Poker rules directory

Trolling through YouTube as one does…  I came across this old clip of a great poker hand played by Doyle Brunson and Guy Laliberte.   Now for those of you that dont know, Guy started Cirque du Soleil, one of the most famous circus shows in the world.  Guy enjoys his poker and played on High Stakes Poker – Season 4.

If you watched the latest episodes of High Stakes Poker, it was commented that Doyle played small-ball poker – even Doyle joked about it!  But I can tell you there is nothing small ball about this hand…

Guy tries to bully Brunson off the pot, but give Doyle his due he sticks to his guns and calls him – What a call!!  Laliberte is worth a bit, so even though this huge pot has to hurt, he’s well bankrolled and takes it well.  Take a look…

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There are a total of 57 bracelets up for grabs at this year’s 2009 World Series of Poker events.  We are probably about half way into the series of poker tournaments and the action is hotting up.  Some new names in amongst the old winners… I see Phil Ivey won his seventh WSOP bracelet the other day… not bad!

There is no shortage of poker competition, as I write this post there are 6 tournaments that are live right now.  Something for everyone, no matter what your strengths are – No limit hold’em, pot limit omaha, HORSE, plenty to choose from.

On Sunday, Roland de Wolfe won his first WSOP bracelet in event 27 – Pot Limit Omaha.  He has now become only the second player ever to win EPT, WPT and WSOP titles – otherwise known as the Triple crown.  Well done de Wolfe, way to go!!

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I am a regular reader of CardPlayer magazine.  Bob Ciaffone’s article is excellent, “What Poker Has Taught Me About Life”.  There’s a lot of truth in there!

Playing poker allows you to meet all kinds of people from the good, to the bad and ugly… Bob’s first point about there being some good in all people even the bad ones, and some bad even in the good people, is very apt indeed.

As you become more experienced in life, you start to become more circumspect about people and I suppose more cautious.  You also just end up accepting a lot and realizing that humans are complex and capable of anything, despite portraying a good image!

Poker teaches you to be very observant of people and their ways, this helps you understand people better.  We learn life lessons the hard way usually, as we go through life.  I often wonder if schools shouldn’t teach young people how to cope in this world, give them some life lessons on how to survive.

Perhaps then we might have more balanced individuals out there in this world.  Poker certainly allows you to meet different people and teaches you how to interact with them.

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Been watching “Poker after dark”, the last few episodes of the Bash Helmuth cash game.  Interesting to watch Helmuth and Dwan matched against each other.  Helmuth seems very reserved and doesn’t get up to any of his usual antics!

Phil Laak feels the pressure a bit, he calls against Bob Safai when maybe he should have let it go, costs him!  Dwan’s aggressive play really seems to force the others to play poker out of their confort zone.  Laak doesn’t even realize that he has managed to beat Dwan with his bottom pair… defend and hold on against Durrrr is what they say…

And then Phil Helmuth makes a comeback with his Ace, seven – which seems to give him some confidence, can he come out of his shell?  Who would think The Poker Brat would be so quiet and well behaved?

All the players respected it, except Tom Dwan… now how does that surprise anyone???  Although he is very sharp and also knows when to get out of a hand.  Very interesting to hear what the players have to say in between play.

And then there’s the round table discussion at the end where they all talk about how they played…

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Usually when I decide to bluff I have thought about it for a while and set up the bluff, but then again I always have something to work with so that I hope to get lucky on the flop, turn or river.  Semi-bluffing is always the best way to go in the art of bluffing, because if they figure that you like to bluff with air, then it makes it more difficult to pull off a bluff.

Anyway I am losing myself here in how to bluff at poker, which is not really where I wanted to go.  Most of the time when you make a good poker bluff, the other poker players back off because of your aggressive betting.  But once in a while, two of you try to bluff at once and this is what happened to me earlier this week playing online poker.

Both of us went head to head, trying to out bluff each other with nothing but air… until one pulled out.  I felt committed, was deeper stacked and am feeling very invincible after my break so I just kept bullying him until he backed down.  Got off lucky because a better player may have called me.  He let on what he had, I think because he wanted me know that he was bluffing and it was nothing, wanted me to know that he was capable of bluffing, not sure why…

I ended up with a queen high, thats all and took down a tidy pot… lucky to get away with it this time.

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You maybe wondering where I’ve been and why no posts for a while.  Well took a two week break from my blog and from playing poker.  Nice break.  Was good to just get away.  I was getting a bit stale and tired of it all.  Hung my poker boots up for a bit and stayed under cover.

I see Dwan and Hansen have been exchanging blows online at Full Tilt.  Looks like Dwan has come out on top taking down more pots than Hansen… ouch!  The Durrrr man really rides his luck though, phew he pushes the limits and rides his luck right on the edge.

Anyone know whats happening in the Durrrr Challenge?  Must say I have completely lost interest, its too slow and there is lots of high quality, entertaining, alternative poker to watch.

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I got asked the other day, “what is a continuation bet?”

And judging by some of the discussion that followed there was quite a different idea about what this type of bet was.  It is simply a bet that you make, continuing on from your pre-flop aggressive bet and its purpose is to scare off anyone who is just hanging around, checking and waiting to see the turn card.   Usually I would make it about half the size of the pot, enough to make people think twice about staying in the hand and also not too much that if you lose, it doesn’t cost you too much.

Of course it depends on how confident you are of winning, you could vary the size of the continuation bet relative to the pot size.

Try it next time you are playing poker, or if you are not into all this strategy stuff then stick to your tried and tested online casino games.

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Went off to see “Slum Dog Millionaire” last night, had to do my dutiful bit, tow the line and do as I was told for one evening… suppose a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do… you can’t gamble every evening… everyone needs a rest sometime!  There’s been so much fuss about this movie and all the awards it has won, so it was time to see it.

Normally of course I would have snuck off to my den, tail between my legs… and logged on to my online casinos… but not tonight, the bi ch got hold of me dragged me out to the movies… that’s the life of a modern man in the 21st Century… we just do as we are told… its a dogs life…

To be honest, Slum dog millionaire was actually quite entertaining, it had a little bit of everything, love, hardship, hope, fame… the characters were brilliantly chosen and the shots of India were fantastic!  It deserved to get the Oscar awards and at the end of the movie you come away with a real “feel good” feeling.  Something different from all the usual dribble that is on the circuit.

So really, I didnt mind going to the movies and I take back everything that I said earlier… sorry dear… yes I will cook supper tonight and I will wash the dishes… after seeing the way the “gangster” character behaved in the movie and the way he treated everyone… I feel a bit bad about what I said earlier… sorry dear… tail between the legs again… I know my place in this life, I’m just a Slum dog and certainly not a millionaire yet!

Working on it though!

And the music was very cool, hardly anyone got up at the end of the movie because they were all looking at the music video and listening to the music!

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So be honest, did you get caught out on April Fools day?

The best time is early in the morning to catch everyone before they have all woken up to the fact that it is 1 April.  A couple of people got caught out early this morning, but since then the jokes have fallen a bit flat because everyone is alert and ready.  Really funny watching them get all worked up about something so stupid and then suddenly realizing… hold on a moment something aint right… oh no… damn!

Did you catch anyone?

Let me know if you got any good April Fools jokes to play on people.  I need some good ideas to play on my poker friends next year.

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If you don’t know much about five-card stud poker, it is an easy poker version to learn, you just need to grasp some of the subtle poker rules of each of the poker 5-card stud variants.  As in the other types of poker games, in a five-card stud poker game, all players bet.  Each player is dealt two cards, one card is face up and the other is face down.  Usually, the person with the lowest exposed card has to place a small bet.

The third card is dealt face up and then a round of betting starts – the player with the best-exposed hand starts with the first bet.  The fourth card is then dealt, again it is face up.  Subsequently, the fifth and final card is dealt with its face down, again followed up by a round of betting.  However, some people play with the fifth card dealt face up to each player, so each player is left with only one card in the hole.

Soko

Soko is a poker game, which is played exactly like a 5-card stud game, except a 4 flush and a 4 straight are treated as hands.  For instance, a hand such as 1234Q is not queen high, but will be considered a 4 straight.  In soko, a 4 straight and a 4 flush are stronger than a pair but not a two pair.

Therefore, the new rank of hands will be:

• Straight flush
• Four of a kind
• Full house
• Flush
• Straight
• Three of a kind
• Two pair
• Four flush
• Four Straight
• Pair
• High card

Satan

Satan is recognized as one of the poker 5-card stud variants with these extra features: pot-limit betting, high-low split the pot, last card being dealt up, and bet and show.

Best Flush

This online poker game is usually played as a type of a 5-card stud.  The hand hierarchy is with a Straight Flush on the top, 5-Card Flush second, followed up by 4-Card Flush, 3-Card Flush and 2-Card Flush.  The ties are broken first by the rank of the cards in the flush,  and thereafter by the rank of the cards in the hand.

Studded Guts High or Low

This game consists of a maximum of 6 players.  All of them ante, as in all poker games, except the dummy. Each player gets dealt 5 cards in succession, two cards face up, and three face down, including the dummy as well.  This is followed with a round of betting; after each face up card and the last down card – you must beat the dummy and/or any other player to win.

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