Texas Hold'em
Mood:  energetic
Texas Hold'em is the most popular poker game on the Internet. It is fast, easy to learn, and very exciting. The overview below will provide you with the basics of the game. Participating in play money games is a good way to learn the mechanics of Texas Hold’em, however there is little similarity to the real thing. Playing in real money games on low money tables will give you a more accurate sense of the game. Poker.com offers stakes to accommodate all players, with betting limits as low as five cents for beginners up to $30 - $60 limits for more advanced players. If you are new to the game, joining a ‘no limit’ or ‘pot limit’ table for higher stakes is not recommended until you have more experience, and are comfortable with the game and your betting strategy. In Texas Hold’em, two cards are dealt to the player as pocket cards. These are the cards that you hold and only you can see. Five other cards are dealt open on the table as community cards shared by all players. While the five community cards cannot be picked up (they are not displayed as part of your hand), all players use them to make the best five-card hand. Since there are fewer cards in play, this version of poker allows for a table of up to 10 players. The dealer is identified by a disk called the ‘button’. Every player participating in the game will get a chance to be the dealer as the button moves one space to the left after each hand. The button's position is not simply symbolic. Betting position significantly affects a player's opportunities. BEFORE THE DEAL: Before any cards are dealt, two players must ‘post blinds’ (a forced bet before seeing any cards). The first player to the dealer's left (seat two) is the Small Blind, and must bet half the lower limit of the table (ex: $5 in a $10 - $20 game). Seat three is the Big Blind and must post the full value of the lower limit (ex: $10 in a $10 - $20) game. FIRST BET: After the Blinds have posted their bets, the two pocket cards are dealt clockwise to each player in turn, beginning with the player to the Big Blind's left. Since the Blinds opened with their forced bets, the player to the Big Blind's right (seat four) bets first. ‘Call’ by matching the Big Blind ($10 in our example), ‘Raise’ by kicking in the big limit ($20 in our example), or ‘fold’ if you don’t like your cards. This round of betting is completed when all players have called or folded. THE FLOP: In addition to calling, raising, and folding, you now have the option of ‘checking’ for the rest of the hand. A player who checks at the beginning of a betting interval stays in the game for the moment without making a bet. If all payers check, the betting interval ends. However, if one player bets, the interval continues as usual: all other players (includingg those who have checked) must now call, raise, or fold. With the pocket cards dealt and the first round of betting completed, the first three community cards are dealt and placed in the center of the table. This is called the ‘flop’. After the flop, the betting round begins with the Blinds, or the first remaining seat on the dealer's left. Bets are placed at the lower limit ($10 in our example). THE TURN: A fourth community card is dealt. Betting again begins with the Blinds but all bets and raises are now at the high limit ($20 in our example) for the rest of the hand. THE RIVER: The fifth and final community card is dealt. Bets and raises are all at the high limit ($20 in our example). THE SHOWDOWN: Betting is now complete and the best 5-card hand wins. The computer will automatically create the best possible hand for you from your pocket cards and the five community cards. Any combination of the seven total cards is valid: table cards and pocket cards, or table cards only (ex: if the cards on the table show a Royal Flush, all players share that hand regardless of their pocket cards).

A poker ace'sguide to play a winning career hand
Mood:  caffeinated
After a hard day at the office, Andrew Goetsch likes nothing better than to do battle against wily competitors at a poker table.

While his wife considers the game nothing more than "gambling and luck," he says he's found being a skilled poker player is the best training you can have for the competitive life of the executive suite.

"I've found poker is the same as strategic business negotiation. It teaches you to continually analyze your position and assess your opponents," says Mr. Goetsch, who has finished "in the money" in more than 200 poker tournaments and played in nine World Poker Tours, finishing 83rd out of 452 entrants in the most recent championship in April.

He says his poker skills have served him well over his 20-year career. In fact, Mr. Goetsch, has just been named vice-president of poker by the Toronto-based gaming software company CryptoLogic Inc., where he will use his experience to help develop on-line tournaments the company licences worldwide.

The rest of the story here , click

OPU Approved Poker
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One of the biggest attractions of poker is that you play with other real people……… ……people matching their skills and wits against each other. A real buzz to those of you who prefer that, to playing the odds against the house, as in many other casino games.

You will find a very new and graphic software ……. www.poker.com have developed it themselves using their industry experience and listening and understanding what the players want. www.poker.com have made it easy to download and play………… they make full use of Macromedia's Flash download for great, realistic sound and graphics.

In developing the software themselves they have not only addressed players' desires but created virtual poker rooms and tables with graphic displays of reality……….you can almost smell the beige and the perfumed ladies……..so, dress up in your favourite holey pants, grab a cigar and a coldie and sit your wife/hubby (or whoever) on your knee and get playing.

For new poker players there is the choice of playing for `fun' if you just like the thrill of the game and where no real money is used.

If you wish to get serious and play to win real CASH…… Easy to organise banking: with instant payouts. Netteller, one of the internet's most respected banking facilities, is at your immediate service with an easy user guide, explaining how, and answering questions.

You too may have some input….. . If there is something you would like to say there is a room for that………just write it and send it. It's good to see your ideas being read by others….gives you a kick…..no?…well I wouldn't want to play poker against you then.

Paul Cherry at http://www.poker.com/building-a-poker-table.htm even shows you how to build your own poker table ……..so when you get really good online you can invite your

friends (and enemies) around and fleece them.

Poker.com have a thorough customer service for support, questions and suggestions. Also for reporting any system `bugs' that may come to your attention……….all poker.com's services are available 24/7………. Can't sleep…go and play while.

www.poker.com was voted the best 2004 poker site at http://www.onlinegambling.com/online-gambling-awards.htm in the company of some of the most revered and respected online casino sites.

Freeroll tournaments will be starting soon on www.poker.com . You will be able to enter tournaments at your leisure. Perhaps you have shared in the excitement watching TV poker tournaments…….. well, do it yourself……….the adrenelin will really get moving then.

Bobby Baldwin is an enigma
Mood:  celebratory

Bobby Baldwin is an enigma. A brilliant person, and one of a select group of poker players and gamblers who have bested the competition across the green felt first, and then gone on to succeed in the business world.

Bobby had a typically upper-middle-class childhood in the early 1950's. Nothing in his family history would lead you to assume he would mature into a world-class poker player, but that's just what happened after he got his first taste of the game at the age of twelve in 1963. His opponents at the time, all around the same age, had already learned the game as it was played in their hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Bobby was the rookie, and he lost.

The only remarkable thing about those first few poker games was that Bobby felt the huge rush that most gamblers feel, but didn't push his friends to play at every opportunity. Instead, he took up pool, and by the time he was in high school, there was virtually nobody close to his age that he couldn't beat.

Pool, like poker, seemed to come to him naturally, but that's not to infer he didn't work hard to improve his game. In fact, he spent a great deal of time playing pool, and won a little money along the way. As he improved, he also matured, and to this day, Bobby says, "I don't believe in hustling, in the old-school idea of misrepresenting your talent and then taking advantage of your opponent's misguided idea that they are better than you." In fact, Bobby learned early that most everybody "enjoys a challenge, and a gambler will play you because you are good."

From those early lessons came the belief that you can be a gracious winner, as well as a gracious loser. I've never met a calmer, almost disarmingly congenial person, as Bobby Baldwin. His temperament is legendary in the poker community, and even in the heat of battle, his demeanor is very even. Doyle Brunson, who also has a very even temperament, said of Bobby, "Believe me, for as competitive a person as Bobby, that soothing exterior is a learned trait, nobody is born that good natured."

Baldwin attended Oklahoma State University, and continued playing poker and pool. During his sophomore year, his group of poker buddy's took a trip to Las Vegas. It was 1970, Bobby was nineteen, and he already thought of himself as a gambler. According to Mike Caro and a local newspaper account, Bobby took his entire bankroll of $5,000 to Vegas, and lost it. He managed to get $500 in credit from the Aladdin, then lost $425 of that before going on the dice-roll of a lifetime. Over the next six hours, Bobby won $38,000, but that was just the beginning. By the time he returned home (with a dress box stuffed with his winnings), Bobby had won over $180,000.

He tried to be sensible with his new bankroll, investing some of the money in stocks and using the rest on a second trip to Vegas. He also tried his luck in some local poker games. In less than three months, he was broke. It was a devastating blow, but Bobby was convinced his future was in gambling. He joined the local country club and began cultivating poker clients, and even drove to local towns when he heard there was an especially good game.

While his bankroll improved at poker games, it took a beating when Bobby tried to beat the NFL. He struggled with the ups and downs a gambler endures, married his high school sweetheart, and divorced her less than a year later. According to Bobby, "She never could have withstood the rigors of my lifestyle, she wanted security, and that's not something found with most gamblers."

However, shortly after their marriage dissolved, Bobby met his future bride, Shirley. She was a single mother, and more willing to accept the tough road that Bobby was traveling at the time. Although there were still hard times to come, Bobby was able to settle down with Shirley and her daughter, Staci, as a family.

Over the next two years, Bobby played the Southern Circuit of poker games, learning his trade, and taking the subtle moves he saw from players like Amarillo Slim and Puggy Pearson to heart. He also learned to stop betting on football games after one disastrous weekend at the end of 1973 when he spit 80% of his bankroll between five games and lost them all. Poker would be his ticket for the next 10 years.

Doyle Brunson jokes that he "Couldn't wait to get this new kid, Bobby Baldwin, across the table from me, but before I knew what was happening in our first meeting, I was stuck $40,000." Over the next few years, Doyle was so impressed with Baldwin (who won the WSOP titles in seven-card stud and deuce-to-seven-lowball in 1977), that he asked him to write the "limit hold'em" section of his book, Super System. Bobby was 26 at the time.

By the time the book came out, Bobby had won the 1978 World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in Hold'em Championship. Other poker tournament wins would come Baldwin's way, and praise from the best in the game is still heard. Bobby Hoff, the 1979 WSOP Championship runner-up, and himself an excellent no-limit player, says Baldwin is the "best no-limit player I've ever played with." Bob Ciaffone, who recalls playing regularly with Bobby in Dallas in the mid 1970's, adds, "He's brilliant. A brilliant poker player, very polished, a pure player."

In spite of his poker ability (or because of it), Bobby stunned the poker world when he took a job with Steve Wynn at the Golden Nugget (Las Vegas) in 1982. He revamped the card room, then moved to other projects and was promoted to the position of President of the Golden Nugget in 1984.

Baldwin continues to play in live cash games, often with friends like Doyle Brunson, and Lyle Berman, but has spent the bulk of his time working in the casino and gaming industry.

In 1987, Bobby became President of the new Mirage casino, and then took a similar job ten years later at the Bellagio. After Steve Wynn sold his holdings, Kirk Kirkorian retained Baldwin, making him CEO of Mirage Resorts.

Shirley, Bobby's "gambling woman," and the mother of his children, Staci and BJ, passed away in 1996. He has since remarried, and his new wife, Donna McNeil, and his son BJ, live in Las Vegas. When he has the time, Bobby can be found in some of the biggest games in town, often at the Bellagio. His poker bankroll probably hasn't needed to be "propped-up" for a long time, and his bonus for signing a contract with Kirk Kerkorian in 2000 was over $7 million dollars.

Bobby Baldwin was elected into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2003, securing his legacy as one of the greatest poker players of all time. If someday there is ever a hall of fame for casino executives, Baldwin will no doubt be elected there too. This gracious, southern gentleman, deserves all the praise he has received.

Raising vs. Calling
Mood:  cool
The Poker Column

By Wesley R. Young



Welcome to The Poker Column, a weekly column dedicated to poker. Check back here every week for the latest strategies, tips and information.



Raising vs. Calling



When playing poker we are constantly required to make decisions. Every time we must make a decision, we have a chance to make a mistake. Continuing, most of the money we win at the poker table is the result of our opponent’s mistakes and our ability to take advantage of them. This is why it is important to understand in which situations it is best to raise as opposed to calling.



First, let’s take a look at the positive things a raise can accomplish. Your opponents may fold, awarding you the pot immediately. If you have the best hand, any opponent who calls is making you profit. If you have an average hand and are re-raised, this is an indication that your hand might not be the best hand. This, of course, just gives you information, but poker is a game of information. Now let’s look at each of these as opposed to calling. When you call, you have no chance of winning the pot uncontested, if you have the best hand you are not maximizing your profit, and if your hand is dominated by someone else you have no way of knowing. When you call and the pot is raised behind you, is this an indication of a dominant hand, a good hand or a bluff? If you raise and are re-raised, this is an obvious show of strength.



Here is an example of a situation where it is correct to raise. You are in middle position with Ac 6c and two other players, the big blind and the button, see a flop of Ah 8c 4c. The big blind bets into you. This is clearly a raise situation as you may have the best hand and have a good redraw to the best hand if you are behind. Many players will bet into the field from the blinds if they hit any part of the flop. In addition, your raise may make the pot odds incorrect for the button to remain in the hand if he/she has a draw, and if they fold you have position on the remaining player. If you are re-raised, you will be getting the correct pot odds to draw to your Ace high flush or two pair.



Of course there are also situations when the correct play is to call. For example, you are on the button with Jh Th and see a flop of Ah 9c 8d with four other players. The first person to act bets and two players call. In this situation, a raise will probably not knock anyone out of the pot unless the first player to act re-raises behind you. In addition, you are on a draw to a straight with a backdoor flush possible, which means that you do not have the best hand yet. Remember the three things that are positive that can happen with a raise? If no one is going to fold to your raise, and you don’t have the best hand, you have eliminated two of the three positives. In this situation, there are no other players to act behind you so by just calling you are not only receiving the correct pot odds, you are putting the least amount of money in the pot while maintaining your chance to win.



Once you start to realize when it is advantageous to raise, and combine this aggressive play with tight, quality starting hand requirements, you are well on your way to becoming a consistent winning player.



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