Poker Room Hustle

I know it hasn’t been long since i posted the last tune, however this song has been on repeat in my car system for the past couple of days and i just cant seem to get enough. Anyways its a very big tune by Stephen Marley, he sounds so similar to his father, check it out!

You’re Gonna Leave – Stephen Marley

If you have watched the first couple of seasons of high stakes poker you would have seen that Daniel Negreanu has had an incredible run of bad luck where he continually flops the nuts and gets sucked out on regularly. This time Negreanu flops a straight however Erick Lindgren sucks out and makes quads on the turn! Negreanu begins to loose his cool and cant believe it, check it out!

It is often naturally presumed that whenever you play poker you should employ the Tight aggressive style of play. With that being said the majority of poker players worldwide do actually adopt this approach. Although the TAG style of play might be the best strategy for no limit cash games it is not always the best tactic to employ when you are playing large tournaments or to a lesser extent single table sit-n-go tournaments.

A common strategy known amongst experienced players is to play in the opposite style to your opponents. Since the majority of players adopt the TAG approach, you may want to consider adding some LAG (Loose Aggressive) elements to your tournament game. This will add an extra dimension to your game; you will constantly keep your opposition guessing by playing a large variety of hands.

After playing poker for a long time I have come to realize that you cannot stick to one particular style of play for a long period. If you are always playing the TAG game you will eventually become too predictable and your opponents will figure out that you only play with premium hands. You will get bluffed at a lot more and won’t get paid off with your monster hands. In order to overcome this problem you must be able to effectively mix up your play by shifting gears at the right times to continually keep your opponents on their toes; this is the key to playing solid tournament poker. I’m not saying that you should permanently switch to a LAG style of play, however by simply adding some key LAG elements to your tournament game you should see you a major overall improvement.

Now, what exactly is the Loose Aggressive approach? The LAG player is defined as a poker player who calls and raises a large variety of hands with the intention of outplaying or outdrawing an opponent who is usually holding a stronger hand. This type of player is also very aware and will usually back down when there is retaliation or resistance, However he will semi bluff at a lot more pots and sometimes come over the top if he feels his opponent is weak and cannot call.

This type of variety in a player’s game can very easily help them exploit the enormous number of players who don’t let a single chip slip into the pot without holding a premium hand in the early stages of poker tournaments. In No Limit Cash Games you can sit around and wait for the nuts all night, but in tournaments and sit-n-gos you don’t have that luxury, the blinds and antes are continually eating away at your stack, so you must be making some moves regularly. By adding LAG elements to your game in the early stages of Sit-N-Gos and Tournaments your stack will be better equipped to deal with the frenzied circumstances at the end stages of the game.

When you are using the LAG approach you will probably be able to pick up a lot of small pots without much resistance. If you raise pre-flop with hands like 35 when you are in position and if you only get 1 or 2 callers you are in a good spot to take down the pot a majority of the time. Even you miss the flop entirely the pre-flop raise has put you in control of the hand and if your opponents check to you it is most likely they missed as well (Two Thirds of the time your opponents will completely miss the flop), a continuation bet in this spot will usually take down the pot.

Obviously this tactic won’t always work; sometimes you will bet and get check-raised, but that doesn’t matter because you should be able to get away from the hand easily and you wouldn’t have lost that much. Overall you will accumulate more chips by continually winning those small pots, after all you can’t win every pot, and even if you missed the flop with AK or AQ and you got check raised you would most likely have to fold.

Another major advantage that makes the LAG style of play so profitable and enjoyable to employ is the fact that sometimes you will hit the flop hard and make a huge hand, e.g. you flop a straight, a flush or 2 pair. If this occurs it is very unlikely for your opponents to put you on something like 86 or 47, and if they have high pockets or got a piece of the flop you will get paid off in a big way and take down a huge pot.

Although, there are some disadvantages of using the LAG approach. When using this style you will always come across inexperienced players or calling stations that will call you down with bottom pair or AK and absolutely destroy your stack. So to employ the style effectively you must study your opponents very carefully and know who to target. Remember there is no point bluffing a calling station or re-raising with bottom pair if you know your opponent never folds when he hits any pair.

Also by going into the pot with marginal hands you will constantly find yourself holding the second best hand. Whether you are holding middle pair or your kicker isn’t good enough, a good LAG player should be able to away from 2^nd best hands without losing too much money. However if you are not careful this could seriously damage your stack and jeopardize your chances for the latter stages.

Nevertheless overall, by adding LAG elements to your game in the early stages you should be able to amass extra chips and acquire a nice stack early on. You immediately gain a huge advantage over players who play a cautious, tight game. The extra chips that you accumulate will allow you to survive tough decisions in the end stages and give you some breathing space.

So if you happen to get involved in a race situation in the latter stages you are able to withstand a loss and are not completely crippled. You will have an extra buffer of chips that will be much needed and treasured when you are placed in those situations. On the other hand a player that always pursues the TAG approach will most likely be dependant on his AK to win a race or be eliminated out of the tournament.

Online Poker Odds Calculators, there seems to be so many of them out there these days. Do they actually work and can they help improve your game? Well simply put yes, they can help develop your game and allow you to make more profitable decisions while you are playing online poker. Because online poker moves so quickly, these calculators come in very handy, they can offer you vital information like pot odds and chances of you winning the pot in an instant. Some poker calculators even gather info on your opponents which can help you categorize your opposition.

However don’t think that an online poker odds calculator is your magical ticket to freedom, which will make you cash in thousands of dollars from online poker guaranteed every night. An odds calculator will offer you important statistics and information about your opponents that can help you make more profitable decisions, in poker you must always look to gain a competitive advantage over your opponents and with an online poker odds calculator you can certainly achieve this.

Hold Em Indicator is a highly regarded online poker odds calculator that is probably one the best products in this highly competitive market, All features that are critical to play and profitability are present in this software. So how can Holdem Indicator Help make you a more profitable player?

Firstly Holdem Indicator is an empirical poker odds calculator, this means that the Calculator monitors and records the behavior of your opponents. The opponent stats window will indicate a player’s profile based on several calculations including VPIP, aggression, and show downs wins. Based on this added information, such a Poker Calculator can help support or contradict your impression of a certain opponent’s grid factor, and help categorize your opponents as sharks, fishes or calling stations.

Hold Em Indicator smoothly connects to almost any poker room and it registers your poker hand automatically even if the poker table is minimized. This gives you the first advantage before you even begin playing. You can sit out for a period and let Holdem Indicator register that you are playing at any table and after it has been connected for 50 hands, Holdem Indicator will categorize the players at the table into different groups like solid, fish, sharks and so on.

You will have a lot of information on every player at the table, how often does he/she raise preflop, how often does he/she win at showdown and much more. Based on this added information, Holdem Indicator can help support or contradict your impression of a certain opponent’s grid factor, and help you analyze if your opponent is a professional or easy target (fish). Remember Poker is a game of statistics, the more information and statistics you can obtain, the more profitable you will be at online poker. Take For example If you face a solid player,( which Holdem Indicator will point out) and you are holding AJ preflop, if your opponent raise’s or re-raise’s preflop you might just want to call so you don’t become an underdog, as your hand will be most likely dominated, Remember information is the key.

Other key features that are offered from Holdem Indicator are instant poker pot odds, EV, Sklansky groups and how likely you are to draw out or to be drawn out and win or lose the hand. All these statistics are offered to you instantly while you’re playing, this will help you stay focused on the game and make quicker more profitable decisions. Also a feature that is unique and dearly missed in other odds calculators is the ability to see your opponent’s mucked hand. These cards are exposed prominently in Holdem Indicator’s text box.

Overall a good poker odds calculator will offer you instant additional information about your opponents, and the current hand, which should help you make more profitable and efficient decisions in a matter of seconds. Well Hold Em Indicator conquers this task quite easily and it does this by offering the most extensive set of features available in any poker odds calculator on the market. Holdem Indicator is an online poker tool that should undoubtedly improve your game and in the process help you sniff out the fish and make some decent profits in online poker.

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Chase The WSOP Crown at PokerStars.com

WSOP Million Dollar Giveaway!

PokerStars sends more players to the World Series of Poker than anyone else. But there’s always room for more. So this year, everyone’s invited! Welcome to the WSOP Million Dollar Giveaway. It’s this simple: between April 13 and June 28, their giving away $1,000,000 worth of World Series packages. That’s 80 free seats in total.

You could be living it up in Las Vegas, playing in the jewel in poker’s crown for absolutely nothing. All you need to enter is a PokerStars account.

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The Million Dollar Giveaway freerolls run from April 13 toJune until June 27. There are 24 Round 1 tournaments every day (one every hour at 05 past the hour), so why not take part today? You are eligible to play in one (1) Round 1 tournament per week. The top 50 players in each Round 1 tournament will be awarded a ticket to the Million Dollar Giveaway Weekly Final.

Weekly Final

The Weekly Final tournaments are held every Saturday from April 19 until June 28 at the following times:

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Its time to post some new tunes. You will realize from the music posted on this blog that I listen to a lot of different types of music and for some of you the music i post here will be completely new. You probably would’ve never heard it before. I don’t listen to that mainstream commercial garbage you hear all over the radio, MTV and shit like that, I don’t understand how people can listen to the same garbage over and over again, theres no meaning at all.

Anyways Quality music is very rare and hard to find these days, so on this site i am going to do you a favour and only post quality music from quality artists. I’m guessing most of you wont like my tunes because you’ve been hypnotized by the commercial bullshit, but some of you will absolutely love it, because u don’t hear this shit on the radio.

For now i am going to post a bit of Reggae, A great song from Damian Marley with a Bangin Beat.

Damian Marley – Stand A Chance

Brad Booth Who is Holding 24 suited bluffs Phil Ivey and Gets Him To Fold Pocket Kings, Great Poker!

- Playing at Limits Higher than Your Bankroll can Handle

You must be aware of how strong your bankroll is and if it can handle large enough swings within the limit you are playing. If you are playing at higher limits it means there will be better competition, also you’ll have to buy in with more money, meaning you can end broke a lot quicker if things don’t go your way. It is recommended that you have at least 40 buy- ins, in your bankroll for any particular limit, this will help carry you through a streak of bad luck. There is nothing wrong with dropping down from lets say $1/2 to $.50/1 or even lower, it all depends on how strong your bankroll is and whether you feel comfortable at playing that limit.

- Playing When You Are On Tilt

Tilt, its one of the most feared words in poker, when a player goes on tilt his decisions are significantly affected by his emotions. This usually occurs if you’ve have suffered a ridiculous bad beat, whether you got busted out of the final table with pocket Aces or you lost to a runner runner flush, stay clear of the poker screen when your are on tilt. A player that is on tilt will make plays for emotional reasons that he wouldn’t normally make, he will raise with marginal hands, try to bluff more pots and generally play too many hands too aggressively. Playing while you’re on tilt can be a recipe for disaster and you are almost guaranteed to lose your entire bankroll if you are not careful. Take A break and recover mentally before re approaching the game, at least you will live to fight another day.

- Chasing Too Much

In No Limit Cash Games It is not wise to chase every time you see a straight draw or flush draw, you have to consider pot odds and implied odds if you are considering chasing, otherwise you’ll end up reloading before you know it. E.g. Its Heads up and you have flopped a straight draw, your opponent bets more than the pot, in this situation it is not worth it for you to call and chase, you are most likely going to miss your draw and there is not enough money in the pot worth winning. On the other hand if you flop the same draw with four opponents in the pot and you are in late position you may want to call a half a pot sized bet, because if you make your hand you have the potential to take down a huge pot, there is value for you to chase. Therefore only chase when you are in position and there is value for you to do so.

- Playing Too Many Starting Hands

You may be playing too many starting hands pre flop, start tightening up by only playing the premium hands pre flop when you are new to the table. Once you have built a sufficient stack you can start loosening up a bit however when you first sit down I would recommend that you only play AA, KK, A-K, QQ. Then when you have accumulated some chips slowly introduce other hands into your game. Add JJ first. When you are successful with JJ then add other Pocket pairs and finally suited connectors when you are really “Ballin”. In No Limit Cash Games you only want to get your money in with the best hands possible, so start tightening up pre-flop if you are losing too much and you will begin to see a difference.

      - Chasing Your Losses

This is probably one of the most important points. You have to know when to call it quits if your having a bad run, every poker player eventually falls victim to the variance of luck in the poker world and you cant do nothing about it. I’ve seen many people go on a massive losing streak and they never walk, they stick around and hope for the luck of cards to change and they will break even again. However it hardly ever happens and you usually end up losing your entire bankroll if you adopt this strategy, you must know when to walk so you can live to fight another day.

So if you’ve been wondering why your online bankroll keeps going bust, then go ahead and apply some of the tips offered in this article and you should be playing better poker and be able limit yourself from reloading your Online Poker Bankroll anytime soon.

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Check Out this great article written by Poker Pro Erick Lindgren

Play More Pots -

In tournaments, I play lots of hands. I’ll put my money in with all kinds of connected cards, especially when in position. I might limp, I might min-raise or raise a little more than the minimum, depending on the circumstances. I’m looking to keep my table off balance so they don’t know where I’m coming from.

My overall goal is to pick up a lot of small pots without a lot of resistance. I might raise in position and hope for a call from one of the blinds. If I raise pre-flop with something like 6-7, I might miss the flop entirely, but the raise puts me in control of the hand. On the flop, I’ll likely bet if checked to, even if I miss. That small bet on the flop will usually win me a small, but helpful pot.

Of course, sometimes it won’t work out. I’ll bet and get check-raised on occasions. But that’s okay, because I actually don’t lose much in the hands that I have to surrender. Overall, I get to gradually add to my chip stack by chopping at small pot after small pot.

The other major advantage to my style is that, occasionally, I will hit a flop hard. If I do happen to flop a straight, it’s difficult for other players to put me on something like 5-7 or 6-8. If one of my opponents also gets a piece of the flop, I’ll get paid off in a big way.

By adding to my stack early, I have a real advantage over players who play a cautious, tight game. The extra chips that I accumulate allow me to survive some tough spots. So, if I happen to get involved in a race with A-K or a pair of Tens, I can withstand a loss. An opponent who’s playing tight will likely be on the rail after losing a single race.

New players often ask me how they can learn to play more pots. I always suggest that they drop down significantly in stakes and practice. If you’re playing $2-$4 no-limit, drop down to $.50-$1 – a level where some losses won’t hurt you.

Once you’re at that table, try to play eight hands out of 10. Play everything but 2-8 or 3-9 – hands that are entirely unconnected. When you get yourself involved with this kind of frequency, you’ll have to concentrate more on your opponents than on your own cards. You’ll have to be on the lookout for opportunities to take down pots with well-timed stabs. You’ll also learn how to proceed in situations where you flop a good, but dangerous hand.

By dropping down and playing a lot of hands, you’re going to learn a lot about poker. You’re also going to have a lot of fun. Lord knows, playing 50% of the hands is a whole lot more entertaining than sitting around waiting for Aces.

If you look at the success that Gavin Smith, Daniel Negreanu and myself have had over the last couple of years, you’ll see that being active can be an excellent way to score big in tournaments. It takes practice to play this style, but it can lead to great results and be a lot of fun.

Erick Lindgren

Oct 9, 2006

Erick Lindgren Sharpens His Skills At Full Tilt Poker

Play Online Poker

Every poker player faces the dilemma of knowing when to walk away from the table. If you want to become a winning poker player you must know when to quit, you must know your limitations and recognize when you’re on a bad streak so you can bail out of a game before you put serious dents into your Bankroll.

The way I see it is, if you’re playing good solid poker then there is no need to quit, you shouldn’t head into a game saying “I am going to walk once I make $900” or ill leave if I lose 2 buy ins. There is no need to set limits on how much you can win or lose and use that to determine when you should stop playing. Firstly it disrupts your mental approach to the game and secondly you are potentially leaving a lot of money on the table if you are playing Good Poker.

There will be times when you are playing solid poker however your opponents keep sucking out on you, in this situation there is no need to quit the game, you just have to be patient and wait. The tables will turn eventually and your perseverance will be rewarded, I’ve lost $1200 in a session and then re-bought with another $400 only to see myself make in excess of $5000. Therefore if I had walked after I lost 3 buy ins I would have never given myself the chance to reap those extra profits.

On the other hand if you can’t emotionally handle a few bad beats or go on tilt immediately after your opponent hits his running flush on the turn and river, then I recommend you quit before sending your Bankroll to the cleaners. Also if your bankroll has been seriously injured and you cannot take anymore hits then you should seriously consider walking, regardless of whether your playing good poker or not, after all you cannot control the cards.

Now if you’re on a lucky streak or on a rush in poker, then the game is good and you’re making good money, in this situation you should always continue playing. Poker has a lot to do with confidence, and if you’re on a winning streak your confidence is soaring through the roof. You’ll tend to make more aggressive decisions, be able to read your opponents better, place more traps and punish people for drawing. Basically, you’ll be running the table.

A losing streak isn’t the only thing that will affect your mental state and sabotage your game. If you’re tired and need rest, you need to stop playing. It doesn’t matter if you’re winning or losing, if you begin to feel fatigued and start making poor decisions you should leave the table. Whenever you’re at the poker table make sure you have eaten and are alert, if you’re tired you’ll start making rash decisions and call with more marginal hands.

In conclusion you must always bring you’re A game to the poker table, in order to do so you must feel good, both mentally and physically and always be alert. If you begin to feel tired or become emotionally affected and you sense that you’re concentration is slipping, step away from the table and take a break. Remember, the Game isn’t going anywhere.