March 2009

The Problem With Weak Aces in Poker

Marcus Bateman / 31 March 2009 / Leave a comment

Weak aces tend to be the hand that you see bad players get in the most trouble with at the table. This is because weak aces are usually very far behind most good hands in hold'em, and weak players seem...Read more »

Running good

Matthew Pitt / 30 March 2009 / 2 Comments

After my recent MTT success, I fully expected for my luck to dry up for at least a few weeks but it seems that the Poker Gods (amen) had words with their mates, the Gambling Gods (amen) and let me...Read more »

Positive reinforcement

Marcus Bateman / 29 March 2009 / Leave a comment

Positive reinforcement is one of the single greatest things about the game of poker. Often in poker, a player makes the wrong move at the wrong time and wins. Instead of making the player feel bad about their particular bad...Read more »

"NEWS": An angry Jennifer Tilly has trouble storming out of a rotating restaurant

Matt Broughton / 27 March 2009 / Leave a comment

Unabomber girlfriend, Jennifer Tilly, underestimated the difficulty and frustration involved in her attempt to storm out of a rotating restaurant last night. Tilly says she was disorientated by both the ever-moving restaurant and the blinding rage she felt towards boyfriend,...Read more »

Poker blog round-up: Saban Poker, Bossanova, Team Dobbs and Hoss-TBF

Matthew Pitt / 27 March 2009 / 1 Comments

The past seven days have been very busy for me this week, what with me taking down tournaments left right and centre and signing contract for training sites and poker rooms....Read more »

The Luck You Don't See

Marcus Bateman / 26 March 2009 / 3 Comments

Most of the discussion in poker about luck comes down to individual hands. 'My aces got cracked by kings' or 'he hit his back door flush draw after making a ludicrous flop bluff' are typical stories from players who claim...Read more »

Play Your Way to an iPod Touch at Betfair Poker

Dave Allan / 26 March 2009 / Leave a comment

"We're giving away free iPod Touches," I was told. "To all new signs up to Betfair Poker who reach 10,000 Betfair points. Go promote!"...Read more »

Thinking about the Long Term with Bad Players

Marcus Bateman / 25 March 2009 / Leave a comment

So you're sitting down with a massive fish and playing heads up cash. The player is very loose and bad, and you quickly realise that you all you have to do is sit back, play tight and just let good...Read more »

Route 66

Nick Cantwell / 25 March 2009 / Leave a comment

It's been a very busy week of poker, and in particular some long term poker planning....Read more »

Anthony Fish - STT Analysis

Marcus Bateman / 24 March 2009 / 1 Comments

A brief analysis of the catalogue of mistakes made in Nick Cantwell's excellent sarcastic piece about how to play a sit and go......Read more »

Combating Loose-Aggressive players

Matthew Pitt / 24 March 2009 / 1 Comments

One of the most difficult and infuriating players you will face in both the live arena and online is one who plays a Loose-Aggressive (LAG) style....Read more »

Happy Birthday Pud's Poker Progress!

Matthew Pitt / 23 March 2009 / 4 Comments

During an MSN conversation last week with the editor of the Betfair Poker site, Dave Allan, I realised I had been blogging on Betfair for over a year! Jeez, how time flies!...Read more »

Folding the Ace Flush in Omaha

Marcus Bateman / 23 March 2009 / Leave a comment

Pot limit Omaha is one of the only games where you can ever consider folding the ace flush on a non paired board....Read more »

Poker blog round-up: Cloud, Small Stakes Hero, Broose and Zero-1k

Matthew Pitt / 20 March 2009 / 2 Comments

I've not been around the blogs as much as I usually do this past week as I am currently recovering from a bout of man-flu that almost finished me off! Female readers will think I have only had a common...Read more »

The Re-Re-Steal

Marcus Bateman / 19 March 2009 / Leave a comment

Frequently in tournament poker you will encounter players who are re-raising your opens at an inappropriate frequency....Read more »

Getting Noticed

Chris Edwards / 19 March 2009 / 1 Comments

Following up on his recent pieces about playing live - Some Basics about Playing Live and Preparing for a Live Tournament - Chris Edwards discusses some aspects of table image....Read more »

TAG, you're it

Matthew Pitt / 19 March 2009 / Leave a comment

Following up on his article about how to beat weak tight players, Matthew Pitt looks at another popular style - the tight-aggressive player. The classic winning style of play for both multi-table tournaments and cash games is widely accepted as...Read more »

Tightening and loosening up in H.O.R.S.E

Marcus Bateman / 18 March 2009 / Leave a comment

One of the great things about playing mixed games is that they give a player who may well be considerably weaker than another player at a specific game (say limit hold'em) an edge if they are a just a slightly...Read more »

Dropping Down the Stakes

Marcus Bateman / 17 March 2009 / Leave a comment

In my opinion, dropping down the stakes at points is the hallmark of all truly great players....Read more »

My biggest score yet

Matthew Pitt / 17 March 2009 / 3 Comments

Since my last post I have continued to play tournaments and have seen both the positive and negative side of variance. I played my 100th $3.25 45 man game on Saturday dinner time as I didn't get to see Pud...Read more »

Chaos Theory and Poker

Marcus Bateman / 16 March 2009 / Leave a comment

Chaos theory is a branch of mathematics that deals with problems where the number of variables become so high that mathematics ceases to be able to provide accurate explanations about the future....Read more »

Cracking Rocks - Beating Weak-tight Players

Matthew Pitt / 16 March 2009 / Leave a comment

One of the most boring players you will come up against at the poker tables, both real and virtual, are the ones who play a Tight-Passive style....Read more »

Poker Blog round-up: NHGGFU, Assassinato, Plan3tGong

Matthew Pitt / 13 March 2009 / 2 Comments

This week's blog round up contains a trip report, a singing Annette Obrestad, the thoughts of an MTT pro, some serious grinding of SnG and pooing behind a bush next the motorway! Let's get started!...Read more »

How to play an STT - by Anthony Fish

Nick Cantwell / 13 March 2009 / 13 Comments

One piece of advice I was given quite early on in my poker career was to try and get into the mind of my opponents. Here I try to get into the mind of a very weak STT player. I...Read more »

Pre flop raising in Omaha

Marcus Bateman / 13 March 2009 / Leave a comment

Some of the most profitable poker games out there in the current era are pot limit Omaha games....Read more »

Poker's not just for Christmas...

Matt Broughton / 12 March 2009 / Leave a comment

As we blast ever-deeper into 2009, I realised that no one bothered to ask me for a review of 2008 (which is a shame as I'm sure it would have been hilarious). I hope, however, that we're not so far...Read more »

Poker is easy when you're winning!

Matthew Pitt / 12 March 2009 / 2 Comments

I ended my last blog entry by saying "Let's hope the heater I am due to even things out takes place when I take a shot at a big MTT." Whilst that has not happened entirely, I do seem to...Read more »

Heads Up Sit and Goes: Balance

Marcus Bateman / 11 March 2009 / Leave a comment

After positional mistakes, talked about by Sorel Mizzi , the most common mistakes players make in this format is either calling or folding too much....Read more »

Bridging the Gap

Matthew Pitt / 09 March 2009 / Leave a comment

Fellow Betfair Blogger, Chris '1Tripz1' Edwards recently wrote an interesting article about "The Gap Concept" for the site and I thought I would elaborate on this a little further. For those of you who have not read it, I highly...Read more »

Eye opening experience

Matthew Pitt / 08 March 2009 / Leave a comment

My daily routine sees me read literally dozens of blogs and several forums and a common theme in posts and entries is the dreaded variance in poker. My first instinct when I see someone writing about being hit by variance...Read more »

Heads Up Sit and Go - The Nature of the Beast

Marcus Bateman / 08 March 2009 / Leave a comment

Heads up sit and goes provide a great opportunity for spinning up a bankroll to the beginner or play money player. The variance is very low in these games, as they combine many features which allow skill to shine through...Read more »

Blog round-up: Bossanova, Klopzi, OneEyedJack, Rubbish and Gcox

Matthew Pitt / 06 March 2009 / 4 Comments

I've been extremely busy with life stuff this past week so have not been around the blogs as much as I would have liked to, but I have still had time to dig out some bloggers for you that are...Read more »

Play Money - Poker for Fun?

Dave Allan / 05 March 2009 / Leave a comment

One of the great things about Betfair Poker is the ability to learn the nuances of poker without having to risk a single penny of your own money....Read more »

Newcastle Trip Report (Part 3): In the Points

Matthew Pitt / 05 March 2009 / Leave a comment

A lot of people advocate tightening up if you have just been caught bluffing but I don't always heed to this advice. After all, if you've just been caught with your hands in the cookie jar, you're not going to...Read more »

Playing against Pot Heads - Video

Dave Allan / 04 March 2009 / 2 Comments

Apart from getting addicted to Twitter like Annette, I'm starting to love these mini-movies made using text to sound. Here's the latest poker-related one I found. Warning some strong language as this British player launches a tirade against a stoned...Read more »

Random Walks Part Two: Bold Play

Marcus Bateman / 02 March 2009 / Leave a comment

We can see from how wildly random walks differ from the actual odds of an event quite clearly from any of the numerous graphs available....Read more »

Newcastle Trip Report (Part 2) Accumulating Chips

Matthew Pitt / 02 March 2009 / 1 Comments

After part one ran on for far too long, I have decided to trim this entry down so that it actually contains some poker!...Read more »

Random Walks - Importance to Poker Players

Marcus Bateman / 01 March 2009 / 1 Comments

A 'random walk' is a mathematical term to describe looking at sequences of consecutive random events and observing the patterns....Read more »