Can I win more by playing a tight poker tournament or a loose Texas holdem’ tournament?

You will unquestionably hear two sides of this argument from your fellow poker players or even the so-called poker pros. Let’s look first at the tight poker players. Everybody including yourself will find it hard winning, if the entire table is playing a tight Texas holdem’ game. What may happen if you have a table full of tight poker players is the Texas holdem’ players will finish up trading the smaller pots back and forth to each other. All the while the casino is raking in tons of your hard-earned poker money, and that of your competitors. So now you may think, is it better to play loose? Well, in this situation the better Texas holdem’ players are going to lose a smaller number of hands, but at the end of it all nobody is going to come out on top.

How can I improve my poker playing in the long run?

The answer to this question is as simple as a piece of paper and a pen. A good tactic to find out a lot about your playing technique and tactic, is to keep track of your Texas holdem’ playing. It’s possible to write down this information during the Texas holdem’ game, and then pass it to a database on your home computer. This can also help you learn about your challenger’s playing style, and what is the best tactic to defeat them.

Should I use the same strategy for every poker game?

If you consider that playing predictable poker is a winning tactic for playing poker, then you should consider changing your Texas holdem’ strategy. The Texas holdem’ pros agree that adjusting your poker playing approach is the best way to confuse and puzzle your Texas holdem’ competitors. You should test a number of tactics, discover the best ones for each situation and alter them for every Texas holdem’ tournament.

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According to the 2006 World Series of Poker champ, Jamie Gold, he would be pleased to be celebrated as the all time best bluffer in the poker world. But if his last tournament is any clue, his wish may not be granted any time soon.

The location is the 2007 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic held at the Sin City Bellagio in 2007. Featuring $50 - $100 blinds and a $15,000 buy-in, Darrell Dicken is close to the end of his run. The seat 4 player has just raised his bet to $300, a tiny increase with only one player taking the bait. “I put him as being weak,” Jamie said, “I was thinking about raising, but instead I just called with a 10-3 of hearts to see what would happen.”

Jamie believed that Brad Booth would make a move, which he did. He re-raised to $1600 from the big blind. Gold had the idea that Booth had a reasonable hand, but he was in an excellent position to make a move taking into account the amount of dead money in the pot. Dicken ended up folding, and the unknown in Seat 4 called Booth’s raise.

Now there was more than $4000 in the pot, so Jamie went ahead and made it another $4000. His thought was, only if someone else had aces or kings there would be no possibility they would make that call. Jamie’s plan was to make a considerable move on the flop, as long as no ace came up. The second part of his plan was to get Booth to fold, which he did. Booth folded with pocket queens.

Out of the flop there was an ace of ace-6-5, two clubs. The player in seat 4 checked and Jamie bet $2000. Jamie’s first thought was to make him think that he had clubs. Seat 4 threw out a $10,000 chip, but didn’t say anything thus converting his raise into a call. Jamie’s thought was that seat 4 most likely had an ace, but you have to protect it in case he hits his set on the upcoming card.

A 2 of hearts came out on the turn, and Jamie went ahead and folded to what he thought was a top pair kicker. Seat 4 showed a king-jack off suit. Seat 4 overpowered Gold by bluffing with a better hand, he created a magnificent poker play and kept the bluff going to the end of the Texas Holdem’ tournament.

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Poker in the past was a game available only in casino hotels in Las Vegas, Nevada or from video poker machines, but now it is more in style than ever in Las Vegas thanks to the the internet.

The well-known Venetian Hotel and Casino, is now gambling on the popularity with its new audience-participation show called “The Real Deal!” in its showroom located in the Venetian Resort and Casino, debuting in October.

The new game show will merge comedy and game show elements to entertain its live audience. The audience will also be able to join in the popular game of Texas Holdem’ alongside the the best poker players in the world. There will be prizes for the audience including a chance to win 1$ million.

In “The Real Deal!” the audience will play with players like Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu. Around 10 of the world’s best poker players have already signed up for the game show about poker. The audience will be able to play along with the 90 minute game thanks to handheld, wireless, touch screen devices located on each seat.

“People who come to Sin City casinos want to play poker games,” Negreanu says, “but obviously they can’t play in a big game with the people like Doyle or Phil Hellmuth. But, in this show, they actually can.” When the show begins, six audience members will be chosen to sit at the poker table on stage with two pros. Each audience member is then involved in the action by being dealt a unique hand on their devices. Everyone in the showroom is then involved in the action with big-screen monitors located on stage.

Creators of the show say that you don’t have to be a pro poker player to participate in the poker game. There are other ways to build your point total, that doesn’t involve poker necessarily. Betting on the suit of the next poker card or trying to guess which state a particular audience member is from, are just some of the ways to come out a champ in this game.

Creators of The Real Deal are also betting on the great personalities of the professional players to create some interesting moments. Someone like Scotty Nguyen, the flamboyant five-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, definitely has an idea how to entertain the crowd and should provide some memorable moments in this upcoming show .

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Shortly after the opening of last week’s charity celebrity poker game to aid the Paralyzed Veterans of America, Ben Affleck goes all-in with a flop of Ace-Nine-King and two diamonds. He winces when two of his opponents call the bet. He yells “Re-buy”, but the turn is a seven of hearts. Affleck is upset when a jack of diamonds is dealt on the river. He took the hand seriously even though there was no actual cash at stake. This is just the kind of thing that Affleck and several other internet poker enthusiasts are pushing for.

Over $100,000 was raised for the paralyzed victims, but this was not the only function of the celebrity poker event held in Coors Field. Members of the Poker Players Alliance are working very hard to legalize online poker in the United States. As part of their agenda, they are pushing to repeal the 2006 legislation Congress passed which bans U.S. Banks and credit card companies from processing transactions related to online gambling websites.

John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, is optimistic about the direction that the new congress will lead this decision. Pappas says that the alliance is pushing for a licensed industry, just for online poker, and not for all internet gaming. Pappas is interested in having a safe, regulated industry that all Americans can enjoy. The group is fighting for the rights of people and the privacy they deserve in their own home.

“There are misconceptions about poker and about internet poker,” poker pro Andy Bloch said in between hands during the charity poker tournament. “Some people think that online poker is gambling like a slot machine, and it’s not.”

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