Why TV poker can make you wealthy!Written by Ian McIntosh
There’s an awful lot of poker on television these days. If you wanted to you could probably watch poker on TV almost round clock and big events like World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker receive massive coverage.Poker is great to watch on TV, it is about psychology and people more than it’s about cards and so it attracts a large percentage of non-players. People love watching other people in real situations and poker is latest reality TV craze. The apparent simplicity of Texas Holdem draws TV audience and holds them, like all great games and sports it is incredibly simple to understand but extremely difficult to master. Everyone from teenagers to grannies can work out basics – three of something beats two of them! It’s only a short step to fill in other hands on ranking table. TV Texas Holdem also has a very powerful addictiveness about it. Very quickly you will start to like some players more than others, in some cases people will become fans of certain players and follow their progress. If you start watching early on in a tournament, poker has ability to hold attention in such a way that you need to stick with it until end to see who wins. OK you’re asking, but how will that make me wealthy? Well, remember all of these non-players who start watching poker on TV and get hooked by it’s sheer entertainment value? Very soon some of them will be saying four little magic words to themselves, four words that will make you money. “I can do that!” Yes of course they want to join in. After all it looks so easy when professionals raise all-in with a Jack high and steal pot on a complete bluff against two pairs. What they don't realise is that it takes years of practise to develop instinct to know when they can bluff like that. The other point they miss is that TV will edit out majority of hands and will give a distorted view of play, it will look like these big bluffs can be pulled off every two or three hands!
| | How to Play Poker -- Poker Table PositionWritten by Tom Howze
Poker seating and position one has at table is one of most important and least talked about aspects of poker. It's especially relative to Texas Hold'Em poker game because it is positional in nature. Where a player sits each hand determines amount of information he or she can gain on other players. This can have a big effect on your poker strategy and how a hand is played. This article will reference how to play poker from a table of 10 players and discuss playing from dealer, early, middle and late positions. Dealer Position -- This position, also referred to as "on button", is most coveted because once flop takes place, dealer is last to act. This means you can watch and gather information on all other players before making your decision. Aggressive play is expected from this position, especially when all others have checked. Almost any hand except trash hands like 9 2, 10 4 offsuit can be considered for play here. For example, your opponent has Jc, Jh. You have Qd, Kd and are dealer. Your opponent raised $20 before flop and you called. The flop shows 2d, 3d, 5d. You both check flop and turn shows 8c. Your opponent checks, you raise $20 and they call. On river Js comes up and your opponent raises $50. From watching you figure they may have trips. You raise to $100, they call and you win with a King high flush. Had you been in your opponents position of having to bet first, you would have been hard pressed to figure what dealer had. Early Position -- This is made up of positions 1, 2 and 3 to left of dealer and are least advantageous as you are first to act after flop and have no information on other players. Here one should play only strongest hands like paired A's, K's, Q's, J's, Tens, or suited AK, AQ, AJ and KQ. Anything outside of these one should consider folding and waiting for a better opportunity, especially with an aggressive table. One thing that can be done from an early position is bluffing. Betting from an early position can imply that you do have a strong hand, but bluffing too often will result in others picking up on it and can be disastrous, particularly when aggressive bettors are at table.
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