Poker Data

Data base is a very important tool. It helps you collect information in such an organized way that statistics can be analysed by the expert for good use, and for me, to crack down my boredom, I refer for public entertainment a copy of poker player X's Poker Tracker stats.

This data history is said to drawn from over 30,000 hands of play.

Most Dealt Poker Hand: J8o - 346 times
Least Dealt Hand: 94s - 82 times

Highest Winning % Hand - AA 86.67%
Lowest Winning % Hand - Q8s 0.82%

Most Tournament Money Won - ATo
Most Tournament Money Lost - 93o

Most Raised Hand Pre-Flop - JJ 79.70%
Least Raised Hand Pre-Flop - 21 Hands on 0%

Big Hands:

Straight Flush x 2
Four of a Kind x 13

Most Played Against Players:
Private information, no exposure here, LOL

This information inspires me a lot, and what's your feeling after seeing it? Can it compare with yours?

Poker Term Post-it

In the world of internet poker, some people chat a lot, some people write a lot. And I prefer to read. Actually, some professionals are really good at writing poker articles with incisive analysis and humorous metaphors. To help you too suck juice from these pro-talk, I offer you introduction of some useful poker jargons.

1. Muck
As a noun! It refers to the area on the table where all of the dead cards are placed. Basically, there are folded cards.
As a verb! It means to fold.

2. UTG
Abbreviation for: Under the Gun. It is the position to the left of the big blind which acts first before board cards are dealt. Of course, you can't choose positions at the poker table. As an early position, somehow it is admitted to be a disadvantage.

3. Rock
It's a nickname for a type of player who will play only top hands. They are very good at folding most of their losers, but will not aggressively bet their winners, which in result not making much money. They are also easily bullied out of pots because of their tight nature.

Please stayed tuned for my upcoming articles on poker term and poker rules!

Poker Odds Tutorial: Lesson 1

If you hold two suited cards, what are the poker odds of flopping 2 of that same suit? How did you calculate this?

All unknown cards including burns are considered to be part of the deck. You calculate by using fractions, putting your outs on top (numerator) and the total cards remaining on bottom (denominator). For the 3 flop cards, the denominators are 50, 49, and 48.

Calculating something like flopping a set is simple addition … { 2/50 + 2/49 + 2/48 }. But with two of a suit, the numerator of the fraction changes when the suit hits. There are 11 of the suit left and you need to hit 2 of them. So, it's more complex than one single addition or multiplication problem.

Rather than write some massive nested expression, I'll try and explain this in a fun and interesting way. Let's say you're holding 2 clubs.

The first card of the flop is a club 11/50 times … 22% of the time, exactly. We go on from there.

22% of the time, you hit that first club. You will need only one of those other 2 cards to be a club … the odds of that are fairly high, { 10/49 + 10/48 }, about 42%.

The other 78% of the time, you'd need both the remaining cards to be clubs … the odds of that are fairly low, { 11/49 * 10/48 }, about 4.5%.

We multiply 22% by the first bracketed expression, which is how often it will happen.

We multiply 78% by the second bracketed expression, which is how often that will happen.

We add these two figures together and arrive at 12.7%, almost exactly 1 in 8 times.

If you also want to include situations where you flop all 3 of that suit, we add the odds of that, { 11/50 * 10/49 * 9/48 } which is very, very low, 0.8%, to the final mix.

Therefore we can say that the odds of flopping at least 2 of suit X, when you already hold 2 of suit X, is ever so slightly better than 1 in 7.5, almost identical to the odds of flopping a set.

Let's make a stand for internet poker. Start from a poker blog first …

Poker Poll

It's a poll as well as a questionaire. How popular is the internet poker and casino gaming in your country? Take your pick. Or you can name the top three if they are not on the list.

Knowledge grows when shared—a very useful database is built through your fingertips.

What are the 3 most popular Poker/Casino games in your area?

Poker Article Directory + best of the best

Blog Bible tells us: Choose your best articles and compile them to a list. Then post it!

Here we go!

Spring Cleaning for my Blog
This poker blog needs a face-lift, too

Things aren't the way they were before
Internet poker changes the way we look at the world

Play in Russian Style
Having a different perspective is always entertaining

Did You Know
The famous "they" said, the humble "I" quote

To Do List
Make a wish

Short History of Poker
As the name suggests

Search for the Unexpected
It's fun to read

30 Things About Me
Total portrait

She is Teresa
Now she prefers to be called Lolita

Gravity Counts
Half-blood short story. Pong ...

Poker News Review for March, 2009

Pre-registration is open for the 2009 World Series of Poker, to be held once again at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Players who are in Las Vegas can simply go to the Rio with cash or casino chips in hand and register in person. Those who are unable to make it to the casino until the WSOP starts can register from home, either by fax or mail. To do so, visit the WSOP's registration website and complete the appropriate form. Be sure to have your driver's license number and Harrah's Total Rewards number available, as they will be necessary to complete registration. Remote payment can be made with a cashier's check or wire transfer. Pre-registration closes two weeks prior to an event's start and keep in mind that the tournaments actually have maximum capacities, so if you are certain that you will play in a particular event, register early to make sure you get a seat.

Tel Aviv, Israel based CogniSafe announced the release of its new online gambling cheating protection software, PitBoss, last week. Using mathematical processes based on a massive gambling knowledge base, the software can supposedly root out cheaters automatically. It can detect bots, collusion, hackers, prohibited software tools, "superusers" who have information about the cards to be dealt, and disconnect protect abuse. The software can also be updated in order to detect new forms of cheating. If a cheater is detected, not only does the software provide the poker room operator with the appropriate information, but it can also prevent the suspected cheater from doing further damage, such as transferring money to a cohort. According to CogniSafe, while PitBoss obviously gathers information on the games being played, no personal information is collected. The only information sent to the online poker room operator is the username of the suspected cheater and what type of cheat is being perpetrated.

According to a New York Times article, the French government will open up its country to online gambling companies in 2010. In an effort to bring in more tax revenue and establish some control over online gambling, those companies wishing to do business in France will be able to submit applications for licenses starting next year. This would also likely alleviate some of the pressure put on France by the European Union, which has not liked France's attempts at establishing a government monopoly on online gambling. Sports and horse bets would be taxed 7.5 percent under the proposed licensing plan, while poker wagers would be taxed 2 percent.

Ultimate Poker Tournament: WSOP

The World Series of Poker is without a doubt the biggest and most prestigious poker tournament in the world. The WSOP, as it is known, gathers the best poker players in the world each year to battle each other until only one is declared champion and winner of millions of dollars—the biggest prize, and honor, in the poker world.

Poker tournament is a series of structured competitions where players compete against each other to accumulate all the poker chips in play. In "normal" casino games, each hand is unrelated to any other. Players can quit whenever they want. In tournaments, players can not quit and cash out their chips. Play continues until there is a winner.

There are different types of poker tournaments: "Elimination" or "freeze out" tournaments are the most common type. In this structure all players begin with the same amount of poker chips, and play continues until one player has accumulated all the chips. As players are eliminated, the active players are re-seated at fewer and fewer tables. While the winner of the tournament is the poker player who accumulates all the chips, the payout structure rewards several players. For example, if ninety-five players start a tournament, commonly the "final table" of nine players would receive prize money—with eighth getting a larger prize than ninth, seventh getting more than eighth, etc.

Spring Cleaning for my Blog

The sun is shining with selflessness on this cozy spring morning. I just strung out six pairs of socks along the washing line. Maybe the mattress needs to be aired too. And the timing is perfect to start my blog renovation project.

Colors and fonts are changed. I add some purple this time, maybe brown next time.

Abundant widgets are deleted so they won't scare off new visitors. It's a hard choice but I think it hurts more to have a turtle-speed website. Though I try to follow some example to conceal some useful but not so nice widgets, the code part is just beyond me so I give it up.

Underlines of hyperlinks are removed to make text layout more smooth. Besides, I think these lines are really urrrrrgly. I went to numerous professional sites for the magical tip. Finally, I add the code "text-decoration: none" in the Edit HTML section. And Bingo!

The sidebar part needs to be better organized. And I should look for a nice background picture …

Anyway, I will keep trying to post articles of updates I'm doing and add a bit more non poker stuff to give my blog a bit more variety.

Internet Poker at Your Service

The following is for the advantages I think of internet poker—though I'm sure someone with a creative mind could think of others. I would be glad to meet fellow poker "punks", so don't hesitate to inspire me with your great perspectives.

Ability to "Multi-table"

Online poker has spawned something that never existed before in poker—the ability to literally play more than one game at the same time. This has a huge potential upside for the player who is a consistent winner with a well-defined style of play. Though he may give up some profit in each game he plays by limiting his ability to "play the players", he can greatly multiply his hourly win rate by playing many games at once. This can be an enormous example. Imagine, for example, that you are a winner of two big bets an hour in your live games. Now imagine that you can play eight games at once—winning only one big bet an hour—having to give up your full advantage because you can't tailor your play to each individual player. That still leaves you with the ability to earn eight big bets an hour—four times your live play rate. Is it any wonder that so many of the hottest poker players these days make their money chiefly on line?

Ability to Instantly Take Notes on Opponents

A good poker player often notices tendencies of his opponents that help reveal what cards they are likely to hold. In a live casino it is very difficult or impossible to record those impressions immediately. But in an online room this is simply a matter of typing in some brief notes on a pull down screen. These notes can be retained for as long as an opponent plays under the same screen name. This advantage is itself augmented because of the ease of locating these players in the future. Most online poker sites have a "find a player" feature that allows you to type in their screen name and locate, immediately, where they are playing. So if you've noticed that a player is a loose passive opponent, you can look for him again in a future game and adjust your play accordingly. If only "fishing" were always so easy in real life.

Inability of Opponents to Read Your Poker Tells

Many players reveal a lot about their hands by their unconscious but observable traits at the poker table. These "tells", such as how you physically bet, breath, talk, hold your cards, or otherwise react to situations as they develop during the play of the hand, give experienced players extra information from you that they can use to exploit. When you play on line, these traits become invisible, eliminating a disadvantage you may have had in a live game.

Play Blackjack Step by Step

Starting out: If you are new to blackjack, play online, casinos offer a practice mode with autoplay to assist you. Play until you have the hang of it so that you don't lose money foolishly.

Bankroll: Always predetermine your Bankroll prior to playing so that you are not spending money you shouldn't be in the heat of the moment when you just feel like the next hand could be "lucky".

Choosing a Table: Choose a poker table where the maximum bet is not higher than 5% of your bankroll, that way you will lose less and be able to enjoy a great deal more game time, rather than playing one or two hands and being done.

Basic Strategy: Memorise it, apply it and stick to it no matter what … This is probably the most important blackjack tip we can give you, and if you will only pay attention to one of these, this is it!

Think 21: The aim of blackjack is to get as close to 21 as possible, don't try to copy or beat the dealer, you will bust more often than you win.

Insurance is for cars and card counters: You can't card count online, so just forget that the option of insurance even exists.

Split: pairs of Aces and 8's, but DO NOT do this on any face cards or 10's.

Know when to hit and stand: Hit hard until you reach 17 or more, stand on 17 or more and hit soft 18 if the dealer has 10.

Watch the values: If the dealer holds 7 or higher, play up until 17 or higher. Against dealers, 4, 5 or 6 double with 9 and play soft hands of 13-17. Double your 10 against dealer's 9 or lower and double with any hand of 11.

Variation is key: Vary your betting amounts according to your results, increase them if you are winning and decrease them if you are losing. This is common sense that is often forgotten in the excitement of this casino game.

France Endorses Internet Poker

French government just proposes to its congress a law amendement concerning the openning up of gambling market. If approved, this reform will come into force from Jan. 1st, 2010. Only those internet sites with a licence will be authorised.

During the last several decades, there are only two national companies that take legal control of online gaming industry in France, La Française des jeux and PMU. Things are changing. The government is forced to break up the monopoly for the head-on competition from Internet gaming.

The minister of Budget, Éric Woerth, explains that 5% of French frequent those "underground" gaming sites which are illegal according to current law, and it's potentially dangerous. These sites' number has passed 25,000 among which 20% are in French language. And the total revenu can reach 2 billion euro per year. While three quarters of this sum evades tax.

The opening of this market to free competition will concern horse gambling, sports gambling. While La Française des jeux will keep its monopoly in lottery. In terms of casino gaming, only internet poker are allowed. Meanwhile Blackjack, Roulette, and slot machines are still contraband.

Licences will be awarded to those qualified internet sites. And taxes are paid according to their revenue. Rate for sports gambling is set to be 8.5%. For horse gambling it's as high as 15.5%. While the tax rate for poker sites will be 2%, part of which will be used to finance cultural heritage programmes.

Top 10 Interesting Blackjack Facts

1. There is great dispute amongst the Italians and French as to who first invented the game of blackjack, although most think it to be the French.

2. The game was originally called vingt-et-un (French meaning 21).

3. It is well documented fact that Napoleon loved the game of 21 and played it when he had time to kill on his exile in Elba.

4. The name Blackjack came about due to a variation in the rules of the original game where payouts were given if a player held the black Jack of Spades.

5. Blackjack was banned in the US at the turn of the 19th century and went "underground" until 1939 when the state of Nevada removed its bans as it gave birth to Las Vegas.

6. In the early 60's Edward O. Thorp wrote a book entitled "Beat the dealer" detailing the mathematical workings of this casino game and is known as the father of card counting.

7. The publishing of Thorp's book lead to increased player attendance and winnings at casinos. The casinos then altered some of the standard rules, bringing about new variations of standard games.

8. Al Franesco was the inventor of blackjack team play, earning him and his team millions of dollars and resulting in the formation of many famous card counting teams over the years including the famous MIT card counting team document in the movie "21".

9. The seats positioned around a dealer at the poker table in blackjack are called "bases", and referred to as "first, second or third base", however these are the only baseball terms that appear in the game.

10. There is a Blackjack Hall of fame. It was launched in 2002 and honours blackjack experts, authors, and professional poker players who have made significant contributions to the game.

Play Baccarat with Maths

Baccarat is one of the simplest games in casino. And what matters most in this casino game is the betting method.

I am not saying that they are the lucrative way or the right way to play, but players use these 2 kinds of betting systems the most—progressive betting system and Fibonacci betting system. Today I'd like to elaborate on the former one.

Here being progressive means throwing out poker chips with a predefined formula, an ever-increasing upper slope. Because, common sense says: if you want to win big, you need to bet big. Meanwhile, you just can't bet big in a random way. Right? Anyway, that's the reason why progressive betting system is applied in a large scale.

And here is a sequence often used in the system. For instance, you have in your pocket $10, the whirl goes this way: 10 20 40 80 160 320 640 1280 2560, so on and so forth.

Attention! Take this for a note: the basic principle behind the winning poker strategy is try to lose as little as possible while win big. While people usually just focus on how to avoid losing money when they sit at the poker table. They are probally right about keeping their butt on the chair but they may not enjoy the true essence of gaming.

Well, back to the game and take a good look at the number sequence. Let's say, if the luck is against you, with a straight loss, you just can't turn back, for all you need to do is throw your chips out again and win the next round. Just win once, and you can gain all your previous losses back. While you stop at that moment and calculate your "jackpot" You can win? Only 10 dollars. In retrospect, it just isn't worth the effort and sometimes if you can't throw the bad-luck monkey off your back, it may drag you too deep to a dangerous marsh…

For a novice of Baccarat who doesn't have a large bankroll, you may probably be using this system right now. Though I recommend you adopt the famous Fibonacci betting system, which I may explain in my later articles. Hay, don't get mad or something. I am not judging. After all, for some people, not losing equals winning! Haha …

Short History of Poker

Poker has become a world wide phenomenon over the recent years—everyone seems to play the game. Most people give internet poker all credit for the explosion in popularity, but we must not forget that Poker, in one form or another has been traced through over more than ten centuries back to around 900 A.D.

A game alike to poker was first invented by the Chinese sometime before 969 A.D, and Egyptians in the 12th & 13th centuries are known to have used a form of playing cards. In 16th century Persia "Ganjifa" or "Treasure Cards" were believed to have been used for a variety of betting games. A Ganjifa deck consisted of 96 elaborate cards, made of paper thin slices of ivory or precious wood. "As Nas" was played by The Persians which utilized 25 cards, rounds of betting and hierarchical hand rankings.

"Primero" dates back to 1526 and is often referred to as "poker's mother" as it is the first confirmed version of a game directly related to modern day poker. "Primero" was a 16th century Spanish game which involved three cards being dealt to each player. Bluffing, or betting high stakes whilst holding poor cards to deceive opponents, was an integral part of the game. In the 17th and 18th centuries a French game named "Poque" and a German game named "Pochen" became very popular, believed to have been developed from "Primero".

When French colonials arrived in Canada they imported the game to the new world. From the beginning of the 18th century "Poque" was the national card game of France and when a hardy group of French-Canadian settlers founded New Orleans, its popularity spread from the state of Louisiana throughout the whole country. One of the earliest references of poker was written in 1834 by Jonathan H. In his writing he mentions rules to the "cheating game."

During the Wild West period of United States history, a saloon with a poker table could be found in just about every town from coast to coast. It was extremely popular during the Civil War when the soldiers of both armies played. European influence of poker ended when the joker was introduced as a wild card in 1875.

In just over two centuries, poker has never looked back. Since its humble beginning on the banks of the Mississippi, the popularity of this widely played game has grown in leaps and bounds to evolve numerous variations and sub-variations.

There have been three games that have, in turn, dominated the modern poker scene:

• 5 Card Draw rose from relative obscurity during the American Civil War to the most popular game for almost a century.
• 7 Card Stud then took over the throne shortly before WWII and maintained its position for about 40 years with the help of the new and thriving Las Vegas casino industry.
• Texas Hold 'em, christened the "Cadillac of poker" rose to prominence in the 1970's when it was featured as the title game in the World Series of Poker. Today, Texas Hold 'em is indisputably the most frequently played and most popular poker game in the world.

Top 10 Worst Starting Hands in Texas Hold'em

1. 2-7
7-2 off suit is considered the worst hand in Texas Hold'em. They are the lowest two cards you can have that cannot make a straight (there's 4 cards between 2 and 7). Even if they are suited, they will make you a very low flush, and if either pairs, it's an awfully low poker hand.
Because it is the worst, some players will play it for fun and in online games, it is known as "the hammer."

2. 2-8
This is the same basic problem as above, only you've got an 8 instead of a 7. Still pretty bad for a high card. Suited or not, this is a fold'em hold'em hand.

3. Tie: 3-8 & 3-7
The 3 makes this hand able to beat the two above it, but with the 3-8 you still can't make a straight and the 3-7 still, well, just sucks.

4. 2-6
While if the board gives you a miracle flop of 3-4-5, you will have a straight, someone with a 6-7 will have a higher straight. If you get a flush, someone will probably have a higher flush. Against even 4 poker players, this hand will lose about 90% of the time. Not good odds.

5. Tie: 2-9, 3-9, & 4-9
The only thing these three hands have going for them over the hands above is the 9. If the 9 pairs, you'll have a middle pair that could still be beat by anyone holding pocket 10s, jacks, queens, kings, or aces, yet you might be fooled by a board filled with low cards into thinking you have the best hand and losing a lot of money. No straights can fill the gap between these cards, either. Beware.

6. 2-10
This hand has a legendary quality because Doyle Brunson captured two World Series of Poker Bracelets with it. But it's not a good hand -- Doyle Brunson is one of the all-time best in the game and unless you're a Texas road gambler who's logged thousands of hours at the poker table, you shouldn't try and win with the Doyle Brunson.

7. 5-9
Another hand people play because it's fun is the old 9 to 5, the "Dolly Parton." If you're playing to win, it's not a good idea to play hands because they have a funny name. That may be how you pick the winning horse in a race, but poker's a marathon, not a sprint, and over the long term there's no doubt this hand is a statistical loser.

8. Tie: 4-7, 4-8, 5-8, 3-6...
All these hands will rarely win, especially unsuited. Toss 'em. Just toss'em. Yes, even in the little blind. If you see two low cards in the hole, unless you're in the big blind and you can see the flop for free, fold.

9. Face card + low card, unsuited
One of the most common mistakes I see beginners make is that when they see any paint in their hand, they play it. J-2, Q-3, K-4 whatever -- and most of these hands are losers. They're junk that may win a few pots, but more often will lose you huge cash when you find the other poker player has a higher kicker and the winning hand.

10. Ace + low card, unsuited
This is another common beginner mistake, playing any ace. Again, it may win occasionally, and heads-up it's a fine hand, but at a table of 4 or more, this hand shouldn't be played if there's a raise in front of you. You're going to be outkicked a lot with Ace-little, and it's going to feel like a kick in the junk when the other player shows their higher ace.

For those who need a break from the poker table!

Internet poker has a lot of advantages. For example, you can enjoy some funny talks.

AK = Anna Kournikova. Always looks great. Never wins.

Q: Why didn't the elephant like to play cards in the jungle?
A: Because there were too many cheetahs. (Cheaters always avoid official poker rooms)

Q: Where does a professional poker player meet all his opponents?
A: The aquarium. (We are all fish, LOL)

Q: What poker hand did Doyle Brunson win two World Series of Poker events with?
A: !0-2

Q: What does American Airlines stand for in poker?
A: A-A

Laugh it out. However, remember: you must be serious with poker rules...