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?

One Round of Omaha

Omaha is played with blinds and dealer button which means that the positions are fixed throughout the whole hand. The dealer button is a white plate that marks the dealer position. The blinds are two mandatory bets made before the cards are dealt. The blinds are used to open play and force action. The first player to the left of the dealer posts the small blind and the second player posts the big blind. The small blind is the size of half a big blind.

The dealer gives the players four cards face down, the first betting round begins and turn goes clockwise starting with the poker player to the left of the dealer. The players may do one of the following actions depending on what is possible at the moment: check, bet, raise, call or fold.

When the first betting round is finished the dealer places three cards open on the poker table, these are the flop cards. Betting resumes and remaining players make their move.
When the second betting round is finished the dealer places one card face up on the table. Betting resumes as usual. This is the turn card.

When the third betting round is finished the dealer places the fifth and last card open on the table. This is the river card. Betting resumes but when the last person has acted it's a showdown of the cards. The person who bet or raised last shows the cards first. The other players may choose to show or fold their hands depending if they have a better hand. The player with the best poker hand wins the pot. (In Omaha high-low the pot is split into a high hand and a low hand pot if there is a low hand qualifier)

To determine the best poker hand a player has to use two of the four hole cards with three of the five community cards.

The dealer button is moved one step to the left and a new hand may begin.

Play Baccarat at Online Casino

It's a pearl in European casinos. Yep, it's Baccarat. And I'd like to guide you to the crystal-clear Baccarat rules. Check it out.

The aim of Baccarat is to assemble your hand to contain two or three cards with a total value of nine, or secondly eight. The absolutely perfect hand is one that contains two cards and their value totals nine, this is known as a "Natural Nine" or a "Natural Eight". If any of the players, including the banker, has a "Natual Nine" or a "Natural Eight" then the other players may not draw a third card - that poker player is the winner unless there is a tie between two players in which case the game is void. If there are no "Naturals" then players decide whether to bet or fold.

Card Scoring:












If the total of a poker hand is greater than ten then the initial figure is ignored, e.g. if a card hand total was 14 then the actual total is 4.

Hand Totals (certain examples are listed):













The way to bet is to bet on whether the "Banker" will win, or the "Player" will win, or there will be a "Tie". It's a little bit complicated for it has to do with "third-card-rules". I'll write about it in later articles.

Brief introduction may never suffice. The best way to learn and understand Baccarat is to play at an online casino. If you are totally new, you can try a "play money" room. It's simple, and simple is the best.

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.

Learning is Winning

The other day, I was caught by a friend who asked me about the ABCs about Texas Hold'em. I was eloquent in explaining to him about poker glossaries, poker hand rankings, so on and so forth. But the cat got my tongue when it turned to bet structure.

The thing is, I can play comfortably in the game, but I took it for granted that I should have known therefore the poker rules and other "small" things.

So I logged into my poker room account, observed every step during the round, and took notes of what I was missing before.

Note 1

First of all, on the table there is a position called "Button". Basically it's the reference subject in the poker game. And this button rotates clockwise after each round of game.

The first player next to the button clockwise chooses to bet the small blind. Small blind is half of the big blind. Don't blame me if I am a little off the subject... For example, Room XYZ 3/6NL: No limit for bets, with 3 as small blind, and 6 as the big blind and minimum bet.

The second player next to the button clockwise chooses the big blind. As soon as he bets the big blind, which equals the minimum bet at one time, the 2 hole cards are dealt.

From the next player to the button, they have the privilege to see their hole cards before they decide to call the bet, raise or fold. So the button always is the last person to act. And he/she can see all other players' moves before making his own decision. So the button has an utmost advantage.

Then the ball rolls to the small blind. He can choose to call the blind, raise or fold, which in his position, would mean the loss of small blind.

Remember it's always the first person next to the button who has the first speak.
I am into my game once again... My hands are hot right now. I'll be inspired to do the teaching another day, I think.

Recommendation for those who know little about side pot

Scenario:

Player 1 goes all in $50
Player 2 calls with $50
Payer 3 sees the $50 and raises player 2 $50
Player 2 calls the raise and this money is put into the side pot
Player 1 has the best hand and wins the pot

Question:

Do player 2 and 3 still compete for the side pot with their hands or since player 1 had the best poker hand does the side pot money just go back to player 2 and 3 evenly.

Answer:

It is a very interesting part of poker rules. The purpose of the side pot is to allow the remaining players in the hand who have money to wager it. This wagering is considered outside of the all-in person's hand. What happens when there is a side pot is that whoever has money invest in that particular pot has a right to win it if their hand is the best. So let's go over some options with the example you gave above.
Player 1 has the best hand - he only gets the main pot since he doesn't have any money in the side pot. Who wins the side pot depends on Player 2 and Player 3 (since it's their money).
Player 2 has the bet hand - he takes everything. Notice he had money in both pots so he was competing in both.
Player 3 has the best hand - same as above, he takes everything.

So the bottom line is that if you have money in a pot you have a chance to win it. If you have three side pots, you could have three different winners. There has to be a winner for each pot, no one gets their money back unless they have the same hand.

Cat Got Your Tongue

Count to three; tell me what's on your mind.
Blackberry, you think of business mobile phone.
Blueberry, maybe it's your favorite savor of ice cream.
Strawberry, you would probably think of chewing gum.
…
Don't get me wrong, I am not into any "rainbow berry". I am talking about instinct and direct association. Next, I would try my experiment deeper and ask a guy, who is totally unaware of my subject. H stands for hint; G stands for guess.

H: Badugi, it's very popular and famous in Korea.
G: Spicy vegetable? Spicy sauce? …
(Click the link to see the right answer yourself, if you choose to skip the following part.)

H: Spade, it's a black spade.
G: Dirty miners underground dig for coal?

H: Heart.
G: Love, a romantic couple in the moonlight.

H: Diamond.
G: Crystal-clear little ring with shining light reflecting in… It hurts eyes.

H: Club.
G: VIP cards, red carpet, massage … Wait a minute. You are talking about the suits of poker cards, aren't you?

Badugi is a kind of poker game which originated from Korea. Poker players draw cards to form their respective hands. It's totally an alien among poker games in respect of poker rules, for the winning laureate goes to the one who has the lowest poker hand.

Korea is also famous for gimchi (spicy cabbages).

About the picture that I copied from a website—I always have a weird thought and uncontrolled fear that the images don't look like they are popping out in 3D but instead sinking into the graphic. In fact, I just can't see through it. Let me know what you see in the comments section.

Crabs Walk Sideways

Everyone is a speck of dust in the universe, and uses his/her whole lifetime to show the shiniest sparkle … We may not strive to be the most perfect man in the world, like Che Guevara. Deep inside, a little voice moans: behave yourself, play by the rule. That makes me in confrontation with Sattre. Back to gaming business. Poker etiquette are not official poker rules that would affect the results of a poker hand necessarily. They are set of "gentlemen rule" set by the house to keep the game friendly, polite, and in general to keep everyone happy.

It is a great practice for those who run house poker games to add some of the following poker etiquette rules to their house poker rules sheet, print it before the game, and make sure all players are aware of them.

Poker Etiquette During Play

Act in turn.
Keep your cards on the poker table at all times.
Act in a timely manner. Don't take too long to make your move.
If you are not in the hand, don't comment: Don't give advice or information to players who are playing. They are supposed to pay attention themselves.
One hand one player: Don't give advice to anyone. Don't pursue them to make any actions. Everyone is grown up enough to make their own decisions.
Keep your large denomination poker chips in front of your stack.
Don't talk on the phone while playing.

Betting

Don't splash the pot.
Don't string raise.

Showdown

Don't expose your cards until the hand is over.
At showdown flip both cards at the same time.
Don't slow roll: Slow rolling is to pretend your hand is not good enough and take a long time to reveal your cards at the end while your hand is really the winner. Do not do it - it is very frustrating.
Don't check down hands: This is a very non-friendly practice, so unless you are in a very large poker tournament stay away from it.

Aware or not, you are helping make a stand for online poker right here, right now. Thanks for the contribution.

Tilting in Poker

Poker tilt is when we do things we normally wouldn't because we are upset or irritated or disappointed for one reason or another. Although we know so many things, having the discipline to apply them every time we play is another matter. We know we shouldn't tilt while playing at a poker table; we know that we should stay focused at the table, but it is not what we know, it is what we do that separates us from the average poker player.

Emotional control is absolutely necessary to succeed in poker. Tilting is bad. Tilting costs us money. We all know this in our heads, but sometimes it is difficult to control. Learning how to control your emotions is probably the most difficult task in poker to master. The main thing to remember when playing online poker is … it is poker. It is a game of skill, but also a game of luck. Sometimes our opponents are going to go into a hand with the worst of it and come out of it with the best of it. If we understand that it is part of the poker game, then it is less likely to bother us. The thing that occasionally puts me on tilt is when I think I played a poker hand incorrectly. Normally when I do this, I have to get up and walk away from the table to clear my head. If that doesn't work, then I have to get up from the game entirely and call it a day.

Under The Hole Card

An Australian poker player has uncovered a $US 10 million cheating scandal at two poker sites and triggered a $US75 million legal claim.

In two separate cases, Michael Josem found that certain player accounts won money at a rate too fast to be legitimate. His findings led to an internal investigation by the parent company that owns both sites. It found rogue employees had defrauded players over three years via a security hole that allowed the cheats to see other player's hole cards.
Now the owners of the sites have filed a $US 75 million claim against the makers of the software that powers them, claiming they were unaware of the security holes when they purchased the sites in 2006.

Suspicions were raised late last year. Josem plotted the cheating accounts played every poker hand as if they knew every card that the other players had and folded hands at just the right time. In fact, the cheats won money at a rate that was 100 times faster than a good poker player could reasonably win. It's totally against poker odds, equal to winning a one-in-a-million lottery on consecutive occasions.

What we know so far is that, as a result of his detective work, Josem has been employed by the leading online poker site, PokerStars, to work on its security team.

ABC of Poker Odds

There are 3 types of odds in poker strategy: hand odds, pot odds, and implied odds.

Hand odds
Hand odds can be defined, in the simplest poker terms, as the odds of making your hand in the remaining cards to come. A simple way to calculate it is to count the number of outs that you have to make your hand. Outs are the number of cards left in the deck that will make or improve the cards that you already have. To work out the odds just subtract the number of outs from the unseen cards to come and the answer will tell you what the odds are for that particular situation.

For example, in Texas Hold'em, where you hold 2 cards to a flush and the flop brings 2 more, so that you have 4 cards to the flush. There are 9 more cards that can complete your hand and there are 47 unseen cards left. If you subtract 9 from 47 this gives you 38. So your odds are 38 to nine, or roughly 4to 1, against making your hand.

You will be most concerned with the odds when you are drawing to a straight or a flush. The easiest way to remember this is that a straight is a 5 to1 underdog when only 1 card is needed to make it, if it is an open ended straight. A flush is a 4 to 1 underdog when only 1 card is needed to complete it.

Pot Odds
You must also compare the odds of making desired poker hand with the odds the pot is offering (pot odds) for the bet that has to be made. If the odds of making your hand are xx/1, is the pot offering those or better odds? If it is then this is a good bet, if not then it is a bad bet.

Another consideration to think about is the chances that you will be beaten even if you make the hand you are drawing for. If this is a possibility then the pot odds have to be greater than the odds of just making your hand to make up for those times you are beaten.

Implied Odds
An important consideration, that you need to look at, is the implied odds that the poker table is giving you. Implied odds are the additional bets that you will collect on later betting rounds if you make your hand. This is mostly a judgment call based on what you know about your competition and how they have been playing the hand so far.

With practice and experience you will be able to estimate what the odds of winning the most from each of your hands are.

Good Luck on your poker journey!

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.

Top 10 Body Language of Poker

1—the Eyes
Eyes rarely lie. This is why many pros wear sunglasses. For example, many players can't help but stare at big hole cards, so their length of time peeking is longer. Conversely, if a player is looking to steal the pot, he may look to his left to see if the remaining players, who haven't yet acted, have quickly glanced at their cards and are likely to fold.

2—Facial Expression

Again, many poker players try to disguise their entire face by wearing a cap and looking downward. Without knowing it, you may have obvious unhappiness in your face when your hand is weak, and conversely, you may show a contrasting show of confidence when your hand is strong.

3—Weak is Strong/Strong is Weak
Basically, players like to be actors. When they have a monster hand they tend to look disinterested. Alternatively, a player increasing the level of his voice while raising the pot, and trying to look intimidating, may be running a bluff.

4—Anxiety
Anxiety typically occurs in people when they are confronted, or anticipating confrontation. Physical changes include flexing of muscles, eye pupil dilation, palpitating heart rate, dry throat. Some of the top players in the game will stare at the vein on the top-side of your face for blood pressure changes.

5—Trembling Hands
Also, a byproduct of anxiety, beware of a player whose hands are shaking, this nervousness can represent a big hand.

6—Glance at Chips
It is common for players to quickly glance at their poker chips if they connect with the board after a Flop. This may be a subconscious reaction, but the tell is that the player is already planning his attack!

7—Peeking Hole Cards on Flop
Some players will take another look at their hole cards when, for example, the board is showing a potential 3 card flush draw. Typically, the player is looking to see if one of his cards is connecting, because he remembers only that the two cards are different suits.

8—Repetitive Betting Patterns
Usually the most revealing poker tells are based on the way a player habitually bets during particular situations. For example, maybe the player always checks when he has made the nuts, or a player may regularly fold after being re-raised.

9—Body Posture/Attitude
Some players show obvious changes in their posture based on their attitude/poker hand strength. For instance, you may notice their shoulders drop/slump when they are not confident (weak hand). Conversely, you may notice the player is very attentive and sitting in an erect position when he has strength. You may also notice that a player who bluffs a lot, leans forward in a confrontational way … remember Strong is Weak!

10—Chip Stacking
When you first sit down at a table, study the way the players stack their chips. Although it is a generalization, loose aggressive players typically maintain unorganized/sloppy stacks, while tight conservative players keep well organized/neat stacks.

P.S.the above tips apply not exclusively to Texas Hold'em.

Against My Will

You know the game called Omaha? Have no idea? It's OK. I can explain it in just a few easy steps (I am assuming you all know its big brother Texas Hold'em).
What you do is get four cards. Doesn't matter much what they are because nobody really looks at them anyway. Next, they put three cards on the board. It doesn't matter what they are because nobody really pays any attention to the flop either. Then one more card for the turn and another one for the river. Same betting scenario as before. Doesn't really matter much what they are, except, for a few of the poker players that may have "cheated" and looked at their hole cards. These players may now fold if they have absolutely no outs. (Mostly bad sports.) Now, at the showdown, everybody turns over their cards and helps the dealer figure out who has the best poker hand. You MUST play two cards out of your hand so this usually takes a while and the winning hand is usually found out after a little bit of searching by all of the players and a partially confused dealer. The dealer now pushes the pot to the wrong player and everybody yells at him and he smiles glibly and says, "Oh yeah, sorry" and then sends it in the right direction. Then, after all of that excitement dies down, everybody lets out a collective sigh of relief and gets ready to wind up and do it all over again.

That's it. Hell of a simple poker game, right? For me, I won't blame if you label it as lame due to my lame introduction.

P.S.
I was bluffed at an online poker room last night. Refused to go in there anymore, at least a week I swear. If there are some unpleasant words mentioned in my article about the poker rules, forgive me. I don't mean it.

Chip off your shoulder

Here is the lesson. You don't know how to flip or stack your poker chips, so what? Having a handful of thumbs doesn't hinder you to be a good poker player. Learn the lesson below:

So you have a pair of Ts. The guy opposite you is wearing a cowboy hat, shades and a month of stubble. You can't see his eyes but you know he's staring into your head. You start to think that inside he's laughing because he knows what you've got, but on the out side he is cold and calculating. You raise and he re-raises, without hesitation. While he watches you sweat he starts to shuffle his chips with one hand, split the single stack into two and reshuffle them again with one hand. He seems to do it so easily and almost without thinking. How does he do that? It's really cool, but intimidating at the same time. I wish I could do that. But the chinking of the chips is getting louder in your ears and you start to question your poker hand. He must be good. Look at the way he shuffles those chips. You fold. He laughs at your weakness with contempt as he starts to take your chips and shows you his 3 8 off suit.

Try to think it another way: Look how quick Chinese people build up their Mahjong piles and his opponents would be more careful when meeting such a guy. Although you may find it doesn't apply to online poker … Anyway, never let this happen to you/again … Try to learn some tricks on Youtube if you like.

Double-edged sword—Dangerous Starting poker hands

What is the most dangerously deceiving starting hand for an amateur player in Texas Hold'em?


Many poker stars would argue that A-Q suited is among the top 10 best poker hands. The first thing to accept is that A-Q suited is not a top 10 hand, but does make it into the top 20. If you played ABC poker by following a chart of hands, A-Q suited (A-Qs) is one you would never play in early position, and would only play in an unraised or unopened pot in middle to late. That explains why it is called as the worst best hand a player can start with.

Personally, I follow the straight-forward poker strategy: Call with a draw hand only when you have the pot odds to justify it. And I learned my lesson from some resources that a tie such as AQ, KQ, and QJ. Those are death hands to be avoided at all costs, especially if your opponent has made any aggressive move pre-flop.

At this point in poker's life, many top players believed that J-T suited was the best starting hand in poker. It was the highest suited connector possible with full straight potential. It doesn't "dead end" on the top end as Q-J would.

After all, every person has his own criteria on how to judge a hand as good or bad. Either you follow the golden poker rules, which is how people do at the table most of times, or you can do things your own way. Nothing is impossible and nothing has extremes. Just be yourself.

Keep your head clear and up

Being on tilt means letting your emotions disrupt your ability to play. All poker players go on tilt at least once during their career, but limiting these episodes is essential to winning at poker. Poker is a game that requires reason and first thing you should be aware of is poker strategy. If you have Qs 10s , and the flop comes Kh Qh Jh, and there is a lot of betting action, you need to know to fold. If you were on tilt, you would let your emotions take control and make you do whatever it took to take down the pot. You would keep chasing, hoping to catch an ace and hoping that no one had a flush.


In general, people who get upset and don't stay focused and reasonable will lose all the money they brought to the table. Poker is almost anti-human in the way it triggers emotions but rewards people who are made of stone. I don't mean to scare you or act as if all poker players are unemotional rocks, but it is imperative to stay focused and rational while at the poker table.

Generally, most players tilt due to a bad beat or if they just can't seem to win a poker hand. Some players have a slight tilt after they win a big hand or two, but those episodes generally are much shorter than tilts caused by losing.

Trivial findings in poker

There is a Rock-Paper-Scissors strategy for poker. It is said to be extremely advanced. You can check it out and share with us later.

Rumors say that dilated pupils tell. So was coined a poker phrase like this: "sunglasses is to poker as steroids is to baseball". I doubt one day in the 22nd century human beings will wear masks while gambling. Thanks to online casinos, this nuisance is kept away.


Phil Hellmuth said, I quote, "pot odds …" "for suckers …"
He is a spoiled brat. Never disrespect the math.

Daniel Negreanu has a reputation as poker's nice guy.

Add fish to your Buddy List. First, you need to have the ability to select them out: read people. Knowing where this guy is from, his poker background, how long he's been playing, who he voted for …With the top 10 poker players in the world, it's 95 percent about the ability to read people and the psychological warfare.

Have you ever been labeled as a calling station, or do you even know that? Use the measure below and see if you qualify as one.
Calling station is a poker term used to negatively describe someone who consistently calls bets and rarely raises, regardless of the strength of his poker hand. Many calling stations can be found on low stakes tables in online poker rooms.

Funny joker—introduction of wild card

Due to personal hobbies, I always look for weird things and exceptions to satisfy my curiosity. Anyway, we are all geeks in some way. And here is what I find in poker game: some card that can be designated as any card you wish. Yes, it’s the "magic" wild card.


In most cases, wild cards are jokers, or they can be any cards agreed upon by the participating players. Poker rules make it clear that there are two kinds of functions for wild cards: "fully wild" cards and the "bug". A card that is fully wild can be designated by its holder as any cards he chooses with no restrictions. Under this rule, for example, a poker hand with a natural pair and a wild card becomes three of a kind. With wild cards in play, the best possible poker hand is a five of a kind. While the more common application of the wild card in casinos is that it plays as a bug, which is given the rank of ace unless designating it as a different card would complete a straight, flush, or straight flush. Under this rule, a hand such as T-T-Joker-7-3 is just a pair of tens (with an ace kicker), but any four same-suit cards with a bug make a flush, and a poker hand such as 8-Joker-6-5-4 makes a straight.

In particular, five-card draw is traditionally played with a joker in California (which plays as a bug), and also plays well with deuces fully wild. Seven-card stud plays well with one or two bugs, especially when played high-low split. Other games such as Texas Hold 'em and Omaha do not play well with wild cards.

Learning in poker

Once at the poker table, you face a lot of choices and have a lot of decisions to make. Believe it or not, my motto of life seems to apply here: live and learn. For your record, selective thinking and learning can help you avoid being sniffed at as a bystander or a follower.

Texas hold'em case study: hole cards are 6s, Ts; flops are 2h, 9s, Jc.

No doubt it's a good start. It leaves us with a great space for imagination (though based on calculation). Listed below are the possibilities (from the best hand to the worst):

1 - Straight flush. You pick up 7s, 8s in the turn and river, Bang!
2 - Flush. Two more spades will suffice.
3 - Straight. From K-straight to J-straight. 7, 8, 9, T, J, Q, K of rainbow, we need the last two cards to be blessed.
4 - Sets, two pairs, one pair, high cards. There is no math involved.

The above is utterly obvious. I can imagine you would use your online poker calculator to figure out the pot odds of catching such hands. Then you are not seeing the whole picture. Remember: diamonds cut diamonds. After you find out at what odds you can form your desired hand and how many poker chips you could throw in the pot accordingly, don't forget to glimpse over to see your opponents' moves. You have your odds and they have theirs. If you don't count them in, then it's a natural thing that a black horse comes out from nowhere, with a poker hand just better than yours. And you can't afford that happens. Of course, if everyone is playing according to the book, you would estimate out what hands they have by calculating on their bet, on the condition you are the last one to call. Since you can't control the game, you must take everything into consideration.

I am always quick to summarize. Skill-wise speaking, I am focusing on POP (pot, odds, and position) here. Maybe I'm not that good at picking up the right words, but my idea is basically there. Now, put out a deck of cards, play your case while thinking a little bit, and you can be a self-made mentor quite soon.