How to Play Starting hands Issue 7

Odds and outs Continued Issue 6

ODDS and OUTS
After Flop			After Turn
Outs	Rule of 4	Real	Outs	Rule of 2	Real
1	4	4.4	1	2	2.3
2	8	8.8	2	4	4.5
3	12	13	3	6	6.8
4	16	17.2	4	8	9.1
5	20	21.2	5	10	11.4
6	24	25.2	6	12	13.6
7	28	29	7	14	15.9
8	32	32.7	8	16	18.2
9	36	36.4	9	18	20.5
10	40	39.9	10	20	22.7
11	44	43.3	11	22	25
12	48	46.7	12	24	27.3
13	52	49.9	13	26	29.5
14	56	53	14	28	31.8
15	60	56	15	30	34.1
16	64	59	16	32	36.4
17	68	61	17	34	38.6
	x4		4+outs	x2+2
			<4outs	x2

Hand odds Issue 6

So you want to know what are your chances of winning a particular hand or whether or not to call a cetain situation. Well the pros and most of the shows on TV nowdays talk about odds and favorites to win a hand. First thing lets discuss "outs". Outs are just the number of cards in the deck that can fall, that you think, will give you the best hand to win. So lets say you have Jh10h in your hand and 8s9c2d come on the flop. You have what is considered to be an open ended straight draw, meaning that you can catch the high card or the low card to make your straight. So lets figure out the outs. You would need an Q or an 7 to make a straight and since there are four of each of these in a deck of cards you have 8 outs. Now if you had four to a flush then you also have to account for and of that suit coming out and you outs go up from there.

Next lets talk about calculating your odds. On any given day there are 52 cards in the deck. Two are in your hand so 52-2=50, and three are now face up after the flop so 50-3=47. There are 47 unknown cards now in the deck. So lets use the example hand above. There are 8 of those 47 unknown cards that will make your hand so 47-8=39. So there are actually 39 cards that cant help you and 8 that can. So to determne your outs you taking the number of cards that hurt you and divide it by the number that can help you so 39/8=4.9 almost 5 to 1 . You can also utilize the rule of 4 and 2 rule, its simple. To figure your percentage of winning by the river. If your between 1 and 8 outs, take your outs and multiply by 4. So as before 8x4=32%. If you have 8 or more outs multiply by four then subtract the number of outs above 8. So lets say 10 outs 10x4=40 and 10-8=2 so then 40-2=38%. Also if you want to know the odds of making your hand on the next cards take your outs x2+2 so ,8 outs 8x2=16+2=18%

Now you can correctly determine what odds you have and how big an underdog you might be. This is big in determining whether or not to call or to fold. The next thing you need to learn is "pot odds"

My Progress Last Month Issue 5

Well, I have currently switched to fulltilt.com to play online poker way fair and not rigged like partypoker! I have been playing one or two hour sessions at a time. Mostly 15-30 or 10-20 limit, i also have played a little no limit at 25-50.

2/25/2006	Fulltilt	Limit Hold'em	10-May	1h 0m	$500	started with 190
8:18 AM
2/26/2006	Fulltilt	Limit Hold'em	10-May	1h 0m	$1,300	started with 700 from previous day
8:17 AM
2/26/2006	Fulltilt	Limit Hold'em	10-May	1h 0m	$530	started with 900 finished 1430
12:54 PM
2/26/2006	Fulltilt	Limit Hold'em	15-30	2h 0m	$500	started with 1400 finished with 1900
6:44 PM
2/27/2006	Fulltilt	Limit Hold'em	15-30	1h 30m	$588	started with 1900 ended with 2488
9:28 AM
2/27/2006	Fulltilt	Limit Hold'em	20-Oct	1h 0m	$100
11:08 AM
2/27/2006	Fulltilt	Limit Hold'em	20-Oct	0h 30m	$70	started with 2588 ended 2655
4:30 PM
2/28/2006	Fulltilt	No Limit Hold'em	20-40	1h 0m	$1,279	all in on 25-50 with john juandah and layne flaak
12:29 AM
2/28/2006	Fulltilt	No Limit Hold'em	30-60	1h 45m	$800	all in and win twice against pro David Singer
4:43 AM
2/28/2006	Fulltilt	No Limit Hold'em	15-30	1h 0m	$2,600	won 2600 off Pro David Singer ended with 7,192
5:57 AM
2/28/2006	Fulltilt	Limit Hold'em	6-Mar	1h 0m	$110	total is now 7302
8:33 AM
2/28/2006	Fulltilt	No Limit Hold'em	20-Oct	0h 45m	$1,454	won 1454 up to 8756 off Mike "the mouth" Matusow
3:30 PM

Anyways as you can see i been doing great. I have played nolimit with some pros and I beat them. I don't mean I played one hand and and won then ran away, i sat I played and I won quite a bit of money. I played no-limit with pros John Juandah, Layne Flaak, David Singer, and Mike "the mouth" Matusow. And I took money off of all of them as you can see by my tracking program. By the way this tracker can be found when you sign up for a free account at cardplayer.com.

Give me some feedback and let me know what you think.

Bankroll Basics Issue 4

Well, we all know how to play poker. If you don't, go learn and come back and read this post. So you can make money but you can't hold on to it. If you are like me when I started you are over extending your bankroll. Well, here I will guide you through how to play within your means and never go broke. First is determining how much you want to play with. This can be determined by how much you win. Are you comfortable with 100,200, or 1,000 dollars? Once you have determined your starting bankroll the next step is determining what game you can play in.

Most players use the 300 big bet rule. Meaning, that whatever the limit you must have 300 big bets in your bankroll. (Example: If you want to play 5-10 limit you must have 3,000 in your bankroll. If you want to play 1-2 limit then 600 dollars in your BR.)

No-Limit is a bit different. Most tables have a max buy-in of 100 times the big blind. And your BR should normally be about 20 times the max buy-in. (Example: If you want to play 1-2 no-limit the max buy is 200 so 20 times that= 4,000.) These are very conservative numbers and you can adjust them as you see fit. But remember you never want to play outside your bankroll or you might just lose it all in an instant.

Here this is my guide that I follow based on my skill level and Exp:

Limit	Bankroll		No-limit	Buy-in	Bankroll
.25-.50	150		.1-.5	10	200
.5-1	300		.25-.5	50	500
1-2	600		.5-1	100	1000
2-4	1200		1-2	200	4000
3-6	1800		2-4	400	8000
5-10	3000		5-10	1000	10000
10-20	6000		10-20	2000	16000
15-30	9000		25-50	5000	50000

Note: Some players like to have 10 buy-ins some like 20 buy-ins. It depends on your risk level and skill level.

Next: So you have the money together to start off playing a certain limit and you want to build it so you can play in bigger games and bigger games and then quit your job and be on ESPN right? Well, face it, its not going to happen that easy. You will wins some and lose some and hopefully if you follow my guides you will win more and lose less. The next step is to start playing within your BR. The most common used rule is the 5-10% rule. Meaning, never sit down at a table with more than 5% of your bankroll. Example: if you have 600 dollars and plan to play 1-2 limit never take more than 30 dollars to the table with you. Second if at any time you double you initial buy and have 10% of your BR at the table, leave! So if you are sitting there with your 30 dollars and get involved with a big hand and rake 60 bucks back to you. You now have 10% of you bankroll in front of you. Get up and move tables and sit back down with 30 again. This helps you to increase your BR and never risk too much of it. This is how you build a bankroll. Eventually you will increase the size of your bankroll and be able to move up in limits.

Next: Say you lose. Never lose more than 40% of your bankroll in a given day. If you just cant win that day and lose a lot. Quit playing when you lose 25% of your bankroll. Move down in Limits to say .5-1 games and try and rebuild. If you lose some more, move down in limits again to .25-.5 game. This strategy will prevent you from going broke. If you are a decent player and play by the odds and play a good game you will get your bankroll back. When losing be aware of the size of you bankroll land play with in it. Use the chart so help you determine what game you can play now that you lost 40% of your BR.

Poker Poker Poker Issue 3

So now I am serious about poker. I have read everthing I could, and I am winning. So throughout the next six months I am actually making more money playing poker than I do at my job. This is great because I need the money and it’s supplementing all of my other hobbies.

But one thing I haven’t learned yet is, managing a bankroll. Any good, winning poker player will tell you this is more important that knowing the game. I will cover this in a later blog. So I continue to win and don’t actually save any of the money. I spent it all on things I want....bad idea. So then I decide to dive into the world of online poker. I begin playing at Party poker. Well this site has lots of people and actually lots of bad players. I continue to win some money there, but I realize fast that their software isn’t true to real life. Too many players are hitting their long shot hands and I lose a lot of money. I actually won a tournament with 2000 people for 3K.

Since then I have switched to Fulltilt.com where the cards fall truer than any site I have played at. I have played at almost every site and this site seems to be the fairest. Note: with any site you will get players playing with multiple profiles, playing in collusion with others, and probably run across poker bots. If you play a good game, recognize the signs, and get out you will be fine. Since moving to fulltilt.com I took 200 dollars to 10K. (Note: If you want to sign up for this site go to Fulltitl.com and use bonus code:TONY06 and get 100% matched deposit and you will help me build my bankroll and continue posting cool stuff here, I dont get Paid to update this everyday. Think of it as a donation) Great! I have since played with many of the pro's there and have won my fair share of the money. This has built my confidence.
Before I was making money and things were good, but I was always wondering, "How good am I ?", "Am I as good as the Pro's". Well, the answer is yes. The problem is the pros have an almost never ending bankroll. Many of them have won big tournaments winning millions.

So now I am on my quest to build a bankroll so that I can play them more often and take my shot at this poker thing the right way. I have come across a couple of people who know my skill level and are willing to bankroll me. No strings attached, with a promise of 50-50 split. This is big. Hopefully I won’t let them down. Hopefully this will be the boost I need to get me into some good money.

My path Issue 2

Well, so now you are wondering "how did he win money when he didn't konw how to play". Well, a big part of Texas holdem is the ability to reaf your opponent. I was good at this, just natuarally. So when I was playing if I sensed that a player was week I would raise or bet. When I sensed that a player was strong I called or folded. This enabled me to win hands over and over without even knowing how to play or how good my cards were. This ability made the cards I was holding irrelevant. So by this time I was hooked on the game. I figured if I could win money without even knowing what I was doing then, just think how I would do when I learned the game. I continued this style of play for about a year. Then I moved to Seattle, WA where gambling is legal. At this point I have made up my mind to continue playing and I tell myself that I am going to learn this game. So first chance I go out and buy every poker book written and buy all the DVD's I can get my hands on. After burning through those and constantly thinking about the game....I mean I was dreaming poker, sick huh. I would think about the game so much that I would actually play out whole sessions in my dreams and they actually helped me play. I will talk abou that at a later date. So I decide to head on down to pne of the casino's in the area and play in a live game.

For the next couple months I begin playing 2-4 and 4-8 limit holdem about 4 to 8 hours a day when my job permits. I make about 100 a day and things are good. One day the casion shuts down the game for a tournament. So being as addicted as I am I decided to play. To make a long story short, I win. The next day I hear about an earlier tournament, so being all hyped up from my win I drive down and buy-in. I win that tournament so easily that the last 4 player forfeit to me because I have so many chips. Then I jump in my car and race back up town to get in the tournament I played in the the previous day. I make it and then proceed to win that tournament too. So my first three tourney's I win. This is a start to a beautiful relationship.

Background Issue 1

Well, I Have been playing for about 7 years now. It all started with a friend and co-worker asking me over for a friendly game. Well, actually they just wanted to take my money. But I liked the game and I realized quickly that this game was for me and I could be good at it. If only I knew what the heck was goin on. So for a couple of months I continued to play still not even knowing, what beat what, and just handed over my money. Then the hook! One weekend they invite me to go to Atlantic City with them. So as we enter the city I see the Taj Mahal over my head. I remember the movie Rounders, and I though this is so cool. Well still not knowing how to play the game, I sit down with a couple of hundred dollars at a 5-10 limilt table. After about 4 hours I am up some good money and I think to myself, " This is the greatest game ever".

Now you ask yourself how did I win all that money if I didnt know how to play yet? You will just have to wait until my next post to find out. So subscribe now for free and improve your game. If i can do it, you can too. And I will help you do it in less time than it took me.

Have fun ,
masterpoker