Poker Strategy | Hermes Poker

Omaha 8 – General Tournament Strategy

Monday, May 21st, 2012

If you are going to play in an Omaha Hi/Lo (also known as Omaha 8 or better) online poker tournament, you will have to make some adjustments from typical ring game strategy and play. Unlike a cash game, you can’t refill your chip stack when you run out in a tournament. Add in the fact that the blinds continue to increase, and the strategy for a tournament can be significantly different. It doesn’t mean the fundamentals of the game change however, it just means that you need to account for the changing dynamics that a tournament creates.

Online Poker

One thing you should be doing in a tournament is seeing more flops early. The main reason for this is because the blinds are low and your stack size is deep in comparison (usually). Your goal during these stages is to accumulate as many chips as possible so that you can handle the quick swings of the later stages. Seeing as many flops as possible and playing a smart post-flop game is a good way of doing this. When you are in position, it is often correct to speculate in multi-way raised pots with what would be a very marginal hand in a cash game. You’ll more than likely lose a few bets here and there seeing a lot of flops, but your primary objective is to be scooping the big pots that more than make up for those small losses.

Later in the tournament, the exact opposite is true. You want to see fewer flops and will need to tighten up your game considerably as the blinds increase. It is not uncommon in the later stages of a tournament for the average stack to be somewhere between 10-20 big blinds. Seeing two hands to the river and losing at this stage can cripple you, if not eliminate you completely. At this stage, it’s best to stick with premium hands. It’s also important when the stacks are shallow like this to be aggressive pre-flop. Players are much more likely to fold to a pre-flop raise at this stage because the raise amount actually can damage their stack.

One last thing that is important to consider is the adjustments that need to be made in a tournament, especially in the later stages. You should know where you stand in relation to the rest of the field at all times. If you’re getting close to making the money, it is a good idea to know where your stack size shapes up in relation to the remaining players. If you are in danger of not making the money, you have two choices – wait and hope people bust out, or be aggressive and try and accumulate chips while people are playing ultra tight. This Writer is more in the latter camp…I’d rather take my chances to put myself in a position to win the big money than to just squeak into the money and barely make a profit. That choice, however, is ultimately yours.

In addition, knowing how to adjust to short-handed play is important in tournaments. You will often be playing five to seven handed in the later stages of a online poker tournament and will need to adjust the hands you play. A hand like A-3-x-x that would be unplayable at a full table is often a very big hand at a six handed table.

21.05.2012 Poker Strategy, Poker Tournaments Comments Off

Strategies and Tips to win at Freeroll Tournaments

Monday, February 27th, 2012

Any reputable online poker room offers freeroll tournaments to its poker players in order to engage them with the site for long time. These freeroll tournaments are hugely popular because of a good opportunity to earn thousand of Euros without investing single penny from your pocket. It’s really interesting as more than a thousand participants defy you to win a slice of the exciting prizes offered in freeroll tournaments. For some players, playing freeroll tournaments is the way to build some bankroll and some play this just for sake of earning few bucks. It may then be useful to know some strategy to approach the freeroll tournaments. And if you are playing freeroll tournaments, then play it to win!

Dynamics of playing Freeroll Tournaments

First, we analyze the free component as it comes to freeroll tournaments that have no enrollment fee and you can be sure that the dynamics are completely different from normal poker tournaments. You are not so scared about your actions while playing freeroll tournaments because it won’t cost you anything. And this is what makes you free while playing any of the freeroll tournaments.

Many players will also play cards without any qualms and embark on risky all-in. It means crazy hands, where your AK could be beaten by two six of the player who has followed you all-in pre-flop. In short: the luck in freeroll tournaments has a high weight.

The Initial Phase of Freeroll Tournaments

This is an approach; however, you may turn in your favor simply by adopting it yourself. At the early stages of freeroll tournaments, do not be afraid to make risky moves, indeed play a lot of dishes (the goal is to embed good points on the flop) or be more aggressive and go with all-in .The reason is very simple, if you play tight the other players at the table (plus rash) will soon have many more chips than you and you would have no chance to beat on equal terms later.

On the other hand, if you do not mind an all-in on the first or second hand, your stack will increase exponentially , and so the opportunity to get to the bottom. But if you have saved precious time, you need them for other freeroll tournaments.

The Second half of Freeroll Tournaments

After the first stage of the freeroll tournaments pass, most of the players have now been eliminated from the game. This is the time when remaining players begin to feel the scent of money and the game becomes more interesting. Players keep on watching each other moves and start playing so seriously by forgetting that they have not paid anything to register. And this is where you actually start playing real game to win freeroll tournaments. If you can straighten your game throughout this stage of freeroll tournaments, you should be able to get in the money (in the prize). But do not settle for any position and try to steal the blinds as quickly as you can. After all, playing hours and hours to find just a few cents in your hand is not very pleasant, even if you have not paid any buy-in registration. Always do remember that we have dedicated a good portion of our time and time is money. So why to invest so much time just to get few cents but not the real prize? So play it and win it all the way.

There are thousands of freeroll tournaments offered by many online poker sites everyday and if you are good enough with time management and play few tournaments smartly, you can make some serious money at poker. Hope this poker tips will help you to improve your game and you will make some good amount of money freeroll tournaments.

27.02.2012 Poker Strategy, Poker Tips, Poker Tournaments Comments Off

Different Stages of MTT Tournament

Monday, February 13th, 2012

MTT tournament are the poker tournaments where the number of participants exceeds the maximum number of players per table, so you play on multiple tables. These MTT poker tournaments are generally the most interesting in terms of money invested / reward potential. Often compared to an expense in the buy-in of a few Euros, you can put into play to win awards for thousands of dollars by winning MTT tournament. But MTT tournament involves hours and hours of play against a large number of participants experienced and determined to go all the way.
It can be daunting to decide on playing MTT Tournament as it requires too much patience to play such poker tournaments. This question might come to your mind “How to play MTT tournaments?” There is no miraculous strategy for MTT tournament. The only theory exists here is “the more you practice it, the more the chances of winning MTT Tournament”, but there is some good advice that can help us to do the best at MTT Tournament. Here are a few.

Dealing with Different Stages in MTT Tournament

Initial Stage of MTT Tournament

At the beginning phase of MTT tournament, it is recommended to play safe game and only to push really big hands like- (AA, KK…). The early stages of MTT Tournament are, in fact, important to consolidate and increase the stack and to steal the blinds. The magnitude of the dark, on the other hand, allows you to go see the flop cards with small / medium – as long as the call remains of small entities.
In fact, especially if the bet is called by many players at the table, it is “easier” to play hands with low cards. Same thing goes for pairs and small suited cards while the low level of the call must be played, but never enough to justify big raise, or even all-in.
For the same reason you must withdraw without hesitation when you have your stack in danger, not to pursue projects and not improbable peg against a particular opponent. Because a small investment is good to see the flop but a big loss would undermine the whole MTT tournament.
The only golden rule is to keep in mind in the first hours of MTT tournament is: you cannot win, lose, however, is easy.

Intermediate Stage of MTT tournament

In intermediate stages of MTT tournament, when approximately 30% of the players went out, we have increased our stack or at least kept it intact. From this moment on, the blinds are becoming more “interesting” and it’s time to play seriously.
It is worth exploiting your reputation and make occasional bluffs at this moment of MTT tournament. The other player, believing that your bids are the result of high cards, fold gladly. The advice is to have the best position (button, big blind and small blind) at this stage of MTT tournament. As the final table comes closer, you will notice many players trying to avoid the risk of being eliminated just before you get to winning positions. So, always try to avoid clashes with the chip leader unless you have a strong hand. For them it is much easier to see your raise and could follow without too much fear. Try to play more solid with some occasional bluffs and take advantage of the position, and this is how you can approach the final table.

Final Table stage of MTT tournament

Final table is a very crucial stage of MTT tournament where you have to play with fair amount of chips that you have collected after playing hours and hours. At this stage of MTT tournament, the strength of the stack is more important than the strength of the cards. Make a better use of the chips and try to steal the blinds from those who haven’t large amount of chips.
If you do not have the opportunity to raise or you are not in a great location, or a big stack has raised before you, and avoid clashes with folding high cards or pairs would be too expensive to handle one of the chip leaders. Of course, if you have your AA or KK, then it is a different kettle of fish.
And if you arrive at the final table with a low-stack, probably means you are in dormant mode and you need to wait/hope that other players get out before you. Or you have another option of playing more aggressive with the first pair or high cards. It’s a risky tactic, of course, but remember that at this stage of the game, antes and blinds will bleed to death in a short-term and going all-in could be almost the only choice.

Heads up stage of MTT Tournament

Heads up is the final moment of MTT tournament. Try to stay focused and to manage the psychological decline that inevitably will try to get hold of you. Remember, this is a phase in which most of the hand is won by those who are active in pre-flop attacks. Be aggressive, sustained your opponent (who will raise against very often) and push on the accelerator with any high card that has passed through the hands, especially by exploiting the favorable position (when you have the button). Even a single ace could be a boon (by going all-in) from heaven.
The only cards that you can afford not to “push” are big pairs AA, KK, QQ. You may not believe but these cards in heads up stage of MTT tournament can be used to tend a trap your opponent. Try t come and see the dish and make him believe that you can conduct the hand up to push him to declare all-in. And then punish him.
As always, these are just some of the many possible strategies that can help you to win MTT tournament. The advice is to take this into account but use them wisely to build your own your game. Because ultimately, it all about your experience. The more you play poker, the more you get used to various poker tips and strategies to win at poker games.

13.02.2012 Poker Strategy, Poker Tips, Poker Tournaments Comments Off

Gap Concept in Poker- It Really Works!!

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011

“Gap Concept” is the term which was first introduced by well known poker author David Sklansky, Gap Concept basically refers to the idea that a poker player needs a better hand to call a raise than to open the pot themselves. Gap Concept can be used in multi-table poker tournaments; the Gap Concept is a synthesis, however, valid for any form of online poker and live poker as well.

Meaning of Gap in Gap Concept

Let me clear you first what exactly meant by concept of gap. Basically, it represents the “difference” in value between two hands: one open-raise and the one call. This difference is mainly from the different ranges assigned to the position of the players. If we assume that the first player to enter the pot from UTG is a solid player and aggressive, we can assume that he raises with a range JJ +, AQ +, KQs. And therefore, to call his raise one should at least have a hand that is in the middle of that range, so one can beat some of its hypothetical hands.

Understanding the hand range in Gap Concept

A possible range of call could be QQ +, AK. (Of course with “calling range” also means the possibility of re-raise). The Gap concept, which for simplicity we have exemplified the first position so as to reduce the playable hands, however, it becomes extremely important in late position where you play to grab the blinds. If we assume that the cutoff raise with hands like 44 +, A6 +, JT +, and you’re sitting on the button, you will have 2 disadvantages compared to the raiser: positional, since you’ll be the first to speak on the flop, and range, as your range must necessarily be narrow. This is the case where Gap Concept will help you to decide how to act in this situation.

Using Gap Concept

A good example of this condition may be represented by 88 +, A9 +, KQ +. This range could beat some of the hands of the initial raiser but your positional disadvantage with a good chance that you’ll need to make difficult decisions on the flop, will never give you any clue on the hand of your opponent.

However, we can see that the gap can be reversed with the use of a re-raise. Always assuming that the two players are the perfect TAG, solid and without any special “flair”, what would happen if the BB raised you? CO should now understand that BB has a hand that beats at least 2 / 3 of the range which could open by CO and then to make a call or an additional raise in turn should have one of the best hands of its range, and so on until you get to AA.

This is why when you face raise; you should tighten up substantially. You must have a stronger hand than what you would have required as a normal raising hand from that position to open the pot for a raise. The process of skimming through the hands of the gap concept, necessarily lead to the top pocket pair. So, you are not supposed to play dominated hand because it may be problematic to play dominated hand and this is why Gap Concept was introduced to poker world. Many times when you hit your ace, you might end up spending huge amount of money just to know you are second-best at showdown. This is where Gap Concept will help you to save your money from all this.

Phil Gordon explains the Gap Concept

Many players feel that “the gap concept” is a very old piece of poker strategy with no existence in present poker world. If anyone ask you to give a poker tips, you can surely pass on this poker strategy to him.

23.11.2011 Poker Strategy Comments Off

Strategic Concept to Play Winning Poker

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

The purpose of this site is to help out wicked poker players prepared to learn and apply strategic concept to play winning poker.

When put online in 2000, the winner lead to Online Poker was the first full resource speaks to how to come first playing poker online, with its many difference from casino game. Nowadays there are a lot of sites claim to offer online strategy tips, but only a hardly any distribute. Poker strategy is not just repeating rules or writing regarding basic, planned move. Strategy is an move toward to the game. Strategy involves mastering score of invisible thing that have zero to do with the cards.

However why consider what is written here sooner than what some nut might talk nonsense on a street corner? Good query. In 1999 Badger won a World Series of Poker event and has win from the California State Poker Championship, Los Angeles Poker Classic, National Championship of Poker, Legends of Poker and others. He also wrote a strategy article for Card Player glossy magazine and has been featured in mainstream media articles about the poker industry.

But this is not a personality site. It’s about strategy, and none of that resume stuff guarantees anything anyway! Keep in mind this site’s principal lesson: if you want to be a winning player, you need to think and decide for yourself. Creative, logical, situational thinking is key to winning at poker. Even more, it is the key to winning big at the game.

This site aims to help you learn how to win, rather than just learn how to play. How to Play Poker, How to Play Texas Hold’em and Poker Hands are good starting places for novices, as are Poker Terms and Poker Rules, including Texas Holdem Rules.

The site include 100 poker strategy notes in the related relevant section covering real-world and online topic like poker inform together with online tell, opening hands and free poker online, with issue like dishonest. There is a complete listing of all the World Series of Poker winners since 1970, and the 2011 WSOP results.

28.06.2011 Poker Strategy Comments Off

Texas Holdem Strategy For Single Table Tournaments

Monday, June 27th, 2011

In single table tournaments you should always try and play tightly in the early stages of the tournament, and should try and capitalize on good hands. All it takes is one big pot, then you can ride it out and wait for your next big hand as players knock each other out of the tournament.

Always be cautious while playing aggressively on suited connectors. Their value is lower than you’d expect since people are going to be short stacked. If you still decide to call, only do so near the beginning of the tournament.

When you’re down to the last few and the blinds become very big, aggressive play and blind stealing can be very effective. Remember that with fewer players at the table, weaker hands such as pairs are much stronger – make sure you keep on the aggressive with those hands and continue to scoop up blinds to maintain your chip lead.

Do pay special attention and keep track of the players you’re competing against since you may run into them again if you continue playing single table tournaments with the same buy-in.

If you do find yourself short stacked (running out of chips), wait for the right moment to go all-in and double your stack. It’s all or nothing – desperate times call for desperate measures!

27.06.2011 Learn Poker, Poker Strategy Comments Off

We Collect The Best Online Poker Bonus Additions

Monday, June 6th, 2011

It’s never been a better time to start a new online poker account. This is because the bonus poker room in the sky exploded in the last two months in some cases almost doubled. In particular, the iPoker network has made major changes, and all the skins of the network compete with each other to bring you the best deals.

Not only the size of the premium has increased, the amount should be decreased in many cases. Previously, most of the bonus match your first deposit 100%, mainly gives you a chance to double your money. Now, many rewards to match your deposit 200%, meaning that you only need to deposit half of the total bonus amount.

More information on the guide of the best bonus of the iPoker network at this time. Do not forget that when you register for these spaces through PokerNews, you can also get in the future freerolls and promotions that we have with them.

06.06.2011 Poker Guide, Poker Strategy Comments Off

Federation Internationale De Poker Association Launches Website And Listing Rules Poker International

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

Federation Internationale de Poker Association has launched a new site recently, and the international rules of Poker, which was adopted at the Bellagio in 2009. Marcel Luske and Michelle Lau is one of the founders of FIDPA.

“The new website and FIDP intellectual property rules will ultimately have an impact worldwide on the world of poker. Poker has become an international sport and it is time that the industry meets to run as. It is ridiculous that in the world, playing poker with a set of unwritten rules, not knowing what to expect. Our goal from the start was not going to dictate how the Board Tournament or the card works, but to create a set of rules to emphasize player friendly and the industry is ready to implement fair and friendly poker. As poker players, we ask the industry to reveal the nature of these rules and we need a rule base so you can see your changes . We believe the new site offers the best way for players to learn the rules and help poker game to keep growing, “Luske said.

The rules are a standardized set of technical rules, policies, and procedures for tournament play. The rules incorporate and reference the latest version of the Poker Tournament Director’s Association rules. There are 81 technical rules, policies and procedures included in the IP rule set. The ultimate goal for the set of rules is to provide the poker industry with a base set of rules. The rules will be available in a number of languages, including English, French, Dutch, German, Spanish, and more.

Lau said that creating the site was put forward by Evens for Black Friday, “In the wake of the recent Black Friday in the United States, the prohibition of online poker, we felt it was essential launch the website FIDPA this time. We believe that poker players and industry would be well served with a written set of rules. intellectual property rules will help bridge the gap when the players make the transition from Online live events here in the U.S. and when you travel around the world. “

23.05.2011 Learn Poker, Poker Strategy Comments Off

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