Poker Tutorials, Tips and Tricks

A delay followed by a check often indicates weakness
Most opponents who “think” or wait a longer time than normal and then cheek, are
trying to suggest they have a decent hand. They are trying to indicate strength by
“thinking” about betting, but they really want you to check so that they can get a
free card. If your opponent was going to check-raise, he would generally check at a
normal speed and then raise.

A delay followed by a bet often indicates strength
An opponent who “thinks” a long time and then bets usually has a strong hand. In
this case, he is trying to indicate weakness by “thinking” a long time to lure you into
calling.

An instantaneous bet/raise on the turn or river usually indicates strength
Most players who bet or raise Instantaneously using the “act in turn” buttons on the
turn or river generally have strong hands. Normally strong means weak when
discussing tells, but I generally find that my opponents have strong hands in these
cases. Your opponent thinks that you think he would never raise so fast with a
strong hand: therefore, he uses reverse psychology and raises instantaneously to
make you think that he is weak.

I believe these types of plays are meant to bully you into calling, so he dares you to
call with his instantaneous raise. Don’t let this bullying strategy work against you. If
you don’t know your opponent, generally an instantaneous action on the turn or
river indicates a very strong hand.

This tell has varying degrees of reliability depending on the street. On the river, an
instantaneous raise almost always means the nuts or a hand close to it. On the
turn, it generally indicates a very strong hand, although some players will
occasionally raise instantaneously with the intention of checking the river. An
instantaneous raise preflop also generally indicates a strong hand, especially from
early to middle position; however, if they are in late position and are raising a late
position player, it is difficult to make generalizations since they might just be
bullying their opponent.

I have found it difficult to generalize about players who bet or raise instantaneously
on the flop. Some players raise with good hands, while others raise with weak
hands trying to buy a free card. This is especially true with preflop raisers who try to
buy a free card with overcards.

An instantaneous check usually indicates weakness
Many players use the check/fold button when they plan on folding their hand to any
bet. This is especially true with players who are playing two tables. There are two
situations where you can use this information to your advantage. Let’s say you are
in last position. The first player checks and the next two players instantaneously
check. Since the two middle players probably don’t have anything, a bluff might be
successful against the lone opponent who checked early.
Another situation occurs when you are the player who checks early. If your
opponents instantaneously check behind you, you might have a bluffing opportunity
on the next card. These tells work best at the larger sites such as Paradise Poker
and Party Poker where use of this button is common. Many players at these sites
play two games at once and use the check/fold button to quickly move back and
forth between hands.
Two notes of caution related to this tell. Although not very common, be careful
against some tricky players who might use the check/call button to slowplay their
hands. Second, there is a fine line between instantaneous checking and checking
quickly. Use of the auto check/fold button before another player has acted means
that they would have folded their hand if their opponent had bet. This is very
different than someone who checks very quickly once it is his turn to act. This leads
us into our next tell.

A quick check usually indicates weakness, but beware if the player check-raises
A quick check can indicate weakness also, especially when there are several
players playing the hand; however, if a player checks quickly and then raises, be
very careful! When a player check-raises, the quick check was probably an attempt
to indicate weakness so that you would bet into his strong hand.
Remember that all of these tells are generalizations. They work best against
unknown opponents since you don’t have any other information to go by. Once you
have played with a player for a while, observe their betting patterns and then record
what happens when they don’t follow their usual pattern. Does his betting pattern
follow the general tell or does he use reverse psychology? Some opponents use
the “act in turn” buttons with both good hands and as bluffs, so an instantaneous
bet from these types of players does not mean anything. Record notes on each player’s tendencies
or “tells” for future reference.
As a final note, try not to give tells about your own play to your opponents. There
are two ways to do this. One way is to simply bet at the same speed throughout
every hand. Another way is to randomly change the speed of your betting. For
example, if the last card shown is a red card, you act after two seconds, and if it is a
black card, you act after four seconds. This strategy will confuse your more
observant opponents who are looking for tells and can’t find any.

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When the stakes required to play a game of Texas Hold’em
increase, there is not a proportional increase in the average
winnings or money flow because most players, especially at the
start of play, play tighter at higher stakes.

Here’s how that works.

Higher stakes cause players to be more cautious. Pots do not grow
proportionately as the stakes and blinds increase. Your return on
investment will therefore decrease as the minimum blind goes up.

Most major online casinos release data on hands played (for a
price) on a regular basis. A recent study (June 2004) from one of
the largest online casinos, based on several million actual hands of
Poker played, revealed that the return on investment varies quite a
bit based on the maximum bet.

In the $2 games, the value of the winning pot varied from 28 to 37
times the Big Blind (BB) – the most you would have to invest to see
the flop (short of raises). The average pots were in the $60 range.
With the right cards, you could expect a return of 3000% on a
winning hand.

Are Low Stake Tables Faster?

Not necessarily. Texas Hold’em is the king of fast play. Several
$1000 plus pots were played in less than a minute and ranged as
long as 6 minutes – the same range for the small stake tables. Over
all, the average length of an online Poker game today is just over
one minute or 50-60 hands per hour.

In higher stakes games, one thing is quite clear. There are a higher
percentage of tighter and aggressive players at these tables than at
the small stake games. That means there are more sharks at the big
tables and a much better chance that you will be one of the fish.
The smart thing to do here is to say away from these kinds of
tables.

Given the fact that the return on investment is lower at the high
stake games, that the average level of play is much more
aggressive and that a much larger stake is required, there is very
little opportunity to be a consistent winner on tables with $50 and
up blinds.

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Some sites will let you choose a character image which becomes
identified with you. Others will track your game play statistics for
you. Some provide no charges for certain kinds of cash outs. Some
track the top players. Some allow you to beta-test new games or
poker tournaments in development. Others offer good poker
resources in terms of celebrity columns, advice, links, etc. We like
both access to quality information that’s useful to us in playing
poker as well as convenience.

Online casinos offer players bonus incentives to come play at their
casinos. These are know as casino bonuses, casino promotion, free
chip offers, and although there are several other terms used to
describe the free money given to players by the casinos the bottom
line is that it’s free money. Outlined below are a few descriptions
of the different types of bonuses offered by online casinos.

No Deposit Casino Bonuses
This type of bonus is offered to players just for trying and
downloading and trying the casinos software out. In general this
type of casino bonus is in the range of $10 and $22.

Online Casino Match Bonuses
With a casino match bonus the casino gives players additional cash
to play at the casino upon making a first deposit. If a player
deposits $50 in a 100% match bonus situation the player would get
an additional $50 to play with at the casino.

Alternative Banking Bonuses
Since online gambling transactions made by players may
encounter some rejections by credit card companies many casinos
have resorted to alternative payment solutions. These include
NETeller, FirePay, PrePaidATM and others. Some casinos offer
players additional bonuses on top of their existing no deposit
bonuses and match bonuses for deposits made through these
alternative-banking methods.

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Connectivity
How often does the game crash due to server issues at the online
poker room’s end? How bad are the delays in transfer of info?
What about disconnection’s? Are they repeated? Anything that
disrupts game play on a regular basis is going to be an annoyance
and a major problem (at the worst if the stakes are high and you’re
on a streak). We realize problems can occur at the player’s end
(with their computer and their particular ISP) but there’s no
denying some sites are more reliable and offer less “downtime”
and other such irritations than others.

Cashouts
How much money have players won at their poker games? How
easy is it to cash out your winnings? Do they credit your credit
card? What charges are applied? How long does it take to receive
Insiders Secrets To Texas Hold’em Poker Online by Theo Cage 173
winnings? You shouldn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out
how to cash out what you’ve won and whether extra charges,
delays, etc. are worth it. Or have the patience of a saint. And we
like features such as e-mail confirmations of the withdrawal
transactions verifying request, dates, and amounts.

Free Play
Testing out poker game play, environment, percentage, etc. helps
to familiarize yourself with what to do in the event of server
crashes, how well you’ve understood the written rules of play at
the particular online poker room, and the mixed quality of other
players you may encounter.
This is an important feature of any good poker site – playing
first for free - although we recognize that people play very
differently when they’ve got real money on the line.
Some sites make it easier than others to identify how to get in on
the free play action without submitting heaps of personal
information in advance.

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Here are a number of factors you can use to choose the best online
poker room.

Security and Privacy
You want as much reassurance that your credit info is safe, your
identity and contact info won’t be sold and that game conditions
are as safe and as fair as possible (e.g. that the software isn’t
vulnerable to manipulation; players aren’t colluding because a
system of checks is in place; etc.). Secure servers are a necessity.
Sites should elaborate on the encryption system that they use. All
good sites should address the above issues to your satisfaction. Do
they discuss issues like their card-shuffling algorithm? Also, what
kind of RNG (random number generator) do they use? The best
ones increase the level of unpredictability in the cards being
played. What other safeguards do they have in place to prevent
game-rigging, collusion, hacker intrusions, etc.? You should
always read a site’s privacy policy, including the small print.

Action
How many players log on to the games? Can you get action in the
poker game of your choice anytime, day or night? Do they have
diverse offerings with enough players to keep tables full? The
larger the pool, the more action you’ll see in both game play and
Insiders Secrets To Texas Hold’em Poker Online by Theo Cage 172
cash winnings. We visit the sites at different times to see what the
overall action is like as well as the variety of players in all games
offered.

Gameplay
If your money and personal info are secure but the ease of game
play and visuals suck, then chances are you’re not going to come
back. We look at the variety of poker games offered and keep a
close eye on how well a site creates a good poker environment.
How easy is it to play? Converse with other players (or mute
them, if you wish)? Are the graphics and sounds fun? Interesting?
Can I play even if my system doesn’t support the absolutely latest
graphics, etc.? Is all the information needed to play easy-to-access
and clearly stated? Some sites definitely have more appealing
gameplay than others.

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