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FullTilt Poker Tips
Poker Tips and Poker Strategy from the Pros at FullTiltPoker.com
Pro Tip #153: Moving from Online to Live Play
- By Jordan Morgan
- Published 08/29/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
After honing their games
online for awhile, many online poker players decide to take the next step and
test their skills in a live poker room. For some, the transition comes easily
but, for others, the differences between playing at a computer and at a live
table can be difficult to overcome.
Pro Tip #152: Overcards in Early Position
- By Kenny Tran
- Published 08/26/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
Recently, Andy Bloch wrote
about the perils and pitfalls of playing big cards - A-K, A-Q, etc. - when they
don't connect with the flop. Like Andy, I think learning to play these kinds of
hands well, adds an important weapon to any poker player's arsenal. Of course,
like any weapon, you have to approach these hands carefully to ensure that they
don't blow up in your face
Pro Tip #151: Control Your Environment
- By Scott Fischman
- Published 08/25/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
We've all had moments in
good old fashioned brick and mortar casinos where our senses become overwhelmed
by an environment that we have no control over. From uncomfortable chairs to
overflowing A/C to the guy sitting next to you who obviously hasn't bathed
since the last time the Cleveland Indians won the Series, playing live poker
can be a less than pleasant experience at times. That's why one of the biggest
advantages of playing internet poker versus live poker is the ability to control
your environment. By standardizing all the variables of game play and setting
your poker playing environment to your liking, you can maximize your focus and
take that next step toward becoming a winning player.
Pro Tip #150: Playing Over-Cards
- By Andy Bloch
- Published 08/22/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
For many poker players,
there's nothing prettier than peeking at their hole cards and seeing paint.
A-K. K-Q. Q-J. They're all big hands and, often times, very playable ones,
especially in position. Sometimes though, your masterpiece of a starting hand
can lead to a very ugly result.
Pro Tip #149: The Dreaded Min-Check-Raise
- By Aaron Bartley
- Published 08/21/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
There are a lot of
potentially horrendous moves to be made in No-Limit Hold'em: playing out of
position with a marginal hand, chasing down a draw without the correct odds,
overplaying (or underplaying) the nuts. All of these are horrible, horrible
plays. But in my opinion, the worst play that you can make (and I see made far
too often) is the min-check-raise.
Pro Tip #148: The Real Value of Tournament Chips
- By Bill Edler
- Published 08/20/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
Whenever you’re talking
about poker strategies, you’ll find people who make no distinction between
tournament play and ring game play. In fact, I know some top players who
believe that both should be played exactly the same. Even though some of them
have been extremely successful with this approach, I couldn’t disagree with
them more.
Pro Tip #147: Stealing the Blinds
- By Allen Cunningham
- Published 08/19/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
The middle stages of a
poker tournament can be a tortuous and tedious experience for even the most
seasoned pro. The long trek toward the money, combined with a variety of
potentially tricky scenarios you may face along the way, make it difficult to
come up with one sure-fire strategy to help you through. That said, one aspect
of mid-tourney play that’s extremely important is picking up pots pre-flop.
Pro Tip #146: Big-Stack Play
- By Jordan Morgan
- Published 08/15/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
There are few better
situations in poker than to enter final table play as the big stack. However,
there’s a big difference in coming to the final table with the chip lead and in
knowing how to use your stack to take control of the final stages of a tournament.
Pro Tip #145: A Monster at the Aussie Millions
- By Gus Hansen
- Published 08/14/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
There's
nothing better during a poker tournament than defeating a defending champ
Pro Tip # 144: Loosening Up Before the Flop – Part 2
- By Andy Bloch
- Published 08/13/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
In my last tip, I talked
about the necessity of loosening up your pre-flop game, especially in the late
stages of a poker tournament.
Pro Tip # 143: Loosening Up Before the Flop – Part 1
- By Andy Bloch
- Published 08/12/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
Knowing what to do and when
to do it is what separates those who just play in tournaments from those who
make final tables. This is especially true in No-Limit Hold‘em, where the first
decisions you’re faced with are what hands you should play and when you should
play them.
Pro Tip #141: Playing Fifth Street in Seven-Card Stud
- By Keith Sexton
- Published 08/11/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
While most players these
days specialize in No-Limit Hold’em, I know there are many people out there who
grew up learning Seven-Card Stud. With the resurgence of HORSE and other mixed
games, now is a great time to branch out and revisit some of the basics to help
make you a better all-around player.
Pro Tip #140: Running Bad Part II - It’s Bad to Always Get Your Money in Good
- By Chris Ferguson
- Published 08/8/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
If my opponent
gets all his money in pre-flop when he’s got Kings and I’ve got Aces, does that
mean he’s a bad player because he got his money in poorly? Or that I’m a great
poker player because I got my money in well? Obviously the answer is no – if
our roles were reversed I’d be the one going broke.
Pro Tip #139: Bursting the SNG Bubble
- By Peter Feldman
- Published 08/7/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
One of the keys to becoming
a successful Sit & Go player is learning to master bubble play. The last
thing anybody wants is to be the Bubble Boy, which means you need to get the
most out of every hand you play during this critical stage. If you make solid
moves from good positions and manage your chip stack wisely, you’ll find
yourself in the money before you know it.
Pro Tip #138: There's No "I" In Poker
- By Eddy Scharf
- Published 08/6/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
While most players will
never have the opportunity to try and take down a big name pro or make “fancy”
poker moves in front of a TV camera, far too many people still let their egos
get in the way of playing solid poker. Once that happens, they lose sight of
their long-term goals and start playing for purposes other than winning.
Pro Tip #137: Controlling the Pot
- By Paul Wasicka
- Published 08/4/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
One of the most critical
aspects to surviving – and thriving – in deep stack tournaments is learning how
to control the size of the pots you play. In short, your goal should be to play
big pots when you have big hands and small pots when you don’t.
Pro Tip # 136: Omaha Hi/Lo Strategies
- By Perry Friedman
- Published 08/1/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
The big difference between
big-bet (Pot-Limit or No-Limit) Omaha Hi/Lo and Limit Omaha Hi/Lo is that the
former plays much more like Omaha High. Low hands become much less valuable
because of how often they get quartered.
Pro Tip # 135: Tilt Control
- By Ben Roberts
- Published 07/30/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
About two years ago, I
wrote On Cavemen and Poker Players, which talked about the importance of
learning to control your emotions at the poker table.Since then, I’ve had time
to further refine my views on this topic, especially when it comes to the
concept of tilt.
Pro Tip #134: Playing Six-Handed SNGs
- By Scott Fischman
- Published 07/28/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
Most people are familiar
with the differences between one-table Sit & Go tournaments (SNGs) and
other forms of poker. Because these tournaments only pay the top three
finishers at a nine-handed table, the standard strategy is to play
conservatively until the tournament becomes short-handed and then become more
aggressive during short-handed play.
Pro Tip #133: Bluffing in Pot-Limit Omaha
- By Brandon Adams
- Published 07/25/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
Bluffing can be one of the
most profitable plays in poker. However, its success is often blunted by the
fact that it's also one of the most misunderstood and over-used plays in the
game.
Pro Tip # 132: Running Bad
- By Chris Ferguson
- Published 07/23/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
In 1964, Supreme Court
Justice Potter Stewart tried to define what may or may not be considered
obscene under US
Pro Tip #131: Mix It Up!
- By Eddy Scharf
- Published 07/21/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
A group of
my fellow Full Tilt Poker pros and I recently completed a tour of Germany
Pro Tip #130: Suited Connectors and Small Pocket Pairs
- By Phil Gordon
- Published 07/18/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
We’ve all seen situations
unfold on TV poker shows where a hand like 7-8 suited or pocket 5s manages to
crack some big pocket pair like Aces or Kings. We sit back in the comfort of
our living rooms and say, “Well, if they can do it, so can I!”
Pro Tip #129: Implied Odds Part 2
- By Andy Bloch
- Published 07/16/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
In my last
tip, I discussed the basic principles of implied odds. As you’ll recall, your
implied odds are the total amount you can win in a given pot, divided by the
number of poker chips you’re putting into the pot.
Pro Tip #128: Implied Odds Part 1.
- By Andy Bloch
- Published 07/14/2008
- FullTilt Poker Tips
- Unrated
Most people have a pretty
good understanding of pot odds - whether the amount of chips in the pot
justifies making a call - but they fail to realize that making this calculation
only solves part of the poker equation