Things you can use if you do not have poker chips
August 3, 2008
Sometimes you will have a deck of cards, a good group of friends, and some idle time. You do not have poker chips but you want to play poker. What are some alternatives for poker chips when you do not have any?
You can use paper clips. If you are in the office and you guys are simply killing off some lunch time then you might want to use stuff in the office that can count as chips. One of the nice things about paper clips is that they are really all over the place. One little bag of paper clips can be good for a whole table of poker players already.
You can use coins. In this case, why don’t you make your coins your buy in already? If you have quarters then you can all use them. Everyone with quarters can bring them out. Imagine winning a pot of twenty quarters, that’s already a five dollar pot that you’re taking home.
You can use pebbles. When you look around the house or the office, you are certainly going to find some rocks lying around. You are going to look at the plants in the office. You are going to look at the aquarium in the office. By the way, if the aquarium has fish in it, forget about getting the pebbles in there. You are better off buying poker chips than cleaning that aquarium.
You can use ball pens. If you are in the office and you have a lot of pens lying around then why not use them as poker chips? You will be able to put those idle pens to use at some coffee break, right? Ball pens are a great substitute for chips especially if they have color. You can assign all the black pens to have a value of one dollar. You can assign all the blue pens to have a value of two dollars. You can assign all the red pens to have a value of three dollars and so on and so forth.
You can use compact discs in your office or in your house as chips. These are quite big but they can do. If you have a lot of compact discs lying around then this is the perfect opportunity for you to sort them out and use them for the meantime. Make sure you do not scratch the discs while you are playing poker because there might be some important media in there.
At the end of the day, if you do not have poker chips, it is all up to your imagination what you should use. You can use anything under the sun actually. In fact, some people even use their clothes! This kind of poker is called strip poker and I am sure that you have heard of this already. If you really want to see people naked then strip poker is the way to go. If you are going to bluff then make sure it will work or else your underwear is going to come off!
PokerStars marketing code
July 6, 2008
Sponsored Post:
PokerStars.com is one of the worlds largest poker rooms. They accept players from every country, including the US, and they are known for their large variety of games and promotions. One promotion that you can take advantage of is at Poker Stars Marketing Code. Pokerstars marketing code is a website that provides you with a special code, PAWSUB165, which entitles you to the best bonuses and access to $17,000 monthly freeroll tournaments. They even have screenshots that show you were to enter the code once you download the PokerStars software.
Poker Stars Marketingcodealso has other information about PokerStars including a detailed review, strategy guides, and a Pokerstars Rakeback section. Since the website is solely focus on PokerStars, where as other poker room reviews sites focus on 30 or 40 different poker rooms, it is probably your best place to get information on PokerStars.
How To Get Girls To Play Poker
July 2, 2008
It is funny sometimes how so many guys complain that there are not enough girls out there that play poker. The reality is that there are a lot of girls that play poker out there and there is a big chance that these lady players are pretty good. I should say that again, they are pretty and they are good. When girls get their groove on, they can be deadly at the poker table.
Now, if you are a bunch of guys that are trying to get girls to play poker at your house then you should not worry so much. First, you have to search the market for the right fish. I did not mean that literally of course. You have to find out the girls that are poker players. Well, if you are having a hard time finding poker players then you should find girls that are willing to play poker then. Do not bet on your first few games if you are teaching girls how to play or else they will hate you forever. You do not want that to happen, don’t you?
Second, you need to have an ideal environment for poker. Girls are very conscious about their surroundings. They pay attention to what they see. They pay attention to what they smell. They even pay attention to the vibe that they get from a place once they enter it. So the best thing to do if you are a guy and you are hosting a poker tournament or a poker game at your house is to make the place as poker game friendly as possible. This means that you should have all the trash taken out. You should have an appropriate poker table somewhere in the house. Play some poker music in the background so that the environment becomes better.
Third, play poker and be a gentleman. If you are overly aggressive at the poker table then girls will not like you and they will end up not going to your poker games ever again. Do you want that to happen? You don’t, right? If ever you are going to knock a girl out of the poker game, make sure that you do it in a gentle manner. You can be nice and say that you really have to do what you have to do. Unless the girl is a poker pro or a poker expert, the tables are going to be turned and the girls are the ones that will be nice to the guys.
Lastly, if you want to make girls go to your poker games then follow this very simple advice. Be well groomed, charming, and a gentleman, all at the same time. There is no excuse for being untidy in front of girls that you want to play poker with. If you are going to play poker with girls and if you want to see them play poker with you again then you should make it a point to be a nice guy.
Help Children In China By Playing At The Online Casinos Gammonish.com And BackGammonMasters.com
June 11, 2008
On May 12th, 2008 in the Sichuan province of China a large earthquake hit that has killed nearly 70,000, injured nearly 375,000, and left at least 5 million people homeless. It is obvious by looking at those staggering numbers that people in China need as much help as they can get. You can do some good and assist them in getting through these difficult times just by playing online backgammon.
The online casino websites BackGammonMasters.com and Gammonish.com are going to match $5 for every $1 donated from 1 months worth of tournament buy ins ranging from $4.50 to $200. They will offer special tournaments in which all of the money goes to directly to UNICEF to assist young children affected by the earthquake.
No matter where you live or what time of day it is all you have to do is sign up if you are not a member or log in if you are a current member and participate. They will be doing this for the entire month.
On other thing that must be pointed out is that these online casinos have more than just backgammon games. They also have blackjack games, poker games, and a game called perudo, so you can still help children in China even if you do not know how to play backgammon.
So if you have been itching to lend a hand to people in China you can do it today just by playing the same games you have probably been playing online for years.
Speedy Poker
May 28, 2008
Some people find poker boring because the game takes too much time for thinking and all the bluffing stuff. If you want to make your poker games more interesting then why not put a timer in the background? If you want to play poker in a more exhilarating environment then why don’t you play poker as fast as you can.
Speedy poker can be done in several ways. First of all, you can put a timer for every action made. For instance, if it is your turn to act, you have as much as ten seconds to make your decision. In this way, there will be no one out there that will take a minute or two to make their decision. Poker is much faster and you are trained to think on your feet. You do not have the time to calculate your odds anymore. You do not have the time to think about how much you will win or how much you will lose. You rarely have the time to make an act and do a bluff. In this kind of poker game, speed is the key. If you can make decision fast then you are in the groove.
A second way of doing speedy poker is through the blinds and the antes. If you want to make your poker game interesting then why don’t you increase the blinds much faster or why not increase the antes faster. Imagine a poker game where the antes and the blinds increase every ten minutes. You are going to be putting a lot of money into the pot very quickly. In this kind of game, you might have to work your way through even with ugly cards. If the blinds are increasing so fast, the pot money will be increasing fast too. If you can take out a lot of opponents using your ugly cards then this is the kind of game for you.
The last way of doing speedy poker is by doing both. Yep, you heard me. Do both of them simultaneously. You can increase the blinds and the antes every ten minutes and you can put a timer on each player. Each player can only have a maximum of ten seconds per decision or else it is an automatic fold. If you think that you will be able to pull off acts in this fast time frame then you are really good. The chances of pulling off a bluff here can be good and bad. The game is going to fast that you are unable to make your own bluff but at the same time your other opponents are uneasy as well. They are also worrying about the time and they are also worrying about their game just like you.
The way to win at speedy poker is to be as speedy as the game. Train your mind to calculate odds fast. Train your mind to act swiftly. Most of all, always think on your toes. If you can pull these things off then speedy poker is the way to go for you.
Firearms and Poker
April 11, 2008
If you are hosting a poker tournament at home then you should certainly be very strict about the use of firearms in your household. In fact, you should have a no firearms policy in your poker tournaments at all times. Why is this so? I think that the reasons are pretty obvious. For one, poker is a very sensitive game. If someone losses a lot of money and this person has a gun, he or she can easily rip it out and get all the pot money in front of him or her and take it away even if he or she lost. Yes, it is possible. Yes, it has happened.
Are you familiar with the dead man’s hand? The Ace and the eight is the dead man’s hand. Wild Bill Hickok was shot when he was holding these cards in a Texas Hold’em game. Do you want this to happen to you? Do you want the definition of dead man’s hand be referenced to you? If you are holding a king and a ten and then you get shot because your opponent thought that you were cheating, can you take it if dead man’s hand is replaced to a king and a ten and the victim is you? Fine, you will be popular but at the end of the day, you are still dead and you will not be able to enjoy this fame anyway.
The best rule in any poker tournament is to keep all firearms out of the way. You do not want any firearms being out when poker matches happen. You do not want someone putting a gun in someone else’s face in the middle of a poker tournament because he or she was knocked out. At all costs, you want to avoid incidents like this. You do not want things like this to happen. You do not want to be in the middle of some gun shots.
Gambling and firearms do not mix. It is like mixing the Autobots and the Decepticons in Transformers. If you think that you will be able to allow people to bring guns into your poker invitational then it is up to you. I am sure that in the casinos, the bringing of firearms is strictly prohibited. I think that you should follow suit and follow their example because it is in your own best interest to do so. If you have guests that are cops then make sure that they are reasonable cops and not the dirty cops. The dirty cop is capable of bringing out a gun and getting the pot if he or she wants to do it. The person with the gun is the one that can intimidate and you do not want this happening in your poker matches, right? The rule of thumb at the end of the day is never to allow people to bring firearms in any poker or any gambling event. If you want to be safe, make sure that those with the guns aren’t gambling and those with the guns are rational and respectable people.
Poker And The Person
April 5, 2008
If you are playing with someone for the first time, you will be able to tell a lot about the person simply by watching him or her play poker. There are three basic personas to work with when watching someone play poker. The first persona is the safe player. This player is the risk averse person. This person loves stability in life. He or she wants to avoid any kind of risk as much as possible. If you give him or her a portfolio of stocks, this person will select the least risky and the one with the least return. Safe poker players are likely to lose at poker. They will not be able to see the opportunities coming their way.
The second persona that you can work with when playing with a poker player is the wild and risky player. This player is the type of player that goes all in with a two and three off suit. This type of player is wild. He or she will be calling all sorts of things out of the norm. This type of person will be playing poker like a mad dog. This poker player does not care about winning or losing, all this person cares about is being wild and doing things out of the norm. Although this person may hit the jackpot once in a while, he or she is still likely to have cumulative losses in his or her entire poker career.
The third persona that you will work with at poker is the balanced person. There is nothing more perfect than a balanced life. There is nothing more perfect that being able to balance risk and return. If you some across the type of player that is balanced, you should be prepared to fight a long and good fight. You will be calculating your odds. You will be calculating his or her odds. At the end of the day, the well balanced poker player will win in the long run. He or she is able to balance the opportunities available. He or she is able to avoid unnecessary risk. This person always has a heads up mentality. He or she is always looking out for the best way to win and is always looking from side to side in case someone will attack him or her from out of nowhere.
Playing poker reflects the personality of a person in one way or another. If you are the type of person that loves to play poker and meet people then playing poker would be a good ice breaker. Although you may be competitive at first, at least at the end of the day, you will be able to gauge each other’s style of play and each other’s personality. In the end, it is a winning situation for all. Enjoy poker and enjoy spending time with great people. That is what life is all about. I think that if you are able to have a well balanced life, which certainly includes poker, then you will be a happy human being here on earth.
The emotional poker player
March 27, 2008
At one point in your life, you will bump into an emotional poker player. This player is someone you should watch out for. This player is the most unpredictable player because he or she relies mostly on his or her feeling and not on his or her intellect. When someone always follows his or her gut feel, it is very difficult to read if you are the opponent. These emotional poker players will be able to have the gut feel to sense that the river card is what they want. This is what makes them dangerous. In one way or another, you can call the emotional poker player the player that will make the most dramatic calls and the most dramatic raises.
For example, if the emotional poker player is holding a king and a jack and at the turn, there is a queen and a ten already, all that is needed for a straight is a nine or an ace. The emotional poker player can go all in on this. Even if at the moment, his or her highest five card is a king high, this emotional poker player knows when the ace will turn up or when a nine could show up. This emotional player really doesn’t care if he or she makes the straight or not. This emotional player only cares about the emotional rush that he or she can derive from the experience. He or she seeks the thrill of hitting that straight at such an odd moment. It has happened to him or her already in the past and this emotional poker player is looking for that same old rush. Everyone chases a rush. Emotional people chase the rush of emotions. Aggressive people chase the rush of challenge. Drug addicts chase the rush of a high. Achievers chase the rush of accomplishment. Everyone has his or her own rush in life and he or she chases this rush every time he or she gets the chance to do so.
I am sure that you have been an emotional player once in a while. You have wanted to hit a flush on the river or you have wanted to hit a straight on the river. You have made it before and you think that you will be able to make it again. Your emotions are rushing. You want to make that straight and you want to complete that flush. You know how good that feels and you know how much you want it. At some point, you have to restrain yourself. The best way to play poker is to play with your heads up, not with your heart all over the place. You may encounter emotional players along the way but if they have to win, just give it to them. In the long run, the rational players will still be more consistent and more successful. The emotional player loves the drama of poker. The professional player loves the science of winning at the game. Which one are you?
The chances of
March 18, 2008
One of the more interesting topics in poker is the ability to determine the chances of you hitting a card that you want on the turn and on the river. It is important for you two know that there are fifty two cards in the deck, there are four suits, and there are thirteen different number and face cards. Chances of hitting a similar suit are roughly one forth while chances of hitting the same number or face are one of thirteen. How do you calculate your odds then?
I will teach you how to calculate basic odds of poker cards. This is a simple calculation and is not the strict probability of you hitting the card that you want. Take note of this. This technique is a simple way of calculating your odds of hitting a card in the simplest way possible. A more accurate way of predicting the card outcome is more complicated and can only be performed by skilled mathematicians in the middle of a poker decision. If you are skilled then try to find the way to calculate it but if you are the average Joe then you can use this technique.
If you have a king and a queen, what are your chances of hitting a pair on the flop? If you think about it, you just need one pair, right? So you add the chances of hitting another king and another queen on the first three cards. You add two thirteenth plus two thirteenth plus another two thirteenths. You will end up with six thirteenths or almost one half. In this calculation, you can see that you have a fifty percent chance of hitting one pair on the flop. If you know this then you can raise the pot by a significant amount. You can be confident that your chances of hitting a pair is like a coin toss.
Another example to warm your chances calculation is this. If you have a king and a queen, what are your chances of hitting a flush on the flop? In this case, you have to multiply the probabilities of the cards because you need to have all the cards suited. You multiply one forth by one forth and by another one forth. You will end up with one twelfth or roughly ten percent. If you are hoping to get a flush on the flop then going all in is not such a good idea. You should be careful when you have those suited cards. There are even jokes about those people who think suited cards will really give them an edge in poker. Suited cards are simply suited, that is it. Your chances for a flush are really pretty slim, you know.
I hope you will be able to use these rule of thumb chances computations in the middle of a poker game. You should be able to add fast and multiply fast. You should be able to work with fractions easily. This is the mathematical way of winning at poker. Use these techniques as you wish.
The higher straight
March 10, 2008
If you have some experience in poker then you have certainly experienced being taken out by someone with the higher straight. This is one of the things that will break your heart. This is one hand where you will be thinking about it even after you sleep at night. How could you have lost that hand? How could you have lost it when you had the cards? You got taken out with the higher straight? What were the odds? Your opponent knew you had the straight although he knew better because he or she had the higher one. Your opponent reeled you in and he or she knew it from the very beginning.
How can you avoid being beaten by the higher straight anyway? There are two strategies to avoid being beaten by the higher straight. One of the ways to avoid being beaten by the higher straight is simply to fold when you smell something fishy going on. If you look at the flop and the turn and you see a five, a seven, a nine, and a ten, you have to be wary. A lot of straights can be made this way. Do not be so confident if you have a six and an eight already. Do not even hope of hitting a three if you have a four and a six already. The best thing to do at this situation is to fold out if anyone raises the pot by a substantial amount. Imagine the possibilities that can happen on this hand. If you are not careful, you will be taken out by a higher straight in the form of a jack on the river card and someone holding a queen and a king. That would be a disaster and a heart breaker. You are simply going to get devastated after you have poured and invested a lot of your chips on that round. If you are in this sticky situation, you should know what to do. Do not be overconfident and be realistic. Keep your eyes open on how a straight can turn out in the end.
Another way where you can avoid being beaten by the higher straight is to make a flush. If your opponents have been banking on making a straight or a higher straight then you can elude them by aiming for the flush. You will be in the higher league when you aim for the flush. Just make sure that you have the higher flush. It would also be a disaster if you lose to a higher flush. If you have an ace high flush then go for it. If you have the ability to go all in then do so. The likelihood of someone taking you out with a higher flush must be eliminated right away. If you think someone will have a higher flush then be wary. Be on the lookout for these guys. It is very annoying to lose to a higher straight so you should be vigilant at all times when these five card combos can occur.