Hand Analysis: 3-7 Beyond the classically defined ‘worst hand in poker ‘ of 7 2, the 7 3 is one step up in value, but still just as blank in application. There’s almost no reason to ever play 7 3 unless it is free for you in the big blind, and even then playing for much money without flopping 7 7 7 or 3 3 3 is just asking to get ripped up a bit. Many online poker players like to push aggressively with any two cards from in position, but even those players are often hesitant to push with a hand as blank as the 7 3. Even from the button, where many poker online players love to come into a pot with practically anything, this hand is just so bad it smells. It’s hard to justify even firing or opening a pot late with, as almost no flop can come that will make pressing on OK if you see any sort of resistance. This is just one to let go and wait for the next hand to be aggressive on. No matter how rough and tumble you are at the table, there has to be a spot where you can ease up, and no better time than when you’re dealt this kind of wreckage.
Beyond physical tells and reads, one of the best ways one might gather information about what a player holds in a hand is by getting them to talk. Though they may not realize it directly, each thing a poker player says in a hand can in some way be linked back to how they feel at heartand though more talented players may be adept at putting spins on this kind of information, the more you know about an online poker player and the more they say can be pieces of the puzzle that lead you to the correct decision.
Getting most players to talk in a hand can be pretty easy, as long as they aren’t the kind that refuse to open their mouths at all. Some players, knowing how much psychology can go into every word they say during a hand, will go completely silent, which is a whole other topic of discussion as to what their status, posture, expression means.
For those who will talk, try to see how confident they are in their position. Do they seem easy going and open? They might be more likely to have a hand. Are they quiet, nervous? Possibly they could be nervous about their cards. Though the realm of deception is pretty conceivably wide, adding what a player says into what you know about their outlook provides a great portrait of an online poker player in the moment.
To each his own. I was browsing 2+2 the other day and I found a rather interesting thread talking about the chameleon style of poker online play. That is playing a lot of disguised casino online hands and hoping to get a big pay off due to the sheer volume of hands played. The basic premise is this: Play about 40% of your hands, and only preflop raise about 7% of the time. Basically, be a calling station with disguised monsters. I pondered over this for a while and came to only one conclusion. It can work. But only situationally. And by situational I mean only in games where the majority of online poker players have the same stats or worse. It just seems to me that playing such a loose passive game becomes unprofitable at the higher stakes. Sure at micro stakes, you can probably pull this off, but at the higher 100NL and up stakes at the major sites, you’re most likely going to be footing the bill for someone else’s bankroll. Here’s an example. You’re limpcalling UTG with 45 and you hit your set 446 after you call a raise from someone in middle position. He cbets into your pot and you call again. Next card comes 5 giving you the boat. In a situation like this, the initial raiser is not going to be near his range of continuing hands. You’ll rarely get a chance to stack off against him playing like this out of position. Because his opening range is probably not going to be hitting that flop. He’ll probably check the turn, and you’ll bet the turn hoping to stack off, and then bam, he folds and you’ve only won a marginal amount on your full house, as opposed to four betting him on the flop and seeing if he’ll push over the top to your trips to stack off. I dunno, I guess it just irked me to see that someone was actually advocating such a style of play. Sure it’s smoke and mirros and misdirection, but a seasoned player will pick up on it and abuse you with huge raises and cbets and triplebarreling you to the river until you fold or run out of money. Still, to each his own.
Too many times in life we like to view the world in dichotomies of good and bad, black or white, right or wrong. What these simplistic systems fail to show, however, is that life is more than a set of opposites. Life is intricate. Life is multilayered. Life is complicated. Basically, life is like a online poker game. poker online is an undeniably intricate casino online game that relies on a multitude of factors. Some of the components of the game are within the player’s control and some are not. Accepting that you only have so much control over the cards is a vital step to becoming a success at the poker table, just as understanding that you only have so much control over your circumstances helps you to be a success in life. The parallels between poker and life are striking, so it is my personal opinion that the multidimensional thought process of poker helps players to be more successful when they encounter challenges in life. Thinking like a poker player will help you to see the world in a more multilayered way. It will help you to be a success in everything you do, just by taking your favorite game away from the table and into your every day actions.
Beginner’s poker en ligne luck is almost uncanny-it was a rare time when I didn’t see a first timer poker player at a home game make it to the final table. There would always be some sickening stroke of luck-some runner’s saving his butt after a terrible call, or pocket rockets turning into a full boat, Aces over kings. It was embarrassing-at our home games, the poker vets were afraid to bet against the new guys because they had no idea how they’d play. The problem wasn’t really our back luck, but it was that we didn’t know how to play them.
Think about it-for the most part, these guys will play anything, so any time that you’ve got a decent to killer hand, feel free to suck them in for as much money as you can get out of them. Now if you don’t have decent cards and it’s just you
and the newbie, feel free to outplay him. Most newbies will play far too many hands, meaning that they’ll limp in with garbage just to see the flop. If you can see that they’re not too excited about the cards, give them a huge raise and watch ‘em fold to you. New players are easy when you figure them out- just show them who’s boss early on and you’ll own them in the long run.
We all know the story. The dismal subprime mortgage crisis, lack of regulation at top banks, high oil prices, ongoing inflation concerns, slowing economy, rising unemployment and prices of commodities, and to top it all off, the Fed’s bailing out a few sinking companies… What kind of economy is this? Quite obviously, a bear market with not so pleasant surprises. In my opinion, when the economy is as volatile as is it right now, you’re better off playing poker for real money. Forget about investing in stocks for now.
Why play poker? It’s simple. The odds of winning at poker is a mix of luck, strategy, and skill. The odds of maintaining a healthy rate of return from your stock portfolio in such a volatile market? Not so much. Why not play poker instead? You can choose the stakes you’re comfortable with and leave when you cash in your poker winnings. Poker takes up less time too than investing. Why writhe in pain for weeks, even months on end quietly observing the Dow plummet, surge up, then rollercoaster down again when you can play poker and leave with your hard earned money as you wish?
Poker does the soul good. In such an uncertain market, poker gives you a little more control and confidencesomething lacking in today’s economy. Plus, poker is fun. Loads of it. Analyzing the behavior and trends of other players, bluffing, and making decisions based on partial knowledge are poker cornerstones. Sounds a lot like… investing, huh?