Top Pair – Top Kicker
Top Pair-Top Kicker is the name given to a specific hand in poker. The ultimate example would be holding [Ad] [Kd] on a [Ah] [4c] [8d] flop. You have the top pair (a pair of aces) with the best kicker (the king). A kicker refers to the second card you hold in your hand, and its purpose comes into use should you tie at showdown. Imagine the board runs out [Ah] [4c] [8d] [Js] [2c] with you holding [Ad] [Kd] and your opponent holds [Ac] [Qs]. You both have top pair (a pair of aces) but you win the hand with your higher kicker (king over queen).
So how do you play top pair-top kicker type hands?
When you are the pre flop raiser, in amateur or wold series of poker games, then life is pretty straightforward. You play your hand strong and fast, trying to extract value from weaker hands. You slow down your pace only when you believe your opponent could be slow playing an over pair or you face a raise.
If you are not the pre flop raiser then things get a lot trickier. Against most opponents check calling is the right strategy and in fact against some aggressive opponents you could check-call all three streets including a river shove. For this to be a good play you need to have history and a good understanding of your opponent’s game.
If you are missing this type of information then be careful with top pair-top kicker. When you boil it down it is only one pair. So take note of the flop texture because having top pair-top kicker on a rainbow flop is a lot different than having the same hand on a wet coordinated flop.
Mathew Frankland Secures a $125,000 Premier League V Seat
The arguments of who is the best, pound for pound, poker player in the world always rage long and hard. The problem with the game of poker is the difficulty in choosing a format where the luck can be taken out of the game, and merit be awarded in terms of skill. In the game of soccer it is highly regarded that the greatest team in each country is the one that wins the league.
This is what makes the Premier League one of the most exciting events of the poker calendar. Not only is the buy-in huge ($125,000 seat) but also the line up possesses the world’s top players. This year the Premier League will host luminaries such as Tony G, Andy Frankenberger, Erik Seidel, Luke Schwartz, Phil Laak, Eugene Katchalov, Tom Dwan, Sam Trickett, Dan Cates, Patrik Antonius, Vanessa Selbst, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, ElkY and Scott Seive; the list goes on and every single one of those players would do exceptionally well at http://poker.betfair.com/en/.
To give the Premier League an underdog feel to it there are two spots for qualifiers to walk into, and Mathew Frankland has filled the first one. Frankland qualified for the qualifier, playing in a $700 satellite, and he has since turned it into a $125,000 seat in the Premier League. Frankland, who is currently ranked 44th in the online world, managed to defeat players of the ilk of Andrew Feldman, Antony Lellouche, Giovanni Rizzo and Bodo Szbresny to take his seat where he will now play against Dwan for the chance to win a $500,000 first prize.
For those wanting to train up at Poker, Betfair is offering new incentives for potential poker players to enter the field at http://poker.betfair.com/en/promotions/choose_your_own_sign_up_bonus.php
Is It The End for The Epic Poker League?
The Epic Poker League has always had its critics, but when it kicked off in earnest, the players seemed to like what they were experiencing. For the players things couldn’t get any rosier. They received free accommodation, free food and reduced juice so everything was rosy in the players garden. But while all of this was great news for the players a lot of people were mystified as to where the money was coming from to pay for it all. Jeffrey Pollak and Annie Duke had a dream and had started to turn it into a reality but how long could it last? Especially as there are other things such as the World Series of Poker around.
Federated Sports + Gaming recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. While this is not an official tombstone, players and the media are already saying that there will be no more action coming out of the Epic Poker League. So far Duke and Pollack have not said, if or when, Event 4 and the Season One Championship will take place, and it is this band of silence that is prompting the behind the scenes chatter. People playing poker online will be wondering what is happening.
The theory behind the Epic Poker League made sense. They were trying to put together a group of the very best players in the world and pit them against each other on the felt. Poker people want poker to get bigger. They want and need more exposure and in order to do that they need final tables housing the very best in the business.
Epic Poker tried to bring together all of the ingredients to make poker huge. Maybe it is happy staying as it is?
Online MTT Poker – The Early Stages
The online environment is a great way of learning how to play tournament poker. Money is not a concern as you can play for free, a few bucks or the biggest buy-in games there are to offer. You even have the opportunity to play in the biggest games for free, courtesy of the satellite structure.
When you play in these events you need to understand that different stakes equates to different strategies. This is because the player pool at the higher stakes contains more quality that the tournaments where you can play for a few bucks. But despite this advice there is a basic framework to follow and it even works in WSOP Tournaments.
Unless you are playing in one of the newer hyper-turbo tournaments (where you can often start with stacks of 10BB) you will be starting a tournament with a sufficiently deep stack (100BB+). As your stack is so deep in relation to the size of the blinds, then there is relatively little reason to get too involved in the action without the goods. Fans of Betfair should remember this.
So a good rule of thumb when playing the early stages is to play a solid pre flop game. Understand that a lot of weak players are going to want to play multi way pots with you. It is great to play against weaker players but you will find that you often need to hit the board and hit it hard. After all, you cannot bluff a bad player. So play a tight pre flop strategy and this includes very little three-betting and no bluffing.
So in the early stages of a tournament sit tight and make the most of your opponent’s mistakes.
Mickey Petersen Wins EPT Copenhagen
The European Poker Tour (EPT) Scandinavian leg, held in Copenhagen, is one of the world’s toughest events. Maybe this is why Day 1 only attracted a miniscule 83 players? One man who was not afraid of the competition was the American journeyman Steve O’Dwyer who topped the small Day 1a field with 190.975 chips.
Day 1b saw the numbers increase, with 216 players passing through the gate. So a field of 299 would battle it out for the toughest EPT title there is. By the end of time, a new Day 2 field size of 179 players was created and Mads Wissing’s Day 1b lead was not enough to remove O’Dwyer from the top of the chip counts, giving the American a lead going into Day 2. http://poker.betfair.com/en/promotions/choose_your_own_sign_up_bonus.php
One American started the day as the chip leader but another one ended it. Steve O’Dwyer passing the baton onto to Melanie Weisner as the online heads up specialist finished Day 2 as the chip leader with 368,200 chips and 72 players remained. http://poker.betfair.com/en/
Day 3 saw the emergence of one of poker’s more mature students. The 69-year old Belgian Pierre Neuville, proving that age is no barrier to success in poker as he led the final 24 players moving into Day 4 with 780,550 chips. The countdown to the final table was completed when Aage Ravn snatched a dominating chip lead heading into the final table.
But it was not to be Ravn’s title and instead it became a battle of young versus old as Mickey Petersen defeated Neuville in a titanic heads up battle, lasting over six-hours, to win his first major live title.
Matt Juttelstad Wins WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open
While many people around the world were celebrating Valentines Day with loved ones, 295 players decided to celebrate it by playing in the World Poker Tour (WPT), Lucky Hearts Poker Open, in the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Hollywood, Florida.
The WPT flexed its muscles by once again operating two separate tournaments simultaneously on opposite sides of the planet. While Rinat Bogdanov was joining the prestigious WPT Champions Club, by lifting the WPT Venice Grand Prix title, Matt Juttelstad was doing likewise in Hollywood. http://betting.betfair.com/poker/
The $268,444 that Juttelstad earned for his first place finish was by far his biggest achievement to date, and the next time he plays in a WPT event, it will be as a fully-fledged member of the elite WPT Champions Club.
27-players made it into the money and US players predictably dominated the payouts. The more notable names to take home some bacon were Christian Harder (13th place for $11,505) and Noah Schwartz (18th place for $10,067).
Juttelstad was on a yearlong hiatus from poker when he decided to throw his hat into the ring at the last minute. He was in the area for his interview at Florida Atlantic University when he decided to trump up the $3,500 entry fee – what a wise decision! Anyone looking for Betfair Promo Code will have been impressed.
The event was a re-entry event and it contributed to a $958,750 prize pool. In fact the eventual winner himself busted from Day 1A and was able to re-renter on Day 1B after his university interview finished earlier than expected.
The final table places were 1st Matt Juttelstad ($268,444), 2nd Gigi Gagne ($158,194), 3rd Uri Kadosh ($105,463), 4th Sharon Levin ($73,344), 5th Todd Jacobson ($54,649) & 6th Keith Ferrera ($42,185).
Stealing The Blinds From The Cutoff
The cutoff is the first spot where you can start stealing the blinds. You only have the player on the button to get through and if the blinds do call you are playing post flop from a positional advantage. There are a number of factors to consider when trying to steal the blinds from the cutoff.
The player seated on the button is the only person between you and the blinds. He is also the only player who can gain positional advantage over you, so you need to make sure you understand his or her tendencies very well. There are two tendencies that are very important and you will see them at the World Series of poker 2012.
The first is the button’s three-bet frequency, if they are three-betting you a lot then you need to reduce your stealing frequency accordingly. The next consideration is how often the button cold calls. If there is a big gap between the players VPIP (Voluntarily Put Into Pot) and the PFR (Pre Flop Raise) then the player is more likely to call and play post flop from position. With these types of players it is advisable to reduce your stealing range. http://betting.betfair.com/poker/
When analysing players in the blinds you are primarily interested in their fold to steal frequency. A good rule of thumb is to examine the fold to steal % of both the small blind and the big blind and if they both add up to a total of 160% then you can open up as if playing from the button as long as the button is not three-betting you or cold calling you light.
Vadzim Kursevich Wins EPT Deauville
Each year the European Poker Tour (EPT) hauls its huge circus into the town of Deauville in the north of France. For many professional poker players this particular stop is one of their favourites because of the large quantities of French fish.
889 players, including the likes of Scotty Nguyen, Viktor “Isildur1” Blom, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Liv Boeree, Vanessa Rousso and Eugene Katchalov all made the trip, but it was an unfamiliar name who shipped the $1,150,756 first prize and the EPT title. Those who play Betfair free poker will have been surprised.
The title went to Vadim Kursevich and maybe the signs were there that something special was going to happen to the man from Belarus. Just last year he finished in 3rd place at EPT Berlin for $426,961 before following that up with a 28th place finish at EPT Barcelona for $25,932 and then taking 3rd in the €5k PLO side event at WPT Paris for $96,753. Fans of Betfair Omaha Poker will hope they can one day reach these heights.
As the final table started Paul Guichard was the chip leader but Kursevich doubled through him with ace-king versus ace-queen early doors to hand Kursevich 7 million chips. The Irishman Mick Graydon was the first player eliminated before one of the most successful EPT players of all time – if not the most successful – Luca Pagano was eliminated in 7th place.
It was Vuong Than Trong who busted Pagano and for a long while he was neck and neck with Kursevich at the top of the table courtesy of a second elimination after disposing of Bruno Jais. Then after the dinner break Trong four bet shoved ace-queen all-in versus Kursevich when he was holding pocket kings and the Belarussian just marched on towards the title from that moment.
The Oceans Are Being Sucked Dry
The over fishing of our world’s oceans is now becoming a major problem. As the world population grows so does our requirement to eat. Soon enough we have a supply and demand problem when it comes to the food that Jesus Christ and his disciples used to like to eat with a spot of wine.
So many people talk about the parallel lines that exist between life and poker, so it should come as no surprise that they both share a common denominator when talk about fish surfaces. You see, as the world’s oceans are running out of fish so are the poker tables that are gathering screen dust in cyber space. People looking at Betfair poker promotions should remember this.
In a game that is becoming increasingly more competitive and difficult to gain an edge, the players who make their living from the game are doing everything in their power to gain the slightest of advantages. There are various ways a player can approach this problem and one of them is to ensure that they have an excellent strategy for game selection. Fans playing Betfair poker online should remember this.
Players who game select very well are called bum hunters and are generally frowned upon in the game of poker. Strange that an effective strategy should be frowned upon but it is. So why is it frowned upon? Basically, bum hunting takes the fun out of the game. Players are so scared to play against players of equal parity that the games simply dry up. It has even got to the point that regulars sit out of hands that fish are not playing in and then jump back in when the fish returns.
Imagine being the fish in this situation? How long will they put up with the humiliation? How long before our online poker oceans are sucked dry?
Poker: A Game of Patience
Poker is a magical game of emotional and mental intelligence. It is so magical that it can often sell the viewer a mirage. Its capacity to offer up the grandest of illusions is what makes the game one of the most captivating the world over.
We are talking about the illusion of action. If you were an invader from outer space, sent to earth to collate data on our card games, you could be forgiven for writing up a report about our all-action card game called poker online. This is because the untrained naked and temporary eye is fooled by the elegance of the game.
The magic behind the illusion lies in the action itself. The viewer can see a player participating in every hand and driving action like a sheepdog drives herds of sheep. Every possible hand combination is being turned over and money is being shovelled over to the gentlemen by the use of a bucket. This illusion is so powerful that the owner of the bucket believes it himself. But don’t be fooled. The owner of the bucket will soon be the owner of fresh air as slowly but surely he will lose all of his money. Where will it go? Why to the patient players of course, something those looking for poker tipps should bear in mind.
The patient player realise that he will be dealt more worse hands than good hands, that his cold streaks will outnumber is hot streaks and his losses will outnumber his wins. The patient player remain calm and will spend most of his time folding. In fact he fold’s more times than a person working in a birthday card shop.
Until a player masters the art of folding and therefore the art of patience, he will continue to be fooled be the illusion and he will continue to lose money.
