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Texas Hold Em Rules

Mark — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 11:03:20 +0000

This article is a summary of the guides I have written so far about Texas Hold Em rules on The Poker Bankroll Blog. It goes without saying that you need to be 100% aware of the Texas Hold Em Rules in order to become a winning poker player. The articles below should provide you with basic knowledge about the most elementary Texas Hold Em rules. Texas Hold Em rules – Poker Hand Ranking An article showing the different Texas Hold Em hands and how they rank against each other Texas Hold Em rules – Poker hands An article giving in depth information about each Texas Hold Em hand Texas Hold Em rules – Big blind, small blind and the Texas Hold Em game play An article describing how the Texas Hold Em game is played Texas Hold Em rules – Poker starting hand strategy An article describing the concept of position in poker and a guide to which hands to play according to the position you have on the table Good luck on the tables!

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AA vs TT – odds and probability for the poker hands AA vs TT

Mark — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 19:21:20 +0000

AA vs TT Pocket tens are one of my favorite hands in no limit Texas Hold’em mainly because I have won some of my biggest ever pots with them after flopping sets but also because I like the fact they are the only Hold’em starting hand ranked in the top ten that does not have a face card. I think it must be the rebellious streak in me or the love of the underdog! In this short post, the topic of odds and probability for the hands AA vs TT will be explored. Odds and probability of AA vs TT happening Although pocket tens are a very useful hand they, like all pocket pairs, are extremely vulnerable when facing larger pairs, something that will happen to pocket tens 16.37% of the time, or roughly once every five times at a full ring table, more often than you would like to believe. Of all the pairs of kings down to tens, the latter fairs best when it comes up against the dreaded pocket aces, but an AA vs TT clash will still see the tens lose 80.75% of the time. Those focusing on the betfair offers now and then might be able to tell you that it is quite rare to see AA vs TT confrontations taking place unless the player with aces is getting tricky and slow playing or the player with the tens is short-stacked and moves all in. This is because most people who are holding a pair of tens will not go too far with them if they face a lot of heat preflop and will generally proceed with caution if they do finish up seeing a flop. Odds of winning when you have AA vs TT If you find yourself in an AA vs TT situation when you fail to improve on a dry flop such as Jd-7c-3h, your tens are now in horrible shape with exactly 10% chance of winning. However, if you do manage to flop a set you will go from a massive underdog to being more than a 91% favorite, a great position to be in. Those studying the latest betfair promo should note that one type of flop that often gives players too much optimism is a draw heavy one such as Ks-Qs-Jd as it looks like you have outs to a straight but you will still be a 75.5% underdog in this situation so be warned! Famous AA vs TT confrontations The beauty of tens is when they do flop a set or suck out on a higher pair it is usually for a substantial pot as shown by the following hand from last year’s World Series of Poker Main Event. In the hand Denise Molloy and John Monnette had entered a raising war preflop that resulted in the former being all in. She was in bad shape as she was in the worst possible AA vs TT battle, her TsTd were up against AsAd so she would not be […]

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AA vs J10 – odds and probability for the poker hands AA vs J10

Mark — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 21:55:20 +0000

AA vs J10 One of the most fun hands to play in Texas Hold’em is jack-ten, especially in suited guise. Although a rather marginal hand in most respects it can yield big rewards but playing it also has major downfalls too.The aim of this post is to give you an overview of odds and probability for the poker hands AA vs J10. Odds and probability of AA vs 10J happening You will be dealt suited jack-ten once every 332 hands, jack-ten offsuit every 111 hands and any J10 every 83 hands, the same odds of being deal a hand such as ace-king. When suited, jack-ten is ranked as the 16th best starting hand in Hold’em, ranked higher than pocket nines, king-queen offsuit and even ace-queen offsuit! However, when unsuited its strength is greatly diminished and it drops to a ranking of 47 making it worse than pocket fives and even queen-eight suited! Jack-ten suited is the best suited connector you can play because whenever you make a straight using both of your hole cards it was always be the nut straight so you never have to worry about drawing to an expensive second-best hand. The hand is also very simple to play because you will either hit the flop hard or completely miss it, meaning you will have straightforward decisions to make post-flop. Another of jack-ten’s strengths is when it finds itself in a dreaded AA vs J10 situation. Odds of winning when you have AA vs 10J Whether focusing on Betfair Freerolls or not, no hand stands up well against pocket aces but jack-ten suited comes off better in an AA vs J10 situation than queens, kings or ace-king does. Whilst aces will beat kings at least 81.95% of the time, they will only win 78.84% of the time against suited jack-ten. This is because suited jack-ten has the advantage of being able to make straights and flushes more easily than a pocket pair. Whilst those looking to Betfair Poker Live will acknowledge that it is rare to find AA vs J10 going against each other all in preflop (unless one player is short-stacked) you will quite often see the money going in on a draw heavy flop. As an example imagine you raise with JdTd from the cutoff and the big blind three-bets you. You call and flop a monster draw on a Kd-Qd-7s board. In this situation you will still be an underdog but only 52.172% making it a virtual coinflip to win. Plus, if you make it to the turn and the turn is an ace there is no way that your opponent is folding his set whilst you sit there with the nuts and 78% equity! It is this scenario where J10 suited comes into its element. Good times with 10J vs AA J10 is one of my favorite hands in heads-up games and recently won me a substantial pot when I found myself in an AA vs J10 confrontation. My opponent had been playing […]

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AA vs AK – odds and probability for the poker hands AA vs AK

Mark — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 05:57:11 +0000

AA vs AK One of the most misplayed hands in no limit Texas Hold’em is ace-king, or Big Slick as it is often affectionately referred to. Although it is ranked as the fifth strongest hand in Hold’em, when suited, it is not as strong in all-in confrontations as its ranking would suggest, especially in when it runs into aces in an AA vs AK confrontation. This article should give you some background information on odds and probability for the poker hands AA vs AK. Odds and probability of AA vs AK happening At a ten handed table you will be dealt suited ace-king once in every 332 hands, ace-king offsuit once in every 111 hands and ace-king of any sort once every 83 hands or so. Ace-king is a great hand to move all in with when short-stacked in a tournament or even to call a short-stacks all in move, as it is only ever really in trouble if the hand it is against is aces or kings, and even against the latter it will improve to win around 32% of the time thanks to the ace. In fact ace-king will improve to top pair or better 32.4% of the time. Odds of winning when you have AA vs AK However, the times you are in an AA vs KK situation you are completely crushed. Should you be unlucky enough to get Big Slick all in against aces then you will be a massive 91.84% underdog, although that improves slightly to 87.6% if the ace-king is suited and does not share suites with the other player’s aces. The reason ace-king fairs so badly in AA vs AK battles is the fact it cannot pair its ace to win, as that would give the other player a set, not can it flop a solitary king as the other player’s aces would still be leading. That means for ace-king to beat aces it has to catch at least two kings or improve to an unlikely flush or straight. Although those over at betfairpoker.com will acknowledge that you will be in serious trouble if you do find yourself with AA vs AK if you hold the latter, you should not be too worried about finding yourself in the predicament too often. When holding ace-king your opponent will hold aces or kings around once in every 23 hands at a ten handed table and will hold precisely aces once every 46 hand or so. Whether using the Kasyna bez depozytu or not, the odds are absolutely tiny if there are only two of you dealt cards, the odds are around 407 to one against it happening, so feel free to shove your ace-king without fear of running into the dreaded AA vs KK. Famous AA vs AK confrontations One player who did run his ace-king down the throat of aces was 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Joe Hachem, and he lived to tell the tail. During Day 1 of the 2007 […]

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AA vs QQ – odds and probability for the poker hands AA vs QQ

Mark — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:12:47 +0000

AA vs QQ Yesterday we covered the ins and outs of what happens, and how often, pocket aces will run into a pair of kings. Now we will give the same treatment to the next pair down the list, pocket queens, ladies, Siegfried and Roy, whatever your preference for naming the third best hand in Texas Hold’em. Odds and probability of AA vs QQ happening Like in the aces versus kings scenario, the odds of being dealt aces or queens and having an AA vs QQ encounter are exactly the same. You will be dealt queens once in every 221 hands and the chances a player being dealt pocket aces is around once in every 205 hands, or 0.48% However, this increases dramatically depending on how many opponents you are up against. For example, if there are five opponents on your table then there is a 2.88% chance someone holds aces, whilst against nine opponents there is a 4.32% chance one of them will hold pocket rockets. The dreaded AA vs QQ situation, dreaded for the pair of queens anyway, actually occurs much less frequently than AA vs KK. Although the odds are exactly the same the way people bet their hands generally prevent an all in encounter taking place. Where as a player with pocket kings is almost always going to commit his entire stack preflop in a 100 big blind deep cash game, a player with queens, whether using the betfair welcome bonus or not, is much less likely to do so as they will be worried not only about running into aces but also kings beat their hand too so they will play much more cautiously preflop. AA vs QQ in poker tournaments Those looking at betfair poker tips note that the most common scenario for an AA vs QQ situation would be either in a poker tournament where the stacks are much shallower and the money would go almost certainly go in preflop then. In an all in situation, aces will prevail against pocket queens 81.55% of the time, which is actually 0.40% less than against a pair of kings. This is because you can make more straights that do not contain aces when holding queens, but there are still a very long shot and should not be relied upon! AA vs QQ in cash games In a cash game, or when deeper stacked you will often see the majority of the money going in on a low, uncoordinated flop, but this is disastrous for queens as you will find out. In our hand a player raises with pocket queens from early position, a player in late position three-bets and our hero calls. The flop comes down 7d-Ts-4c, a pretty excellent flop for our hero’s queens. However, if he is in an AA vs QQ situation here he is a 91.62% underdog and drawing to the two remaining queens in the deck and it is hard to see all the but the best players in the […]

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AA vs KK – odds and probability for the poker hands AA vs KK

Mark — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 16:43:35 +0000

Getting dealt pocket Aces This is an article about one of the best or worst (depending on the point of view) situations in poker, namely the AA vs KK hand including odds and probabilities for AA vs KK. Every poker player loves to look down on their hole cards and see a pair of aces staring back at them. It really is a beautiful site, albeit a rather rare one that will only happen, on average, once in every 221 hands dealt but when they do find their way to your hand it is a joyous occasion as you hold the best starting hand in Texas Hold’em. One of the problems with aces, whether using the Betfair Poker code or not, is that they do not come around very often and when they do you often find yourself winning a relatively small pot with them. However, one occasion when you will be an odds on favorite to win a substantial pot is when one of your opponents has been dealt a pair of kings, the classic AA vs KK confrontation! Odds and probability of AA vs KK happening The odds of being dealt any specific pocket pair, such as aces, is 220-to-1 but the odds of being dealt a pair of aces and then someone at the same table being dealt pocket kings is slightly less as the two aces have been removed from the 52-card deck. This means that the odds of someone being dealt a pair of kings when you have aces is 205-to-1. However, that only applies when you are heads-up against a single player, against a full table with nine other opponents you will find yourself in an AA vs KK situation once in every 20 times you are dealt aces. The reason having aces against kings is usually so profitable is that the player with kings rarely worries about his opponent having a higher pair as it will only happen to them around 4.4% of the time they hold kings so will generally be willing to commit their entire stack. The problem is that when they do put their chips into the middle they will be doing so with very little equity, in fact they will be around an 82% underdog in the hand. Winning with AA vs KK Betfair poker pundits note how being dominated by a higher pair is disastrous for the lower pair as they almost always have to hit a set (one of their two remaining cards) in order to win. Sometimes the lower pair can hit an unlikely straight or flush to prevail against the higher pair but this is very rare, even more so in the case of AA vs KK as the kings are ranked so closely aces. Indeed, sharing the same suits lessens the chances of a win for the kings, for example a pair of black aces against a pair of black kings will see the former win 82.64% of the time but black aces “only” […]

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What Is Lowball Poker?

Jeffrey — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:46:20 +0000

Submitted by Dave, this article belongs to the Poker Rules series. Lowball poker is the encompassing term used to describe poker games which use lowball hand rankings as opposed to the more conventional high hand rankings systems. When playing lowball poker the nuts is always a low hand such as A-2-3-4-5 or 2-3-4-5-7 but obviously it depends on which game you are playing and which lowball hand rankings system it uses. This article will look at the different lowball poker hand rankings and which games use them. The most popular system of hand rankings where lowball poker games are concerned is the ace to five system. When playing using the ace to five hand rankings the holy nuts is A-2-3-4-5 also known as the wheel. Aces are low cards and never high cards whilst straights and flushes don’t count for anything. Hands are ranked using their highest card first so 6-5-4-3-2 would always beat A-2-3-4-7 at showdown. Razz poker uses the ace to five hand ranking system and is by far and away the most well played lowball poker game. Razz became popular in 2004 and was added to online poker sites soon after the first Razz WSOP final table was televised. It’s not a difficult game to learn and if you can already play Seven Card Stud then you should have no problems getting to grips with Razz poker. The deuce to seven hand rankings system is another lowball system and is used when playing 2-7 Single Draw and 2-7 Triple Draw. The best possible hand is 2-3-4-5-7 because Aces are always high cards and straights and flushes do count as high hands and therefore count against you. Again the highest card is used first to determine the winner. 2-7 Single Draw and 2-7 Triple Draw are both relatively popular online with Triple Draw much more popular in the ring game format and Single Draw more popular as a tournament game. Both games have events at the World Series of Poker and are growing in popularity online and offline as the poker boom continues. There are two other lowball hand rankings system of note. The first is ace to six which is nearly the same as ace to five accept straights and flushes do count against your hand. The nuts is an unsuited A-2-3-4-6. London Lowball is pretty much the only game which uses the ace to six system. The second system you might encounter is the 2-6 lowball hand rankings. The best possible hand is 2-3-4-5-6, aces are always high cards and straights and flushes don’t count against your hand. You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here.

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Sit N Go Texas Hold’em 101

Jeffrey — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 07:18:16 +0000

Submitted by Stuart, from OneStopPoker.com, this article belongs to the Poker Rules series. This article is for those who have not played Texas Hold’em Poker and wish to understand how it is played in online poker tournaments. 1. THE BLINDS For the first two players left of the dealer, they will put into the pot the small blind (first player left of the dealer) and the big blind(second player left of the dealer). These blinds will start low say 20 chips for the small blind and 40 chips for the big blind (usually shown as 20/40). The blinds will continue to move higher, usually in 10 minute intervals. This keeps the game moving. The blinds are so named because the two players putting them into the pot are betting before seeing their cards. After each game the dealer position moves one place to the left thus insuring that each player will put in blinds. 2. THE PLAY Each player is dealt two cards face down before the first round of betting (unless you are one of the blinds). Next, three cards called ‘the flop’ are put face up into the center of the table. Now comes the next round of betting. Then a fourth card is dealt face up to the center of the table. This card is called the ‘turn’, followed by another round of betting. Finally, the fifth card is dealt face up to the center of the table. This card is called the ‘river’, followed by the last round of betting. After all the betting is completed, the player with the best five card poker hand made from the 7 cards (the two face down cards dealt at the beginning, usually referred to as ‘hole cards’ or ‘pocket cards’, plus the five cards in the center of the table, wins the hand. If the best hand is the five cards in the center then the pot is split among all the players left playing that hand. There are many strategies on how to play and win at Texas Hold’em and a variety of books available on the subject. I will review and recommend some in later blogs. Also, I will give you certain tips you must know to be a winner at Texas Hold’em tournaments such as Sit N Go Tournaments. You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here. Check out our Poker Freeroll and Tournament League.

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How are poker bots raking online money?

Jeffrey — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:47:59 +0000

Submitted by Thomas, this article belongs to the Poker Strategy series. Sophisticated card-playing robots – known as “poker bots” – have now been playing online for years and the trend is accelerating. The increasing activity on poker bots forums and the growing interest generated by the annual poker bot competition (organized by the University of Alberta) are prime indicators of this trend. Of course, online poker rooms have been fighting bots since the beginning as it hurts their revenues but, detecting bots is becoming more challenging every day as bots improve their counter-detection measures. While Full Tilt, one of the leading online poker rooms, recently successfully detected a network of bots (and redistributed the seized bankrolls, thousands of dollars, to the fooled human opponents), it only shows the tip of the iceberg. This increasing presence of online poker bots proves, if still needed, that it is a very lucrative business to be in. But how are poker bots raking online money? In other words, how come poker bots are so successful against human players? Thomas Kessler, founder of My Poker Coach (a free Poker coaching service based on a leading bot), explains what makes poker bots so strong: In the long run, poker bots are winning against humans and this can easily be explained by a number of bots’ intrinsic properties: • Analytical power: bots have, already today, a massive amount of analytical power and it is going to further double every two years as computers become more powerful. Our bot, for instance, simulates ~5 million situations at the Flop in less than a second to perfectly assess the current hand strength and the possible outcomes. Something a human player will obviously never match. • Lifelong memory: can you remember how the opponent sitting next to you last month was playing? Bots have a memory that will never fail. They can remember all their opponent’s previous actions and playing style. In our case, we store all the observed moves (even if our bot isn’t in the hand) in a large database and, next time we play against the same opponent – even in 3 years, we already know his playing style. • Discipline: most humans are open to emotions and are sometimes looking for adrenaline in a game. Bots are disciplined and will, for instance, never go on a tilt. Discipline is key in poker and always pays off in the long run. • Game richness: there are many great poker strategy books out there but most players remember less than 20% of it and they often over-use the few strategies they remember. Bots can learn a large set of strategies and only apply them when most appropriate. • Patience: who likes to fold 80% of his hands without seeing the Flop? Bots will only play hands that should be played, even if they’ll have to spend most of their time watching opponents playing (and collecting information on their playing style). When asked what human players can do to defeat […]

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Tableside Manner

Jeffrey — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 05:39:00 +0000

Submitted by Vic Porcelli, this article belongs to the Poker Rules series. So what is your reaction to a bad beat? Is it standing up and yelling at someone for putting all their chips at risk on a draw after he hit his flush to beat your top pair, top kicker? Or maybe you just tap the felt and say, “nice hand.” The latter of course is the choice I hope you’ll make. If your choice is to yell at an opponent, I’ll bet the next thing you do is to find that ear to tell your bad beat story to. The reason someone yells at an opponent is the exact same reason why we tell our bad beat stories. It makes us feel like we are better players and the other person is inferior and just got lucky. Poker is a very emotional game. We can go from the euphoria of winning a large pot after outplaying an opponent, to the sorrow of putting all your chips in with a nut flush only to lose to a runner runner full house. It’s how we handle those emotions that make the difference. The irony of verbal attacks is hypocrisy. Players attack opponents for doing the same thing they would do. When you play a suited connector in early position, hit your straight, and collect a nice sized pot, you just play an aggressive style of poker. When someone else does it to you, he is a donkey. My favorite example is a bluff gone bad turned good. Player A, bluffs at a pot. Player B folds. A few hands later, Player B bluffs back at Player A. Player A calls. By the time the river card hits, Player B’s hand improves and his bet on the river is no longer a bluff but a value bet. Player A calls and loses the hand. Player A then berates Player B for playing a 7 6 off suit then sucking out a straight, when player A’s bluff a few hands before was a lesser starting hand than Player B’s 7 6. Now let’s look at tableside manner as a strategy. The player who berates other players for making moves, or making loose calls immediately puts himself in the spotlight. “Look at me I’m a loud mouth. If I lose a pot to you it’s not because you’re a good player. It’s because you got lucky.” Trust me, with that attitude people will come after you. They will make more loose calls and re-raise you just to knock you out of a tournament so they don’t have to hear your big mouth anymore. Good solid poker players look at loudmouths as inferior players anyway. “He’s not that good, so he shoots his mouth off to compensate.” That good solid player will trap a loudmouth with a set and come over the top of your big bet with your top pair and top kicker and send you to the rail. On the other hand, a […]

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