the Chip Shuffler

During poker games on television you can often see players playing very aggressively.

In fact, aggression is one of the key elements in Holdem and semi-bluffing is the most formidable weapon that can ensure victory even in situations that appear desperate. This tactic should be used when betting or raising with a drawing hand, but there are two cases: the opponent folds and you win the pot immediately, or he calls the outs that you have can be enough to win the hand.

Let’s see exactly what this means with one example. In the case when your hand is made of the nuts flush draw plus an open ended straight draw, the chances that you win the pot are 55%. If your opponent does not fold, you will have invested less than 50% in the pot but with a probability of winning of 55%. This is a positive expected value situation and you must play it as aggressively as possible.

What are the advantages of semi bluffing?

In order to understand the importance of semi-bluffing, put yourself in the shoes of your opponent who tries to read you during the game. I he sees that you always bet with big hands, he will take good decisions systematically. It will not continue with a hand if he thinks he has a good chance to win.

But if you put a big bet in with a semi-bluff, you will have learned the main strategy of poker. Your tactics will force your opponent to make mistakes. In this case, there is the possibility that he calls when you have a stronger hand, or that he folds his hand when it is stronger than yours. This means that you have more options when your style is aggressive.

The skill of the semi-bluff

You must be careful that your semi-bluff is credible. The most important aspect is to bet as if you had a strong hand.

For example, let’s say that you call a bet from the small blind with A-10 of clubs against one opponent only and the flop comes QJ-2 with two clubs. In such a situation, an easy to read player will normally bet his strong drawing hand. But the better is to check-raise, which indicates a very strong hand and not a drawing hand, as the raising part indicates that you want to protect your assumed strong hand against a potential flush draw.

The semi-bluff is a tool that can help you manipulating your adversary. You need to gradually learn the playing styles of each player at the poker room’s table and act based on such information. For example if you see a player who is afraid of players who bet big, semi-bluffing is the ideal weapon against him. If the opponent is the type of player who thinks a lot, then the best technique is to bluff up to three barrels, after you made him accustomed to see that you have strong hands every time you bet.

When your hand is a flush draw, a straight draw or if you hit a pair on the flop you must use the semi-bluff to force your opponent to fold. Folding equity is another element reinforcing the power of the semi-bluff.

Pokerstars is the top place to play online poker, so if you have not yet opened an account there, it is not too late.

You may have heard this somewhere else, that pokerstars is number one. But is it true, and by what measure? Like all number ones, it depend on what measure you use, and as far as traffic is concerned, Stars is the uncontested number one, with a big lead over the number two, Full Tilt Poker.

And all other poker rooms are left in the dust, far behind. But nothing is static and the rankings can change fast in online gambling. So beyond the fact that pokerstars in number one for traffic, are they also number one by other measures?

Pokerstars is easily the largest and most popular online poker room on the globe.  If you are looking for a reason to sign up at pokerstars, this is already in itself a great reason. More traffic means more poker variations and tournament formats available, more ring game table and stakes with action  to choose from, more lucrative promotions dues to their bigger budget. More frequent and larger freerools, less waiting times at practically any poker activity you are interested in.

Some of the best pros in the world have chosen to sponsor Pokerstars, such as Daniel Negreanu and Vanessa Rousso. This is a sign of quality as these people are among the best poker players in the world, and they would not tarnish their reputation by joining a room they do not trust and enjoy playing at.

An added advantage of having all these poker pros  is that it improves the overall quality of the games, and this is certainly a feature that will help you improve your poker skills. As the large buy in tournaments and the highest stakes ring games are where these pros operate, the amateurs who confront them learn from them and this  knowledge somehow flows to the lower limit levels.

So if you do not have an account at stars, now is the time to get one.

It is now been a few months since I started to test a robot poker player that is currently available for purchase on the market.

I bought it just by curiosity. I have a good training in computer science so this is the type of product I love to play with (I am a borderline geek let us be honest). Since the robot can play poker by itself and the coding can be modified through an open source programming language (available). There is a default setup with the program, or you can also tweak it in details when you buy.

I do not care too much about the results, but the facts are there: my initial deposit of 150 dollars at pokerstars has increased to 260 dollars in a few hours without any human intervention other than sitting at the tables and starting the robot. This 110 dollars gain includes the profit from playing at the tables plus part of a bonus conversion, but no rakeback (as pokerstars does not offer rakeback but the initial deposit bonus is quite easy to grind).

The robot plays without emotions obviously, which is one of its main advantages beyond the fact that it is programmed to always make the optimal decision. It applies strictly to the letter my own playing style at no-limit Texas Hold’em, bluffing, semi-bluffing, blocking bets, etc. None of that was omitted in his design. It is always content to apply its algorithm, without ever asking any question or getting upset when getting a bad beat from a lucky player.

Is it a big risk to use such a bot? Lol, I don’t think so: He goes to bed without getting angry after to a bad beat, he continues to play without getting annoyed, he never tilts. The advantage is that I can run two or three tables at once and let it run while I do other things, a great way to convert bonuses and to collect rakeback potentially.

Of course, the test period is still too short to make any conclusion, but the actual result is quite satisfactory: it is a true pleasure to program this robot, to adapt it to my profile as a player, watch him play and make corrections and improvements.

This is the aspiration of many young men and women: to become an online poker pro.

Some work ten hours a day … or week. Some make income that CEOs would envy. With the explosion of the game of poker online, they are now hundreds of online poker pros who make a living from poker.

Often they make the move to pro when they start to realize that they can make more money in online poker than from their regular job. And if their job is a pain, the choice is even easier. Multi-tabling is a common practice where that play from 4 to 24 tables simultaneously, just to maximize their gains.

The ideal that such players seek to achieve is to get sponsorship by an online poker room. Recently Tom “durrrr” Dwan joined the prestigious Team Full Tilt Poker in a contract valued at about 2 million a year. As Full Tilt pays travel and registration fees for all major international tournaments. And Tom Dwan does not pay rake, which equates hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings every year as he plays in the ultra high stakes.

To last in this business, you must be good at cards and in your head too.

Having a job where you earn a good living and where you have total freedom is a great plus. No boss, a lot of travel to the Bahamas, Australia, Monte Carlo, etc . Nothing to complain about.

It is estimated that about 10% of poker players earn money from the game, but only 1% of them manage to live very well from it. Many smaller grinders only succeed in making a smaller income that just pays the bills. And they play ten hours a day. It is a question of style and stake level.

Being a poker pro is having a great freedom and earning lots of money only to the best of them. But there are also a lot of instability. Players do not know at the end of the month how much they will win or if they will win. To last in this business you must be good cards, but most importantly have a strong  head. Because poker is a game of strategy and psychology, where luck plays an important role in the short term.