The Poker Slayer

There are several online poker rooms that support double-up tournaments in their poker room, with Full Tilt Poker being the biggest of them all. Most double-up tournaments will have ten players and the top five players will walk away with double their buy-in. There are a few different ways to play these types of tournaments and you’ll end up making your own game plan as you go along I’m sure, but I’d like to share some tips with you to get you through the early going.

If you already have experience playing online poker then you’re going to want to multi-table these tournaments right from the beginning. I typically play around 3-4 games at a time as all the screens fit nicely on my laptop that way. The reason you want to play multiple tournaments at all times is because these tournaments are pretty slow and you’re not going to be playing many hands in them anyways. Below are some tips and strategy that you can use while playing double-up tournaments.

* You don’t want to play many hands in these tournaments. If you’re going to play a hand then you need to be raising the pot up every time. If you’re already facing a raise then you can flat call if you’d like although if you have a premium hand I’d go over the top. The key in double-up tournaments is to apply a lot of pressure on your opponents when you do eventually play hands.

* When the blinds at Full Tilt start going up, you’re going to need to start stealing some of the blinds. Generally I wait until the blinds reach the 50/100 level before I start trying to steal the blinds. Position is everything when stealing blinds. You don’t really want to steal the blinds on the button unless you know the two blinds will fold to a bet. I find raising from the middle works better, especially when you only do it a couple times a tournament.

* If you have a monster hand such as QQ-KK-AA or even AK-AQ suited you need to be willing to call someone else’s all-in. There will always be opponents that raise the pot all the time in hopes of stealing blinds, especially at the lower limit games. Even though you only need to make it to the top five you need to take advantage of your premium hands. If you end up losing the hand it isn’t a big deal and you can make it back.

* If you take a bit hit early in one of these tournaments don’t count yourself out. I see many players lose a big pot and then within a few hands they will be all-in with a marginal hand. If you’re sitting with 500-800 chips you still have plenty of time to wait for a semi-good hand. In this position you may also be able to steal a couple blinds if you wait for the right position.

* When you’re at the bubble in a tournament like the WSOP, you want to make sure you don’t take any risks. If you’re in the top three positions then I wouldn’t even think about playing any hands unless you have high pockets. If you’re in the lower part of the bubble then you might need to make a move, but I would wait until you have a big hand. Don’t take any risks when you’re on the bubble with marginal hands because you may be called by one of the chip leaders.

Playing blackjack online when you are dealt thirteen can often be tricky. Some blackjack players are not comfortable hitting the thirteen, fearing a bust, while other blackjack players hit their thirteen religiously in fear of the dealer having them beat. Whether you habitually hit or stand with thirteen, it is important to consider the situation before making a blanket decision on how to play thirteen in the game of blackjack. Blackjack players should consider whether the thirteen is a hard or soft thirteen and act on information from the dealer’s up card before making a decision on how to play the thirteen.

Playing a Soft Thirteen in Blackjack

When playing a soft thirteen, there are two decisions one can profitably make – hit or double down. A blackjack player is never mathematically correct standing with a soft thirteen. When the dealer’s up card ranges between two and four, the blackjack player should take a hit for their soft thirteen. The same can be said with instances where the dealer is showing a seven, eight, nine, ten, face card, or an ace. However, if the dealer shows a five or six, the blackjack player is best served doubling down if they are able to. The likelihood that the dealer will bust while showing a five or six is great. Combine the chance of the dealer busting with the probability that the player outdraws the dealer and doubling down is the most profitable decision. In instances when the dealer has an up card of five or six and doubling down is not an option, the blackjack player should take a hit. After hitting the soft thirteen, the player should reassess their situation and act accordingly.

Playing Blackjack with a Hard Thirteen

When a blackjack player has a hard thirteen, they will be best served standing when the dealer shows an up card between two and six. When the dealer has an up card between two and six, standing with the hard thirteen is the most profitable decision to make. However, should the dealer have an up card of a seven, eight, nine, ten, face card, or an ace, the hard thirteen is going to need a little help. The player must hit their hard thirteen in hopes of drawing on the dealer without going bust.

When playing thirteen in blackjack, a player must check the dealer’s up card and act accordingly. Players should avoid always standing or hitting with a thirteen without first checking the up card otherwise the player leaves money on the table.

With thousands and thousands of poker players going online everyday to play internet poker, many poker rooms are able to support a wide range of different tournament structures. When you play poker in a live casino you’d never find this type of selection of poker tournaments available. If you enjoy playing poker tournaments then you’re going to love playing online poker. Below is a list of the different types of online poker tournaments.

* A single table tournament is generally played with nine players with the top three players making the money. This is the most common type of poker tournament played online and you’ll always be able to join in on one of these regardless of the time.

* A multi-table tournament can be played with any number of players as long as there are at least two tables full of players. These poker tournaments will take awhile to play, but the reward for winning is often huge and well worth the time. It takes a lot of skill and even some luck to win a multi-table tournament, but they are a lot of fun and good practice for tournament players.

* A freeroll tournament can be a single table tournament or multi-table tournament. The different between the tournaments listed above and a freeroll tournament is that you don’t need to pay any money to play in a freeroll tournament. From time to time you’ll find poker rooms offering freeroll tournaments for there players with added prize pools.

* A satellite tournament is any tournament where you don’t win money for finishing in the money. In a satellite tournament you simply move onto another event if you make it through the satellite event. An example of a satellite event would be playing in a tournament for $100 with the chance to win a seat into the World Series of Poker Main Event.

* A double-up tournament is generally played with ten players at the same table with the top five players winning money. Be sure to watch out for ultimate bet cheats on the double-up tournaments. This type of tournament is actually fairly new to the online poker world, but it has quickly become one of the most popular formats for online grinders. You can easily multi-table these types of tournaments and it isn’t that hard to finish in the top five if you know what you’re doing.

* A bounty tournament can be played with any number of players. In a bounty tournament part of the buy-in goes towards the prize pool and part of the buy-in goes towards your bounty. When you knock out another player, such as poker super start Phil Hellmuth in this type of tournament you will be paid that players bounty directly into your account. These tournaments aren’t that popular yet, but I’m sure as it becomes more known to poker players it will pick up some steam.

As you can see there are quite a few different types of online poker tournaments available online. I’m sure you haven’t heard of some of these, but I can guarantee if you play them you’ll have lots of fun. Poker tournaments can really improve your poker game if you take them seriously and it can also help solidify your bankroll with a big first place finish.

There is no doubt that there are more people playing online poker then live poker, but at the same time there are some major poker events every year that both live and online players frequent. The one thing about the major live poker tournaments is that they generally cost more to buy into, but they have massive prize pools often reaching well into the seven figures. We’re going to talk a little about some of the major poker events that take place each year so that you don’t miss out on them.

* The World Series of Poker started way back in 1970 and is easily the most anticipated event of the entire calendar year. What once started out as a single tournament has evolved into a massive series of tournaments that culminates with the $10K WSOP Main Event. The past several years have been huge in terms of success for the WSOP. Thousands of people travel to Las Vegas every year now to take part in this massive series of tournaments and many people walk away with more money then they came with.

* The World Poker Tour is another massive series of poker tournaments that are played each year. The WPT events are spread out throughout the year though and aren’t played within one timeframe. If you want to play in the WPT you may also need to travel since the events are played all over the world. Recently the World Poker Tour was taken over by Party Gaming and I’m sure we’ll see some nice improvements over the next couple of years.

* The European Poker Tour is only a few years old, but if you have played poker at all recently then you’ll have most likely heard of it. The EPT is very well advertised and has quickly become one of the biggest series of poker tournaments every year. One of the reasons the EPT is such a success is because it’s owned by Poker Stars which is the biggest online poker room in the industry. The EPT is played in various countries throughout Europe every year and they constantly add new events to their roster every year.

* The Asia Pacific Poker Tour or APPT for short is one of the up and coming poker tours. It started in 2007, but already has a loyal following in Asia and Australia. Without the APPT there would be thousands of poker players in Asia that would never have played live. The APPT brought the first ever live tournament to several countries including China and Korea. The size of the APPT tournaments are much smaller then the ones listed above, but within 5-10 years I could see this becoming the second largest tour of the year.

* The Latin American Poker Tour or LAPT is much smaller then the ones listed above, but it definitely has room to grow as poker becomes more mainstream in the region. 2008 was the first year that the LAPT was played and it featured only three tournaments including one in Brazil, Costa Rica and Uruguay.

Whether you’re just starting to play poker or you’ve been playing for years, you’re still going to make common mistakes from time to time. It’s inevitable that you will make mistakes while playing Holdem, but the important thing is that you learn from the mistakes you make. If you learn from the mistakes you make then you’ll be less likely to make the same mistake again. In poker the more mistakes you make, the more money you end up losing in most cases. You’ll rarely find a poker player that is in the green when they constantly make the same mistakes while at the poker table.

* One mistake players always make when playing Holdem is they play way too many hands. The problem with playing too many hands is that you’re going to lose a few bucks every hand you don’t hit and this will start too add up.

* When you’re playing Holdem on party poker you need to make sure you play your big cards strongly. A lot of players will play their big hands weak initially to try and make other opponents build the pot. The problem with this is that if the pot isn’t raised you’re going to have a lot of other players limp into the pot with marginal hands.

* Don’t play your low pocket pairs too strongly because they really aren’t that good of a hand. You’ll end up losing more money off of low pocket pairs then you make in most cases. The only time you’ll make money with low pocket pairs generally is when you hit your set. The chances of hitting your set aren’t really that good though. You should try limping into pots for as cheap as possible wit low pocket pairs so you can see if you hit your set on the flop, but if you don’t then just fold.

* Chasing flushes and straight draws in Holdem is a good way to get paid off when they hit. The problem I notice with some players is that they chase every single draw they have. You need to make sure you calculate the pot odds to find out whether or not you should chase your draws.

* In any type of poker online game you always need to make sure you’re focused on the game. You need to observe your opponents and pick up on their tendencies and weaknesses. By observing your table you’ll be able to find out what players raise a lot, what players only play monster hand and so on. The information you’ll gain from watching your table play is going to help you win hands you otherwise wouldn’t have won.

* You need to know when to walk away from the poker table. Whether you’re winning or losing you need to be able to determine when you need a break. Too many poker players will try and play poker for way too long at one time. You need to take breaks when you play poker so that you can re-group your thoughts. Poker is a game where you’re constantly thinking and if you don’t allow yourself time to rest, it could cause you too lose money that you wouldn’t have when you’re on your A game.