Switching from Live to Online Poker

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In todays increasingly digital world, online poker has become highly popular and played by many all around the world. So if you are planning to make the switch from live to online poker and take advantage of some of those online poker bonuses sites like www.pokermira.com offer, keep on reading this article.

There are several important differences between live and online poker, the majority of which tend to be overlooked by players seeking to make the switch. Understanding these differences is, however, essential if you are to ensure success. So whether you wish to go online for financial or practical reasons, it is worth preparing yourself in order to make the most of your transition.

1. Reading your opponents

Probably the most critical difference to consider when making the switch from live to online poker is that reliance on reading other players’ tells will not suffice in the virtual world. It is betting skills, not reading skills, that are of utmost importance when playing online, so live players seeking to make the transition must ensure their tactical decision-making is up to scratch before switching.

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2. Speed and concentration

In a live game, poker players tend to have a few minutes to recompose themselves after coming up against a bad beat or making a bad play. Due to the speed at which hands are dealt in the digital world (up to 200 hands per hour), this is not the case when playing online. Newcomers to online poker must learn to adjust to this faster pace, particularly if you are prone to tilting during the course of live games.

3. Sociability vs. solitude

Another often-overlooked psychological element to online poker is the hours of solitude that playing entails. Online poker inevitably involves long periods alone, without distractions, in front of a computer screen. It lacks the social interaction and atmosphere that live casinos provide, and can often become a serious sticking point for players used to live games.

4. Poker tourism

There is no guaranteeing the calibre of player your will be facing when playing live poker, Casinos are usually comprised of a combination of standards, from the occasional gambler and complete novice to the seasoned expert. Online casinos, on the other hand, are usually frequented by many more online poker professionals; those who actually play online poker for a living and are thus a great deal more competent than your average casino player. Newcomers to the online game should certainly bear this in mind and perhaps expect to come up against stiffer competition than they are used to.

5. Multi-tabling

For newcomers to online poker, multi-tabling should be approached with caution. It demands a quick wit and a great deal of stamina to pull off successfully, but can be greatly profitable for those who do in fact succeed. If you chose to play single tables, you should remember that many of your opponents will not be. As a result, marginal hands and careful prioritising will be taking place, unlike in a live situation where players are often a lot looser and more impatient, risking more on marginal hands than in online situations.

Understanding the differences between live and online poker is essential if you are to make a successful transition, so ensure you are fully prepared before taking the leap into the digital world.

The Art of the Slow Play in Poker

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In the world of poker, tempers can flare pretty easily. We’ve written a lot about the psychological side of poker, and some of you might wonder why. Well, it’s pretty simple: if you haven’t mastered your mind, you won’t be able to master poker. Yes, we all have seen WSOP moments where some of the players are rowdy or they take losses hard, but these moments are few and far between. When you’re playing your best game of poker around, you don’t need to have that type of attitude. It’s just a matter of sitting down and thinking about the right perspective, each and every time.

Do you have to fast play in poker? Well, it’s a matter of figuring out what we mean between “slow ply” and “fast play”. In this case, we mean the type of betting that you’re doing.

When you have a monster hand, one of your first reactions might be to cheer or otherwise act rashly. The thing is that players on the table are going to realize that you must have something good, which means that they’re going to fold. If you have a monster hand and you try to bet heavy right before the flop even comes down, you’re going to signal too much. This is where the slow play approach really comes in because you don’t really have that problem. If you have a great premium hand, you’re going to have to hold onto it until you can get other people to put some real skin into the game. This means that you might want to wait until the turn in order to bet real heavy. Does that mean that you don’t want to raise a little in order to keep everyone going? Of course you want to make sure that you bet along with everyone else.

In order to give yourself a few guidelines, you might want to look at not only the chip stack that you have, but the chip stacks of everyone else. You will also want to look at the type of card odds that you’re up against. Knowing your poker math comes in handy when it comes to a wide variety of situations!

Let’s not forget the fact that you also want to be changing up your game from time to time, especially if a lot of people have played you. You might not think about it from this perspective, but word really does travel fast around the world of poker. This means that it can be tempting to think that things won’t get back to people about you when you’re playing online, but this isn’t the case.

You will need to also feel out your opponent to make sure that you’re playing against someone or a group of people where slow playing your hand is really going to be the best thing. You might think that doing this to beginners is your best bet so to speak, but that’s not true either. You will actually get a lot more mileage out of the whole thing if you were to really go against advanced, aggressive players. This is because they will push in hard and with you just calling or betting light and easy, they will assume that they have you beat. When people see that they have you beat, they can bet heavy and even go all in — this is how you steal advanced player’s chips. Keep in mind that everyone is susceptible to psychological games, and slow playing is just one facet of your overall toolkit.

So yes, slow playing is definitely a good thing — start light and easy and work your way up. You’ll where you want to go in no time at all!

Grab that Preflop By the Throat and Raise!

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Okay, so we’re a little excited. Anytime that we get to talk about aggressive poker moves, we get excited. To us, poker is all about aggression, and the poke battles are often won by the aggressive person, not the weak limper. Therefore, if you want to maximize poker profits, you need to isolate moments where you can actually be pretty fierce. The preflop is that type of time.

Keep in mind that a lot of people will have good hands, but they don’t bother getting aggressive. They’re passive, calling stations that will not take the initiative. Instead of just letting them see the flop for cheap, make them pay for it. If you’re the first person to enter the pot, you need to be raising. Of course, if you don’t have a good hand then you need to fold and get out of the pot.

If you have modest hands like TJ suited or QJ suited, you can feel free to raise. KQ, AJ? Raise. However, if you’re under the gun you might have to fold these.

Suited connectors still tend to do very well, and it gets people going at the table. Betting wisely holding these connectors can add more profit to your bottom line.

Aggression Factor in Poker

Position definitely matters. If you can be in late position, then you definitely want to raise pretty hard. On the other hand, if you’re in the blinds, you might not want to raise as much. It’s a really bad position to be in, but it’s going to just depend on the type of situation that’s around you.

It cannot be stressed enough — make sure that you’re looking at the image of the other players. We can give you all sorts of advice, but you want to make sure that you have studied the people that are playing with you.

Your raise size should be based on the position that you’re in. Generally speaking, if you’re on the button, you want to bet a bit smaller than normal but if you’re under the gun, you want to go out with both guns blazing. It’s important to stand your ground if you have a good hand.

Of course, if the flop swings out of your favor, then you have to fold and wait for another hand that’s going to suit you better. Trust us, the image you create will not be forgotten easily. Good luck!

Improve your chances when playing slots

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When you play online slots games you have to accept that there is no secret formula or strategy to beating the slots system. Whether you win or lose is down to fate – the spin of the reels and where they land is something that you cannot control at all.

However, what you can do is play slots bearing some of the tips below in mind, so that you maximise your chances of winning.

Where you play

First, you need to think about where you are going to play slots. There are slots on pretty much every casino site online, but some sites offer better return to player odds than others. Although the differences are marginal, every little counts, so choose those casino sites that offer the highest return to player percentages. Take a look at the different slots available at 32red casino or the slots on Royal Vegas and 888.com, and you’ll see that odds vary from game to game and from site to site.  Also look at the welcome bonuses that casino sites like 32Red and others offer. Playing with the casinos’ money can really stack the odds in your favour!

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Bankroll

Before you start playing slots, decide how much you’re willing to spend. Set yourself a limit and then stick to it. In this way, you won’t fall into the trap of playing with money that you can’t actually afford to lose. Some people hold a separate account for gambling, using an e-wallet like Paypal, so that there isn’t the temptation to dip into household funds when you’ve run out of playing credit.

Look at the payout tables

Each casino has its own payout table for slots games – some have different payout tables for individual slots games on the same website. Make sure you understand how the payout will be worked out on each game before you play. Some games have minimum numbers of coins that must be played per spin and others have a minimum denomination. Choose a game that you can afford to play while betting the maximum on each spin in order to activate all the paylines and increase your chances of landing a win. Otherwise you could stand to miss out on a progressive jackpot, for example, if you don’t place the maximum bet.

Read the rules

Before you start playing a new slots game, read through the rules and get a handle on features such as the bonus rounds. Payouts are usually bigger on the slots with a greater number of reels, but you’ll generally find better odds on the three reel machines. Progressive slots have bigger potential payouts than regular slots, but lower returns, so you’ll use up your entertainment budget more quickly on the progressives.

Be sensible

All slots operate on a random number generator system, so you shouldn’t start to think one game is luckier for you than another. Mix up which games you play and for how long. Bet differently according to whether you are winning or not – reduce your bets when you’re losing and increase them when you’ve made some money.

Above all, know when to call it a day – don’t play with money you can’t afford to and bank your winnings from time to time.

Choosing a good casino

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If you want to gamble online, then it is a good idea to find the best possible casino to use. There are so many different ones to choose from that it can be hard to know where to start. There are different ways that you can do this. Some of these are described below.

Ranking Sites

There are websites which will rank different casinos. This can be a good way to see which ones are thought to be the best. Although you may not necessarily agree with their rankings you will still get an idea of what good sites are available to play at and perhaps what features they have as well. Of course, not all sites will have been considered in the ratings, as no one can possibly play them all.

Review Sites

There are websites that review gambling sites and these can be useful. Again you may not totally agree with the reviews but it can still give you a chance to find out more about them. Reviews can be useful because you can find out what people like and dislike about the various sites. It will allow you to start to know what features sites have and you can decide what you think might make a good site.

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Well Known names

You could just go to some of the well-known sites such as Will hill casino club and see what they are like. If you are heard of them, then they are likely to be larger companies and so that may mean that they are some of the better ones. This may not be true but it can be worth taking a look at them anyway.

Random Searches

You could just do some search engine searches and see what comes up. You may find some interesting sites this way and possibly come across ones that you will not have seen elsewhere.  It could be a fun way to discover less well known casinos.

Playing online can be a lot of fun. It is worth bearing in mind that many casinos try hard to encourage new players and this means that they have some good new player bonuses. Sometimes it can therefore be worth trying out different ones and taking advantage of these deals. You can find out more about the bonuses that they offer on some ratings and reviews sites but also there will be details on the sites themselves.

Don’t Lose Hope – Your Poker Brain Is Truly Mighty!

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Every poker player has strengths.
Every poker player has weaknesses.

Trying to figure out how to leverage your strengths and downplay your weaknesses is truly the name of the game. There’s no need to feel like you’re the only one in the world trying to make this a reality. A lot of newbies enter the game of poker and feel like they are never going to get ahead. Even after playing thousands of hands — and we really do mean thousands of hands — we often feel this way too. It feels like no matter how much you win — you could have won more. If you lose — you could have done better. There’s always an avenue that you can use to beat yourself up with. We like to tell our fellow poker players to just relax. Trying to figure out every single thing in poker over a short period of time will be enough to drive you crazy. Now, you might point to some people in the forums that really look like they have their wits about them. The truth is that everyone can position themselves as a legendary poker player, but it really takes a lot more than just words to be a legendary poker player. If you look at the people that are crushing it in the poker world right now, they all will admit to long hours of practice. They will admit losses. You don’t get a 100% win-rate. The luck of the cards just isn’t always going to be on your side. So what does it really take to win in the game of poker?

Longevity. You have to believe that your poker brain truly is mighty. If you assume that you’re never going to do any better than what you have right now, you’re going to find yourself carrying this belief into all of your card games. You will sit down at the table and feel like they’re just no way that you can beat anyone. The truth is that you probably know a lot more about the game of poker than you might expect. The reality here is that you must reach within to see that strength.

Poker Brain

Are you good at reading people? Can you take a whole round and determine who’s a donk, who’s a rounder, who’s a shark, and who just wants to try to be a maniac about the game? Some people are really good at this. Or maybe you excel at staying calm when the whole table is going nuts. Getting angry with bingo players that go all in on everything is the wrong way to see poker. Sure, they’re going to get lucky sometimes. But they do know pot odds like you do? Probably not, if they’re just going all in blindly.

This goes for super loose players that seem like they will play anything that you throw at them. They might win sometimes, but if you use classic poker theory, you will eventually triumph over them.

It’s all about looking at where you want to be in the online world over time. Long term play will always win out over short term play based on faulty thinking. If you think that you can’t beat anyone, you’re practicing faulty thinking. And remember, negative thoughts tend to leave you playing emotionally. This is a wonderful way to lose money, not make money. Sure, there’s a certain level of intuition to be found when you’re trying to tie things together. You might play a hand just because you feel so strongly about it. But you have to be prepared to lose if you do that. Can you handle that type of loss? If not, then you definitely know what you need to do.

Right now is the best time to sit down away from the computer and evaluate your poker game. If you must go to a PC to look at your stats, try to be good to yourself. You have a lot of profits to make in poker, but if your mind gets too worked up you’re going to be in for big surprises. Get started today by checking out USA online poker for tips on best USA poker sites!

Table Selection in Poker Matters – Here’s Why!

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Does table selection in poker really matter? Absolutely. As a new poker player, you might be compelled to just sit at any table and hope for the best. However, thinking through your table selection really makes a difference. Unfortunately, many new players just don’t know where to be. That’s perfectly okay. After all, you’re in the best place to learn this type of thing.

Table selection can definitely affect winrate, and there are factors that make the difference between a good poker table and one that you should avoid.

A great table has many factors. For starters, you want to look for a table that has weak players. If that sounds too predatory for you, you’re in the wrong casino game. Poker is all about being as predatory as possible. Those weak players have chips that you can take, and chips are money. It’s really as simple as that. If you can get position on fish, this means that you can play pots in position against them. You can find weak players because they have a stack size smaller than 100 big blinds. Strong winners usually have more than 100 big blind and they auto reload to stay in the game.

You want to have a good position that lets you have position on as many weak players as possible. The tight players should be on your left, and the loose players on your right.

We also like tables that have a high percentage of seen flops. This is a sign that loose players are sitting there. Loose players don’t think about hand selection or flop evaluation very much, which means that there’s a chance for you to take their chips with ease. Juicy tables make for profitable play and long term winning numbers.

You also want to see what the average pot size is. Large pots also indicate fish, and we already explained our love for fishy players. See if you can get high up on the waitlist so that you have time to scoop up as much of the fishies’ bankrolls as possible.

Looking at the stack size matters as well. Weak players have less than 100 big blinds (40-90BB is the range that you’ll find most of the time).

The time of day definitely matters. If you’re targeting fish, you’ll find them playing after they get off work. Remember that work is stressful, and stressed players tend to tilt very easily. This is where having a good idea of the psychological side of poker comes in handy. It’s always a good idea to figure out what you’re going to do to push someone’s mental buttons a bit. If you can get them rattled, then you can beat them. It’s really as simple as that.

You’ll have to play around with table selection for a little while until you get it right. There’s nothing that says that you can’t do well in poker with a little strategy, you know! Keep playing and good luck — may the cards be with you, always!

Real Reviews From Authentic Players Can Make You Serious Cash – Here’s How!

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Are you looking at breaking into a new casino? You’re not the only one. The days of loyally following one casino and one casino only are truly over. Players want to move around, check out new competition, look at casino promotions and otherwise have a good time. There’s no longer an expectation that one casino should be able to satisfy all of your needs. However, don’t think that this extends over into real life. If you try to sell your girlfriend on the concept that you have evolved beyond the ability to be satisfied by just one woman, you’re bound to get slapped.

There’s something about being able to move around from casino to casino with ease, but how do you really know if you’re getting the real deal? There is a lot of money involved in getting players to pick Casino A over Casino B. Casinos want to drive you to their place and they don’t really want you getting any ideas of hopping the fence. Yet they resign themselves to the fact that you’re going to check out multiple casinos, especially if you are hunting a game that the casino in question doesn’t have.

The best solution here is to hunt for real reviews. We don’t want just any reviews — we want to make sure that real players are giving us the scoop. These are people that are putting their hard earned cash on the line to help us make even more money. If they’re having a problem, they’re going to let you know. You might think that the casinos would censor these reviews and keep them from getting out. But there are so many review sites now that the casinos have a hard time keeping up with them all. This means that the reviews tend to be much more genuine. You get some glowing reviews from big time fans but you don’t lose out on figuring which casino is going to give you the experience that you want.

That’s what it boils down to ultimately: cash and casino experience. You want to have a good time and tell your friends all about it. Casinos want to make sure that they are cultivating the right image. Too many negative reviews can seriously impact their revenue. Are we saying that you should treat all reviews as gospel? Not at all. There are casinos that we checked out on our own that many reviewers said weren’t a good fit. Does that mean that it’s curtains for your casino game? Not at all. You just need to learn to figure in time to check things out for yourself and time to just skip the casino and move on to another one. Life is too short to play anywhere that isn’t suiting your needs!

What Does it Mean to Be Out of Position

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Position in poker is something that really matters. In a nutshell, position refers to how action moves. Starting from the “button”, action moves from left to right. This means that the person that acts last has the most information than their opponents. This means that they can look at where they stand in a different way, making better decisions. It’s true, but you have to also think about the early position player — the one who acts first.

Let’s set up a basic hand of 87s. It’s a suited connectors hand, and we like those for a lot of different reasons. We have potential for not just a straight, but a flush as well. If we catch the straight, great. If we catch the flush…even better.

What happens when you’re sitting in the big blind and the player on the button raises to three times to big blind? You can fold, but that just wouldn’t be fun. You want to make sure that you see if they have a hand that could beat yours.

If the flop comes down A-K-9, all different colors, it’s a good idea to fold to that bet. Otherwise, you’re going to end up paying a lot of money trying to see each and every card, hoping that you’ll get trips or a last chance flush.

This is also where looking at how your opponents are playing really makes a difference. You want to ensure that you’re not ignoring the power of betting. If someone is betting hard, they really might have something. It’s better to fold and let them have a pot, then lose in the showdown because you were too stubborn to pull out.

This is a mistake that new players make, even though veterans can be just as guilty. You might feel that it’s best to stay the course, but the reality is that you have to really think long term rather than short term. Don’t chase every hand. This is even more the case when it comes to tournament play. There’s no better way to get knocked out of the money than to chase each and every hand, when it’s better to fold. Will you give in to bluffs now and then? Of course you will. But will you stay in the game longer? Definitely. You have to balance playing hands that are bad against forced bets (small/big blind). The blinds will eat you alive if you don’t take action, but that doesn’t mean jumping into every pot either.

It’s a lot of things to consider, but being out of position can still be lucrative in its own way. It comes down to reading what the early position and late position players will actually do before you get into the middle of things. Good luck!

Understanding the Aggression Factor in Poker

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We’ve had a good time teaching you the fundamentals of poker all over again. Again, it cannot be stressed enough — learning the basis of what makes good poker is better than not learning anything at all. Or worse…going through things based on fear or gut emotion. There are going to be times where you go with what your gut days. But that doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily the best choice that you can make. The reality here is that it’s all about doing what’s going to be profitable. There is a world of difference between trying to play for a house game between your buddies, playing on Facebook with a free poker game, and then trying to go into real money poker. If you think that your little Facebook app is going to be competitive, you haven’t seen real money poker. It’s a pretty fierce battle that attracts quite a few poker players. You will need to make sure that you are at least looking at the fundamentals.

We talked about the different characteristics of poker players, and we went into aggression a little bit. You might not realize this, but aggression is something that can be definitely measured. You will need to look at the aggression factor in poker, which is very important.

Simply put, the aggression factor is a stat found in heads up displays — you know, the software that lets you gain a better picture of what your opponents are really like.

The aggression factor is derived from the sum of bets and raises, divided by calls. Keep in mind that the number has to be viewed in the context of the other numbers. You need to make sure that you are looking a player that has honestly played enough poker to yield good statistics. Do you really want to go after 50 hands… or 5,000 hands? More is definitely better in these circumstances.

Of course, when you don’t have a good aggression factor on hand, you will need to look at how the person is playing. Knowing how aggressive a player is can help you figure out if they’re likely to bluff you or actually have good hands. Good luck!