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Professional Tip of the Day

Betting a very large amount to win a small pot is called "overbetting the pot." You are risking a lot of chips to win a small amount of chips. Players that overbet the pot generally do not want to be called. Betting a small amount to win a big pot is called "underbetting the pot." For example, if there is 5000 in the pot, betting 100 would be silly - almost everyone would be able to call and try to catch a card that could beat you.

Theory: make most of your bets and raises the size of the pot – you will conceal the strength of your hand, get full value when you have the best hand, and make the draws pay an appropriate price to play further. Phil's book, "Poker: The Real Deal" can be purchased at Amazon.com here: http://tinyurl.com/3agjv. A portion of the proceeds from this book are donated to CRPF. For people that would really like to make a difference, donate $1,000 and forward your phone number along with the confirmation email from CRPF. Phil will call you and answer all the questions you have about Celebrity Poker or strategy for 30 minutes! Best of luck and thank you for supporting the Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation.

Phil Gordon. From the Book of 20 Tips

Texas Holdem Strategy

Until recently I avoided Poker Tournaments myself. I felt that Poker ring games made more sense. In a ring game, if you win all the money, you get to keep it. In most Poker tournaments you're lucky if you get to keep 30%. Now I'm a Poker Tournament addict, and love free rolls. I usually play in one or two big free rolls every day where the field is 1200 or more poker players. The prizes may be small, but think about beating a 1000 other Poker players. It is a great rush and appeals to my male ego. Additionally I get a lot of practice for real money Poker Tournaments that do have significant prizes.

More From: freetournaments247.com

Calculating Pot Odds

From: poker-strategy.org

The ability to calculate pot odds is a necessary part of any poker player's game.

Our goal is to play the law of averages as opposed to blind luck, in determining whether or not calling a bet is a profitable decision.

The most straightforward explanation of how to calculate pot odds is to compare the total number of unknown cards to how many outs you have, and then do some simple division.

For example, if you are four to a nut flush on the turn of a Texas Hold'em game, there are 46 unknown cards, (52 minus your 2 pocket cards and 4 on the board).

Of those 46 cards, 9 are the same suit as your flush draw. So 37 cards will not help you, while 9 will give you the nut flush hand.

Your odds are: 37/9, or more simply, 4.1 to 1 odds against making your draw.

A good poker player will only call a bet in this case, if there is already 4x that amount already in the pot.

So if you were playing a game of $5/$10 limit, then there would need to be at least $40 already in the pot to justify your calling that $10 bet to see the river.

How about those inside straight draws that are so tempting to hang onto? You have 4 outs, with 46 unknown cards on the turn. 42 cards are no help, 4 make you the winner.

42/4 = 10.5! You would need over 10 times the amount of your call to be in the pot already, to justify this decision.

Only in a wild game of poker will this kind of call pay off in the long run.

Featured Article

Online Poker Tells

From: poker-strategy.org

Several of the "tells" I have listed here are useful in both online and offline poker. However, since we lack the ability to read opponents physical expressions, these tells that are available to us become that much more important.

First, let us define a "tell." A "tell' is a habitual action by another player that gives you a clue as to what he is holding. In offline poker, a widening of the eyes is often a "tell" of a very strong hand. That is one reason you see so many poker players wearing sunglasses at the table. It's not because of the bright vegas lights.

So what might we look for in the online game that will give us clues as to when our opponents are bluffing, have the nut hand, etc? Lets examine a few.

Speed of Play

Every online poker room has a set number of seconds that each player has to respond before he is declared either all-in or folded. Sometimes, due to internet issues, a player's actions will almost always be slow and laggy. However, often, the speed of play can be a good "tell." Typically, a quick bet is a sign of weakness, and a delayed action is a sign of strength, as the player is calculating his strategy with what he percieves to be a huge hand. Watch how much time it takes the other players to make their action, and mentally make a note of it. If you get a chance to see their cards at showdown, see if you can determine what they "slow bet" with and what they "fast bet" with.

Now would be a good time to think about our own play and whether or not we exhibit these tells by our speed of play. A good strategy is to try and take the same amount of time for every action, so that observant players cannot draw any conclusions from your own speed of play.