Schizophasia Blog

I satellited into a few of the Mini Full Tilt Online Poker Series events last week. The buy-ins were generally $12-$20 with the exception of a few bigger online poker buy-ins. This event was a knockout event, starting with deep-stacks of 5,000 chips. Knockouts bounties were $2 apiece. I had been playing pretty splashy and was off to a good start, but found myself down a few thousand poker online chips after the first hour. There was a big poker online hand where I was under-the-gun and folded and two big stacks somehow got their money in with KQ vs. KJ on a king high board. The KJ was in the big blind and lost a lot of his stack in this hand. Still, after losing, it put him at roughly 13,000 chips. The next hand I was in the big blind holding As-7h. The blinds were 100/200. It folded all the way around to the small blind, who was the loser in the last hand. He shoved all-in for his 13,000 chip stack. Now, it didn’t matter how big his shove was compared to my stack, because he had me well covered in chips. What I did notice, was how desperate he looked making a shove that big. He had little confidence that he could play his hand profitably, so he decided to go all-in instead and make his decision easier. I read him as weak, and possibly tilting, and made the huge call (15BBs) with ace high. He tabled Kh-Jh. The flop is A-5-10. I flopped top pair and he flopped a gut shot. The turn was a 6. The river was a queen. He hit and collected my bounty.

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There is a general tendency among online poker players to blame everyone else when they lose. The most common complaint, of course, is that the site is rigged. These angry young poker players argue that since they lost at the game, something must be flawed in the very mechanism of the system. Obviously every online poker game cannot be rigged against the player. But then, why are losing at online poker? The answer lies in your approach to the poker game. Online poker is an entirely different animal than live poker for a whole bunch of reasons, but mainly because you play one from home and one from the casino floor. I don’t know about you, but my home can be downright distracting. There is a television, internet access, and a welcoming fridge all close together. It is easy to lose focus and mess up. And it’s just as easy to blame someone else for your lack of focus. If you consistently lose online, I would urge you to play at brick and mortar casino. Ironically you may have fewer distractions in the glitter and pageantry of a casino. If it doesn’t work out after a short trial period you can always go back to your couch, but I bet you won’t.

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Here’s a news flash. Bad things happen. You are going to get a streak of awful cards. Everyone who regularly plays poker online should know that’s bound to happen. Sometimes it seems like you can’t get any cards that can turn into a winning hand, not even a mediocre one. It can get downright insulting by the time you look at your hand and see your third consecutive 8-2 off suited. What’s worse is the bad beat. You will actually be making a decent hand, even a great hand, only to have some poker online newbie make a terrible call and outdraw you against ridiculous odds. Fun stuff.

Tilting was made for times like these. When nothing seems to go your way, it can be easy to go crazy and start playing every hand, regardless of its value, and playing those hands way more aggressively than you normally would. There’s a reason that you don’t usually play so loosely and aggressively, and that reason will quickly become apparent-rather than losing money despite your excellent play, tilting causes you to lose your money because of your suddenly awful play. Don’t let a few bad hands equal a night of horror. When you see a dry run of cards or a bad beat or two, settle down, refocus, and keep playing your online poker game.

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Newcomers to poker who want to improve their game beyond recreational play can do so by following these simple tips:

* Fold more hands than you play. Learn which starter hands are best to enter a pot with and adhere to these recommendations until you gain more experience.

* Don’t play for money when you are drunk, stoned, tired, hungry or angry. You need to be able to think clearly and make rational decisions.

* Understand the power of position in the betting order when making decisions to act. * Learn how to calculate outs and odds.

* Don’t bluff just the heck of it. Bluffing is part of the game, but learn to recognize the right opportunities, such as a semi-bluff when you’re on a draw or you know your opponent is tight and will probably fold. Be selective about bluffing.

* Fold your poker hand when it seems beaten. Don’t keep feeding into the pot just because you’re already in it.

* Don’t play the sheriff who keeps calling another player’s bet just to “keep them honest.” You are probably just throwing away chips doing this.

* Study the cards on the casino table and determine what best possible hand can be made from those cards. Is your hand the second best possible and liable to be beat? How has the board improved your hand and can it improve further?

* Study the playing styles of the other players so you can get some idea of whether they are tight, aggressive, loose, prone to bluffing or just unpredictable.

* Stick to the levels where you win rather than trying to move up quickly to higher stakes. Get comfortable winning at the level where you consistently profit.

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We are used to thinking of the poker craze as a worldwide phenomenon, but that is not exactly true. People around the world play poker- but not everyone goes pro. After the United States, poker has the most popularity in the United Kingdom. For British players that want to go pro, the popularity of the United States poses a bit of a problem. Because the United States has the largest poker population, it also has the most poker tournaments. The United States also has all of the big payout tournaments, like the World Series of Poker. If you are a British pokerplayer with aspirations to go pro, your options are either to travel back and forth to the states or play online. At this point it is a matter of cost. Some players, especially the really skilled ones, can afford to fly back and forth. Most people, however, cannot. Especially if you are just starting off in the pro circuit, you may want to start with online tournaments. Online poker can have big pots as you work up the ranks, so don’t disparage. After playing online for a while, you could accumulate enough in winnings and experience to try the professional circuit in America. Best of luck to all you Brits out there!

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I recently took a trip down to North Carolina to check out the new poker online tables at Harrah’s Cherokee casino. Now keep in mind that Cherokee is an all electric casino, so that means no real cards, no real dealers, and all the lights and glitz you’d get out of any Las Vegas Casino. After wandering aimlessly for a few hours with no luck in finding the poker onlinetables, I finally heard over the intercom Mr. X, your seat is ready at the 2-4 No Limit table. And I knew it was on. I asked a security guy where I could find these mythical (and so far non-existent) tables, and he pointed me to a little room in the back, the non-smoking casino. They happened to be in the room between the main room and the nonsmoking one. After some inquiry, I decided to try these tables out, so I dropped my minimum 100 dollar buy in (I always play short stack when I first sit down). Turned out, that was all I needed. The poker online tables were great, certified with an autoshuffler, and had the feel of a live game. You could get the tells from the facial gestures, and they were filled with tourists who looked to lose. So I patiently waited, fell in love with folding and finally caught a hand. KK. I had about 80 left from the blinds, and decided to move to raise. Immediately I got three callers. Oh this is bad, I don’ want that. But then after the flop I did. AKK. And everybody had an Ace. I don’t have to tell you the rest of the story, but my quads held, as I moved all in when another A hit the board giving whoever had an A a full house. And I got up, and walked away. So if you get the chance and love online poker, hit up Cherokee’s Casino, I promise you, the fish are always fresh and biting.

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It is such a mystery as to what clouds really are. It is not a mystery to the professional who knows what they are, but to the lay person it is quite a conundrum. To the lay person they are these big fluffy things in the sky that look like soft pillows or cotton. Looking at them it seems like they are just fun and feel good. Not all clouds are like this, especially those dark ones that have rain in them; they evoke a different type of response.

I guess that the clouds form when condensation rises from the earth and it can’t go any further so it groups together to make these neat looking white fluffs. When so much of this gets together and it can’t take anymore it has to let the water out and dump it back down onto the earth, kind of like a wet cloth that is soaked in water. On the days without any clouds you really want to get outside and enjoy the sun, do healthy activities and be as active as possible. It is fun to go out on the cloudy days too, but not as fun on the “not a cloud in the sky” days. One of the most fun things to do is to daydream while on the airplane looking down at the big fluffy clouds and imagine sinking down real deep into a state of bliss.

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One of my favorite bluffs in poker is the semi bluff. I like it because it’s easy to act as though I’ve got the best hand, because it’s likely that I do (or will). A semi bluff is a bluff that occurs when you’ve got a hand that isn’t the best possible hand available, but it might be the best one anybody’s got.

If you’ve got 10-Jack offsuit and the flop is 2-10-Ace, you’re sitting on middle pair with a midland kicker. Normally, this would be a check or fold poker situation, but if you’re near the last to act and it’s check to you, you may want to consider giving it a raise.

Or if you’ve got Ace-5 of clubs and the flop gives you a flush draw. If you are first to act and someone in a later position raises your check, you should think hard about a re-raise. If you feel like he’s trying to buy the pot, you’ll catch him and he’ll fold. Even if he doesn’t fold, you’ve still got a few outs.

Semi bluffs are great because you may not have the best poker hand, but you can bet somewhat confidently, knowing that if someone bets all the way to the river, you have an out (or several).

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The World Series of Poker is an annual poker competition in Las Vegas that conclusively decides who is the world’s best player in a variety of poker games. The competition originated in 1968 as an invitational event held in the Holiday Hotel and Casino. After this initial competition, the World Series of Poker underwent a series of permutations until 2004, when the series was purchased Harrah’s Entertainment. Now the location of the series changes every year among Las Vegas casinos owned by Harrah’s.

The main event every year is a high stakes Texas Holdem game with a multi-million dollar prize hanging in the balance. The main event is always a large media draw because it is televised around the world. Whoever wins the main event becomes an instant household name as a poker champion.

In order to be eligible to participate in the high stakes portion of the poker tournament, players must prove their skills in the earlier stages of the competition. There are over 45 different versions of poker available, and each individual event is set up in a tournament style. In order to continue on in the tournament, a player must win a specific number of chips at each level.

The final winner in each event receives a World Series of Poker bracelet and prize money. The prize money is calculated as part of the entrance fee for every applicant. For this reason, the exact amount of the prize depends on the overall number of entrants. For the main event, the prize money is often close to $10,000,000.

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It is one of the most delightful experiences to camp in the continent of Europe. People from around the world have told of tales of excitement and the romance that can be found all over Europe’s famous capitals and historical sites. Europe is home to some of the most influential periods of human history that is why it is a compelling choice when you think about your next holiday and what it should be all about. The history is rich in terms of culture and you will get to meet a lot of different people who are all in pursuit of happiness and peace.

Europe’s modern infrastructure means that even though you might be backpacking across the woods and forests you need not worry about your safety as the communication systems are efficient and up to date. If you get lost you can be found instantly with the aid of global positioning technology. It is therefore important that you carry around a communication set so that you can use it should an emergency arise. You will also enjoy a tremendous adventure if you also include canoeing in the wide and tributary rivers of Europe. You will find this place so wonderful if you consider visiting the most exotic areas.

More about the fun of camping around the world

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