Online Poker

PokerStars Poker School provides information geared at becoming a success at poker. The philosophy of the school is that thorough understanding of how to play poker is crucial:

‘Knowledge means power obtained through practice.’ Poker School is free to join. A PokerStars account is required, obtained popularly through the use of marketing codes.

The school reviews the basics of poker, the definitions: learning how to check, bet, raise and fold. Also the importance of memorising hand rankings.

The next step at PokerStars Poker School is to learn the rules of the various poker games available to play on the site. Finally the school provides its own poker glossary to aid in learning poker terminology.

Each of the four areas is then broken down further into specific sections:

• The Basics of Poker:
  
  Clearly explains the rules of poker and the fact that players have to make one of the following betting choices:
  - Checking: Staying in the hand without betting.
  - Betting: To place a bet before anybody else.
  - Folding: To forfeit any chance of winning the pot.
  - Calling: To add enough money to the pot in order to match the bettor’s bet.
  - Raising: To place more money into the pot so that the original bettor has to add more money also in order to stay in the bet.




• Hand Rankings:
  
  The hand rankings are explained from the highest to the lowest:
  Royal Flush: Straight Flush, Four of a Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three of a Kind, Two Pair, One Pair and High Card.




• Poker Games:
  
  A list of the games available to play is displayed: Texas Holdem ,Omaha, Omaha High Low, Stud, Stud High Low, Triple Stud, Five Card Draw, 2-7 Triple Draw, 2-7 Single Draw, HORSE, Razz, 8-Game Mix, Badugi. There is the option to click on the links on the name of each game in order to gain more information on the rules of how to play the game.




• Poker Glossary:
  
  A substantial A-Z defining the hundreds of the poker terms used by poker players.

Rakeback has become one of the essential factors when players decide to create an online poker account, usually the higher the percentage of rakeback the more people that will join that poker site. Since finding rakeback deals individually can be a long task and sometimes frustrating, we have created a website where you can find all of the latest online poker rakeback deals.

When deciding on which rakeback deal you are going to choose you might want to read a review of the poker site before you join, well we have indepth reviews too.

This is so that you will have a good understanding of the bonuses and software before you use them, you can also see a screen shot of the poker sites so that you can see what the graphical user interface looks like a.k.a GUI.

Some online poker sites do not offer rakeback deals but instead they offer a VIP bonus, which is very similar to rakeback but usually they have a points system in place where you can trade in your points for tournament entries, books, playing cards, televisions and even some poker sites even allow you to buy a sports car with your poker points.

So if you are looking for a new rakeback deal then head on over and browse through our large selection of poker sites, bonuses and promotions. Alternatively you might just want to read our expert reviews of the top poker sites online today.

Video Poker is usually a combination between five card draw and slots. You can play it either at casinos all across the nation or in your living room in your best pajamas. You can play it at home via many video poker sites online. Some of which are free, but most are not. You can make money while you are at home, especially if it is a lazy day for you.

In order to fully play Video Poker to your best you will need to first learn the basics on five card draw, possibly even learn how to play the game. If you are playing online you would find the site you are going to currently play at, register, use whatever method the site allows you to bid with and payout with. And then all you have to do is play.

Playing Video Poker

If you are going to go play a Video Poker bonus at a Casino there are several things that you have to do. The very first thing you have to once you hit the casino is to go to the Promotions booth that the Casino has, and apply for a player’s card. You then pick up your card after the application went through, and now you are ready to go play.

Go find yourself a Video Poker machine that you like, and sit down. If you want some help, you can also try this video poker download. Once that is done all you have to do is insert you player’s card. If the machine does not accept your card, or the machine is broken get attention from the floor host and he/she will come over and help you out, if they are unable they will find you another machine to play at.

Video Poker Machine

After you are all set and done with that the next step in Playing Video Poker will be to insert the amount of money that you want to play with on that machine. After you have inserted the amount that you are happy with then you hit the deal/draw button.

After you hit the deal/draw button you will get your set of cards. You will now then press the hold button under the cards that you want to keep. In order to get rid of the other cards that you do not want all you have to do is press the deal/draw button again. This brings up more cards in the places where you got rid of the cards that you didn’t want. You can repeat that process again if you desire, or don’t have the best of hands.

Once you are satisfied with your game play, whether or not you have won money of lost money, you can hit the cash out button, or it might be known as the credit button. You can move onto another machine, or end for the day.

Payout Schedule

The one thing that you need to be on the lookout for is the payout charts for different winning hands. Sometimes, video poker machines may have different payouts from one casino to another. Basically, you have one of two choices:

1) Larger payouts for large hands like Full House/Smaller payouts for Straights and lesser hands
2) Smaller hands have a slightly better payout/Payouts for larger hands aren’t as good

For the person who is casually interested (plays 100 hands or less), you may want to play the video poker machines with better payouts for more common hands. If you are a serious player, then you are playing for the payout on the larger hands; this means you should play on the machines that offer higher payouts on the less common hands.

ESPN has decided to stop airing poker on their network after the primary sponsors, Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, were issued indictments for Federal crimes including money laundering and bank fraud. That means no more new poker ads shows will be aired on ESPN for now.

Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars had always been able to get away with the TV commercials in the past because they advertised the “Free Money” version of the poker room, which was hosted on each website’s .net domain. But, anyone with half a brain realized that they could play for “Real Money” by simply going to the online poker giants .com domain instead.

How it all went wrong

Since 2006, online poker’s legal status has been in debate after the US government passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act. This is because Internet Gambling is defined as being any bet that is made on a game of chance. When you bet on your favorite football team, you are making an illegal gambling bet because you can’t control who wins the game. When you bet on a slot machine or a hand of blackjack, the same thing applies if you are doing so outside of a designated gambling area.

The stance that many people took is that Poker is a game of skill and not a game of chance. Therefore, this game does not apply to the definition of “Internet Gambling” in the law passed in 2006. The skill part comes in because unlike blackjack, slots and sports betting, a professional poker player will be able to out-compete a beginner poker player 9 times out of 10.

For several years after 2006, nothing was done by the government except that they told the banks that they would have to police these transactions for themselves. A lot of times, this was ignored in favor of making more money. Then, the federal government made the banks police these transactions more efficiently and that is where Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars got into trouble.

Instead of trying to label a deposit into the poker player’s account properly and risk the transaction getting denied, they started to mislabel the transaction so the banks and credit card companies would allow the transaction to go through. So instead of making a deposit of $100 to play poker, you were buying $100 with of Golf balls from PStars.

The person that set up this banking scheme was eventually arrested in the United States and spilled the beans about how these two poker giants were using this system. That was bad timing for Full Tilt and PokerStars, as each one was setting up talks to merge with one of the successful casinos in Las Vegas.

What going to happen to Poker on TV?

Without the big sponsors spending money on advertisements, you will probably see a lot of the poker TV shows on cable go belly up. Many of the shows on various networks were directly created by either Full Tilt or PokerStars with all of their own sponsored professional poker players. The rest, like the World Poker Tour (WPT), are going to have a struggle to find new sponsors.

The one problem is that any poker site that wants to advertise in the US, even those that offer Free Poker, aren’t going to be keen to pick up the place that Full Tilt and PokerStars resided.

The World Series of Poker should be able to find a TV network that will at least show highlights from the Main Event. But the fact is that the WSOP peaked a couple of years ago and this move by the US government will damper things a little bit more then usual.

One of the effects that you will see is a drop in the number of entries to the WSOP Main Event. Many of the people playing online won automatic seats into the World Series of Poker from either Full Tilt Poker or PokerStars. If you were ever wondering why so many people were wearing the gear of these two poker sites, now you know.

Still want to play online poker in the United States?

There is nothing illegal about playing online poker for money. The ambiguity with the current laws means that these companies weren’t being punished for letting people play poker, but for setting up a scheme to circumvent the laws placed on banks and credit card companies to prevent payment processes from getting through.

If you don’t believe me, then you obviously haven’t heard that Washington D.C. has recently passed a law that makes online poker legal within the borders of the district. There are also several states that have passed their own laws making online poker legal to play as long you played in poker rooms that did not include players from other states.

The states know that the Federal law is not clearly defined; but they cannot create a law that would allow interstate poker games because that is the jurisdiction of the Federal government.
Two of the poker companies that were affected on Friday were Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. These poker sites are continuing service to US poker players that still have money in their player account. They have set up a rule that no deposits and no withdrawals may be made because of the current US laws.

With that being said, I would suggest that you take a look at a couple of articles that may direct you to a site that still offers online poker services to American customers:

Change of Landscape for Online Poker in the US – pokernewsvine.com
Online Poker Networks that still Accept US Players – getpokernetwork.com
USA Online Poker News – gambling-poker-news.com

To take your no-limit Texas Hold em game to a whole new level then you are going to have to start playing certain hands far more aggressively. Pocket pairs are one such type of hand but most novices and even intermediate players play these hands passively in a low variance way.

People limp in and call raises trying to make sets with them but when they are played this way then they become very difficult to play past the flop. Let us say that you called a raise with 5-5 and the flop comes 10-9-6 and your opponent makes a c-bet….how can you possibly continue?

The answer is that you can’t with three over cards but the fact of the matter is that even if you had flopped a set then your opponent would probably not have stacked off against you anyway.

Playing with Pocket Pairs

Let us look at another example to see how a stronger player might play the hand. It is raised and our hero cold calls from the big blind. If he hits his set then it is a bonus but he has a plan B in mind.

The flop comes J-7-2 rainbow and now he checks. His opponent bets two thirds of the pot but now our hero hits him with a check-raise just as surely as if he had made the set and was trap checking.

This is a power play that is solidly grounded on two factors: Firstly our hero could have had the best hand with 5-5 and secondly a pre-flop call could have been with a wide range of hands.

Taking the Initiative in the Hand

Even if the original raiser refuses to believe our hero’s range on the flop then he will struggle to do anything about it with no hand. But this is taking the lead in the hand and trying to prise the initiative away from the pre-flop aggressor.

Actually on this flop it is difficult to see what our hero is representing as his range is so narrow. Hands like A-J, K-J, 7-7 and 2-2 are such a narrow range.

Another Example

But let us look at another flop and the board is 9d-8d-7s then this board could have hit any number of hands and our hero could be representing such a wide range here from made sets and straights to flush and straight draws and two pair type hands.

But the bottom line is that our hero has not just played the pocket fives passively but actively took an aggressive line with them.

On your good days you get called and bet the turn and your opponent folds to that bet. Or you spike a nice big fat lovely five on the turn and end up stacking your opponent who has an over pair.

But you can see the difference between the low variance weak mentality of the novice who merely looks to fit or fold on the flop and the strong regular player who calls the pre-flop raise but also has a plan of taking the pot away from an overzealous opponent. Players who like to steal the blinds are great targets for this kind of move.

If you would like to read more, here is a related topic on how you should play pocket aces in holdem.