Free Poker Strategy

Only recently I have had a chance to watch the entire final table through, despite following most of the updates throughout the whole tournament when it was going on.
I have to say that I was impressed by the way Peter Eastgate seemed to slowly increase his stack through the early stages of the final table without ever risking a huge pot.

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I certainly have to say that the two best players made it to heads up play in my opinion, but having watched all the hands at that final table, I personally feel that Demidov was the best player there by a considerable margin.
There were two particular plays he made that stand out in my mind. Very early in the game he made a huge raise to risk almost all of his stack against Philips when he had (A,Q) against (A,K) and both had missed the flop. You can say that pushing all your chips in on a bluff is not the best way to win a tournament, but you have to admire the raw talent it takes to pull off such a move. This early in the game, Demidov had to be reading Phillips hand perfectly and entrusting his tournament life to his own judgement, and he read the situation absolutely perfectly. From what I saw of Phillips play, I could personally never have seen him make a perfect read and play in this position. Another hand that springs to mind is when Demidov lays down (Ks,7s) after making two pair on a board of (7h,3d,6s,Kh,3c). Being up against a set of threes, this is a top class lay down considering it only cost him another 5 million chips to call.

After his WSOPE 3rd place in the preceding months, and then his 2nd place in the WSOP main event, Demidov has really shown what he is capable of, and in my opinion, was by far the most talented player at that table.

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This was another hand that took place this evening, and again, involved myself in the big blind, and the small blind. I had been dealt (Js,7s) and made a small preflop raise.

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My opponent called and the flop came down (3h,4d,6h) my opponent made a fairly small bet of 600, and I felt compelled to call as at that point, I felt a Jack or 7 would put me in front even if his bet was anything more than a tester bet, and a 5 would make my straight. It was the 7d that fell on the turn, and I began to doubt whether I should have counted the 7 as an out, although the basis for my thinking was still good in that, to raise preflop, I couldn’t see him holding many hands that contained a 5. Pocket Fives were plausible, but I felt when he made another fairly small bet, I had to try and find out whether my pair was in front. I had 4,000 in front of me, and the bet was 600. I reraised to 2,000 and my opponent sat and thought for a considerable length of time. Finally, he folded, showing (K,K). I never felt he was that strong at all, mainly because the standard play would be to force the issue earlier on in case I was holding an Ace and one appeared on the turn or river.

My aggressive table image helped me out here I feel, because he knew I was capable of calling preflop with suited connectors. Also, I asked him afterwards would he have called if I had reraised all in on the turn, and he said he would have because it would have looked so much more like I didn’t have a Five. If I had made a straight he would expect the same type of reraise I made, not too big to force an opponent out but enough to possibly force a flush draw out.

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Texas Holdem is a wonderful game, and one which has soared in popularity in recent years. Due to this I feel that it is likely the bar has been raised in terms of skilled players try to turn a regular profit. Omaha however, has always maintained some popularity, but the game has never attracted the same interest as Holdem. I can see no real reason why this is the case, as I have grown to play more Omaha I have found it to be certainly more exciting to play than Holdem.

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When it comes to making money at Omaha, I also think the skilled players find it a lot easier to turn a regular profit than the skilled Holdem players do. This is of course partly due to the Holdem players that switch over to experiment with Omaha, and simply can’t switch away from their Holdem state of mind. They consequently make mistakes, the biggest of which, is clinging on to a single big pocket pair when the board is showing every draw under the sun. I saw one such player manage to get all his $21 in with (Q,Q,x,x) on a board of (2,8,10). After being raised and reraised, two players called his all in, one with some sort of straight draw and a pair of tens, the other had (8,9,J,x). The first miracle for our man with the Queens, is that he thinks he is in front when he is raising and reraising on the flop, and due to the certifiable, insane play from his opponents, he’s actually right. The second miracle is that both players with a pair managed to miss pairing either of their other three cards as well as missing their straight draws. However nice the players pocket queens looked with that type of board, the reality was that he ended up having to dodge a cumulative total of about 30 outs both on the turn, and river.

He got incredibly lucky and won, but in Omaha, if you turn up in a Holdem mindset, it’s only a matter of time before the skilled players take you down.

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After learning a new 3 card based game recently, I felt I should share the basic rules of this game with you.

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There seems to be many variations of games which involve making 3 card poker hands. Usually the rules will differ slightly in terms of hand rankings with this type of game. Straights beat Flushes, with the highest Straight being (A,2,3) followed by (A,K,Q) then decending through the rankings in the usual manner. Flushes beat a Pair, and also a High Card, although Three of a Kind is the best possible hand. The other possible hand is the Straight Flush, and that slots in between a regular Straight, and Three of a Kind in terms of strength.

The game we played involved each player having three lives. Three cards were dealt to each player, with another two face up cards in the centre, and one face down. The action would move around the table with each player swapping one card for either of the face up cards, or the ‘mystery’ face down card. If they took the face down card, they had to replace it with their own card also face down. After each player has had one swap, any player thereafter can announce ‘knock’ after they swap a card. The moment this is announced, each remaining player has one swap left, with aim being solely to not turn over the weakest hand at the end. if you turn over the weakest hand, you lose a life.

These different forms of 3 card poker are often fun games to play I feel, and well worthy of introduction into a home game, if your usual game becomes tiresome.

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