice but to make a stand, and despite the fact that it was unlikely he had threes again, I felt I was racing at worst, and so I called. He showed (J,Q), and told me he felt I was trying to steal the pot which was why he moved all in, and I guess in a sense, he wasn’t too far from the truth. The flop came down (8,9,10) to make my elimination quick and painless, and we started up our side game of Omaha.

Seven players started, and I held a nice chiplead for quite a while, but I was playing to loose I feel, and eventually one big pot went the other way, and I was out in 3rd place soon after. Not the most productive week I must say, but I should be fresh enough to play well in the live game on Wednesday, after not having played for a few days now.

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