Final Table Action
It’s been an interesting month of poker. The World Series Of Poker November Nine finally played it out to bring an end to the 2009 WSOP. Kudos to Eastgage for taking the mantle, and to Dennis Phillips, my personal fave, for taking out third and knowing when to lay down hands. I’m following the online vibe to decide whether the delayed final table was a win or a wash. If there was a media blitz leading up to the November Nine it certainly wasn’t focused south of the equator, and we downunder could have been forgiven for forgetting that there were still nine blokes still waiting to take their slice of a $20M pie. The lead up series was decent but I was a little dissapointed at the delayed telecast of the final table and having numerous hours of play condensed into two. Still, it closes out another big year and it was awesome to see the numbers up. Now on to a more personal front…
This PokerVT review (aka Poker Virtual Training) focuses on a new online poker training site which is the brainchild of much revered poker pro Daniel Negreanu. Kid Poker has developed an intentionally unique method of poker training, which sees some of the top pro’s from both the real and virtual felt joining forces to provide an insightful yet practical approach to turning average players into profitable ones. 
Ahhhh the Big Slick. We all like getting it, and it looks so good…especially when suited. Starting a hand with AK is a lot like sitting at the very start of a tournament with a large, shiny, untouched chip stack…a veritable monument which brims with the potential for untold glory and riches. However, much like a full tournament, this gem of a hand holds all the potential for triumph and tragedy, being just as likely to see us across the line and dragging in a huge pot as it is to see us take up permanent residence in felt city. It all really depends on how we decide to play it…like chumps…or champions.
In acknowledging the importance of selecting appropriate poker starting hands depending upon our position, there is still a tendency among less advanced players to treat middle pairs in early position exactly the same way we’re trained to treat low pairs. However, limping with 99 or 10 10 and looking to catch a set on the flop may not be the most profitable way to make the most of the opportunity a middle pair creates, and can be apt to get us into trouble spots if the hand goes south of cheese. So what’s one alternative to passively entering a pot with middle pair in early position?
Written By…some random donkey.
A poker continuation bet is basically what it sounds like, a subsequent bet made by a player who bet or raised in the previous round of betting. Continuation betting, or c-bet as it is also known, is used to represent and reinforce a strong pre-flop hand. There is some argument that continuation betting has seen its hey-day. Gone are the times when following up a pre-flop bet with a second barrell were enough to convince our opponents that our hole cards were actually worth something. But can continuation betting still form an integral part of a poker players betting strategy?
Developing the correct Sit N Go strategy is a crucial part of learning how to win Sit N Go tournaments. Adapting to an ever diminishing number of players across a tournament or our own table is critical if we want to reach the cash, and employing the wrong Sit N Go strategy at the wrong time can be terminal to our chances. 
Texas Holdem Rules Poker now has a new public forum, a great place for you to share your thoughts, strategies, bad beats or questions with fellow poker enthusiasts. We’ll be running regular competitions through the forum so keep an eye out once member levels get going. Be the first to post in your chosen area of expertise!
So we’re sitting at a table during the late stages of a multi-table tournament, are getting slammed by blinds the size of Seattle, and look down at our hole cards to see two beautiful queens. We happily raise the blinds, and are distraught as the cut-off re-raises all in for his (and if we call…our) entire stack. When considering whether our opponent has us beat, it’s also worthwhile knowing just how badly we’re in shape if we call in this spot and the villain tables an overpair. To do this, it helps enormously to be aware of the poker hand percentages involved in hand situations which regularly arise in poker. For example, just what are the odds of winning when facing off with queens vs aces? Let’s take a look at some of the common examples.
In keeping with the theme in holdem that ’duplicity is king’ it’s important to be able to play a wide range of hands to avoid our opponents being able to accurately guess our hole cards based solely on our play. Whether to play a holdem starting hand like AA, or KK barely need consideration. However limiting ourselves to the ‘top 10% holdem hands’ can often restrict our chances of getting paid off for our big hands. To mix things up a bit, we need to open up our range of hands whilst still being able to make correct decisions once the hand is under way. The question of what makes the best poker starting hands can seem obvious when looking at extremes, such as pocket aces, or 72off. However, when the correct play is less clear, whether to play our starting hand requires consideration of one other important factor…our poker table position. 
