Not giving away information

You have several ways to achieve this. One way to do it is not really give out any information and other players try to do this by not looking at their cards until it is their turn to act. You cannot give away any vital info when you don’t have an idea of what cards you are holding.

Other players do not want to answer questions of anyone. One of the best ways to protect your cards is also doing things the same way every time. Stick to a formula on how you raise, how you push your chips, or maybe how you bet when you have monster hands.

Using information from your opponents

The other side of the coin is making use of the information you gather from your opponents. Naturally, you want to find as much as you can about the cards of the other poker players. What is critical though is how you use these information so you can get their chips.

There are two major things you need to do to make sure you can read your opponents. You need to know the patterns of your opponent and what their patterns really mean. The second skill you need to have is to detect poker tells or habits or mannerisms which give them away.

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.

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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.

Often, during play involving a pot limit, it is said that if the amount in the pot is an odd number, making the play slightly difficult owing to the complicated math involved, it is better to round off the amount of money in the pot by increasing it to the next even number. This helps the flow of the game to ease up and the game to move along at a smoother, faster pace. For example, if the pot limit in the current phase is at $70, it would make more sense to move it up to $100 to allow for more facilitated play.

During the play of the game if one of the players submits a bill or a playing chip or counter into the pot that is larger than the size of the current ongoing amount, the contribution can be considered to be a part of the bets of the pot.

Different casino, different rule – so make sure to know the details of the Las Vegas Poker Room you’re playing at!

Props, though.

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

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.

• $10k NL Holdem Main Event – $755,000 in NL Holdem Main Event, 1989
• $188,000 in Limit Holdem, 1992
• $138,000 in $1.5k Limit Holdem, 1993
• $161,400 in $2.5k No Limit Holdem, 1993
• $173,000 in $5k No-Limit Holdem, 1993
• $204,000 in $3k Pot-Limit Holdem, 1997
• $316,000 in $2k No-Limit Holdem, 2001
• $171,400 in $2.5k Limit Holdem, 2003
• $410,680 in $3k No-limit Holdem, 2003
• $631,863 in $1k + Rebuy No-Limit Holdem, 2006
• $637,254 in $1.5k No Limit Holdem, 2007

The above list of titles speaks a lot about the skill of this extraordinary player and his vague table etiquettes have arguably worked in the favor of poker game by popularizing it further.

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

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