Monday, September 28, 2009

Poker

Understanding Poker Player Types
By Paul Graham

More than the starting hands that you are dealt with in a poker game, there are other factors that you need to consider when playing poker. If you remember my article with quotes from famous poker players, you will remember one that described poker as being a card game played with people - or something to that effect.

This cannot be overemphasized.

More than the cards that you hold, you need to know your opponents in order to be a successful poker player. As in most other things, you can classify - albeit loosely - poker players into different categories. Before you go on reading, it is important to bear in mind that this is just a general classification and in reality, you cannot box any person into a single type. There are always gray areas between the classifications and many people would fall under these.

The term "loose" is often associated with inexperienced players. If you are a loose player, then you will play out more hands than necessary. This means playing out even some of the worst starting hands that we discussed in the last post. This attitude can be attributed mainly to lack of experience. If you have decent enough cards, you can take advantage of the loose players at the table and win.

On the other hand, a "tight" player waits for the best starting hand possible. As opposed to the loose player, he folds more often than not. If you know that your opponent is a tight player, you can bluff more often and lure him in. However, if a normally tight player doesn't fold, he is probably holding something really good.

Then there is the "aggressive" player. This category has two sub-categories, the first of which would be the aggressive loose player. More than just playing out each and every hand that comes his way, the aggressive loose player would even raise the bet - even if he doesn't have very good cards. He is usually quite the talkative one around the table. The aggressive tight player is somewhere in between the loose and tight player. He may fold several times until he gets the cards he wants - and then he plays like a loose player. He would then bet and raise without a care in the world. Confidence marked in this type of player. Bluffing an aggressive loose tight player is quite a difficult task as he usually knows what he wants.

As mentioned earlier, in real life, classifying people into clear cut groups don't really work. Personalities vary and so do actions. What is important is that you know the general types of players and then observe your opponents carefully to learn their personal brand of playing. Then you can adjust your own style of play to suit them. You should also be ready to change tactics in mid-play, depending on how your opponents make their moves. Flexibility is the key. Do not fall into the trap of branding people as such and such a player and then boxing him in. That mistake can very well cost you your game!

About The Author

Paul Graham is a poker enthusiast, a writer, researcher, speaker, and consultant. You can visit his blog and sign up free to get blog updates by email, along with game winning tips, tested poker strategies, the latest poker news, free poker tools, additional resources, and a whole lot more! Go now to http://www.SmokePoker.com and you'll also receive a Free Poker Bot for streamlining and automating your poker play, as a thank you for visiting!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Blackjack

Blackjack Counting - The History
By Chris Meistre


Black jack counting has enabled players to literally make millions from the casinos over a number of years. There are blackjack counting teams like the Ken Uston, Al Francesco and the Tommy Hyland which earn millions of dollars very easily by simply following a special set of rules. These men aren't geniuses, they are ordinary men. There was a book written by Ken Uston called "Blackjack team play" in which a new term called Million Dollar Blackjack was introduced. The concepts of team play are also covered in the book. With their techniques and with team playing they are able to successfully manipulate casinos into beating them at Blackjack.

The book of Ken Uston encourages the growth of the blackjack counting teams, and hammers on the fact ath anyone can be successful at black jack counting. The casinos are aware of this popularity which has made the operation of these teams very hard. Individual blackjack counting can still be successfully applied. Francesco and Hyland shifted to a different blackjack counting called "ace sequencing".

They include techniques to spot the card at the bottom in a shuffle. They will then cut the deck very expertly. The casinos had it more difficult now. The members of these teams were arrested for team play at Casino Windsor. The judge ruled that the conduct was not cheating. This is an important ruling and blackjack counting was not considered an offense.

This however was a very difficult technique to master, and therefore today we have a lot simpler black jack counting techniques available to us.

Chris Meistre