In hold’em poker, there are only 3 sure hands prior to the flop: Q-Q, K-K, and A-A. Most of the time, these hands can win without the need for  improvements. The playable hands will need some boost in order to take home the win. Of course, you have to consider bluffing, but it is safe to say that most players do not bluff that frequently. Most pots are won by the best of hands in a limit hold’em.

First step of the dance is to have a good hand pre-flop. You will get two cards and you will be hoping that they can become the best hand among the others on the table. To add to the 3 made hands before the flop, you can rely on premium hands like A-K or A-Q or perhaps suited K-Q and A-J. You can add to the list medium pairs like 8-8 or J-J.

The odds of connecting when the flop is revealed are actually lower so it will be a wise move to play inexpensively at first. Remember the first step of the dance to rake in the chip is to kick things off with hole cards which have a good chance of ending up as the best hand.

Next step is for your starting hands to connect with the cards on the flop. You don’t make it on the flop. Think hard and consider all factors before making any move.

It is also wise to consider folding or not playing your hand if it just doesn’t make anything out of the flop. This is assuming that you do not plan to bluff, of course.

These two steps will make sure that you dance away off the table with the chips in your pocket. Remember, if step two does not give you the best cards, you must see if it is still worth it to invest or step back and wait for the next opportunity.

Phil Ivey is one of the legends of the poker world. He has won five World Series of Poker bracelets and gone on to the final table at the World Poker Tour an amazing eight times. Originally, Phil Ivey started playing poker when he was just a teenager. He even secured a fake driver’s license to allow him to enter the casino underage.

Phil Ivey has had amazing success no matter who he has played in poker. Not only has Phil beaten large groups of gamblers, who bet that he would lose, he has won over twenty million dollars by winning against them! Recently Phil has not been playing as much on the major poker tours, but continues to play poker with celebrities and for special events. Phil took part in European Poker Masters tournament in London and was able to cash in his chips for a cool twelve thousand dollars. However, Phil was just getting started. He won one million dollars at the Monte Carlo Millions tournament and the next day scored $600,000 from TheFullTiltPoker.Net Live From Monte Carlo tournament.

While Phil does continue to play in tournaments across the world, he is constantly finding new poker business dealings to be involved with. He played in Poker After Dark on NBC in 2007, and more recently has become heavily involved in Full Tilt Poker. He was able to make just under two million from Full Tilt Poker in 2007 and nearly eight million from Full Tilt Poker in 2008!

David Williams, the online donkey, actually does teach us some VERY BASIC things about online poker. Raises early with the 75h, limps in with 64 UTG+1 and flops top two.

Basicly he’s saying: play good.

Yes, Mister David Williams Poker Professional, that’s what we all try to do. Too bad we don’t all have Ivey staking us every tournament, aye!

Spanish poker hero Carlos Mortensen talks about getting a feel of a new table and the techniques he uses to get his hands on a lot of chips early in a tournament. He’s obviously a player that plays the players AND his hands. Great interview by Tiffany Michelle for Pokernews.

Since pots form an integral part of poker games, often changing from round to round, there are a number of pot limit rules that allow for the game to move on without any hindrances. In this article we shall discuss some of the established rules for setting pot limits in poker.

Since the pot size is decided prior to the beginning of the game, usually in accordance with the particular game in play, the wagers have to be made in accordance with the decreed pot size. The players cannot make wages that are of a greater amount than the size of the pot itself. In the event that a player places a wager that is of a larger amount than the total pot size the game continues to the end of the round with the wager in place. At the soonest possible juncture, for example when the round closes, the excess money is returned to the bettor. The wager size is decreased to fit the permitted limit. If the excess wager is brought to the attention of the involved partied by the players themselves or by the dealer before the hand has been started, it can be corrected to fit the decreed limit. However if any of the players have already acted upon it, the game has to continue until the nearest end-point, be it the end of the round or the folding hand of the entire game, and only then can the correction in the wager be made.

In case the excess amount of the wager goes unnoticed a player might make a call on the existing wager under the impression that it is an allowable limit. In this event, if the incorrect size of the wager comes to notice at a later stage, and a player has already begun to move a call on the wager or raise it, then the floor-person reserves judgment on the matter. The floor-person at such a point can choose to allow the wager to stand as valid and allow the game to continue. Such a situation often arises when the person who made the inaccurate and excessively high wager realizes the mistake and tries to call off the play even though another player has started to play on it.

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He’s not a donk, but this is not the most amazing laydown Allen Cunningham has ever done either, I’m sure.

Props, though.

It’s a bit of a stretch betting $75k here by Patrik Antonius – not sure what Allen would have done for a $40k bet.

Phil Hellmuth is one of the most famous players in the poker fraternity for some of the most unusual reasons. Phil had been known for his short tempered nature and sudden outbursts of anger which have been caught live many time in poker championships. This scarcity of patience has bestowed him with a nick name of “the poker brat”.

It is evident from his career that beneath this harsh image is his extraordinary instinct and intelligence or the game of poker which makes him stand apart from millions of other co players. Phil is the record holder of the maximum number of poker tournaments won till date and his prize winning till the end of year 2007 summed up to an astonishing ten million dollars.

Besides a professional poker player Phil has also other businesses and he is a keen writer of several books and maintains a website of his own. Phil has known to outperform in every WSOP Bracelet event from the year 1989 to 2007. And some of his prized cash is mentioned below for each year.

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A great interview with Andy Bloch, talking about the difference between PLO and NLHE.

Worst commentary ever by Phil Hellmuth. I mean that was a huge mistake, but the commentary should have just been muted…

He’s actually helpful and this really is the REAL Tony G. I like it, and I think it’s good to see the real Tony displayed on television as well.