The Poker Lab Rat

New at Betsson Poker - check out this month’s 150% joining bonus! If you’ve wanted a reason to try European style online poker, a bonus to $1500 Free may just be the excuse you need! (Betsson Poker is a leading member of the Ongame Poker Network - NO US PLAYERS)

How do I get this poker bonus? This bonus is ONLY for new customers. The bonus is granted on your very first deposit/transfer to a Betsson poker account. NO DUPLICATE ACCOUNTS!! The Maximum bonus amount is $1500. (You can deposit any amount you wish up to $1000 to get it)

How is the Betsson Poker Bonus released?  You have 60 days to earn 10 player points for every bonus dollar.

…so if I’ve got my calculation right, and you just want a $150 bonus, deposit $100 and play 750 raked hands at $3 rake/hand in 60 days!

How to use the bonus code? (and this bit is IMPORTANT !! ie do not bitch at me when you forfeit your bonus ‘cos you didn’t follow instructions!)

1.  Sign up through any links or banners for Betsson Poker on PokerLabRat.com
2.  Make a first deposit/transfer to poker account
3.  Make sure the bonus offer box is ticked and type in bonus code VIP1500
4.  Complete your transfer  

NOTE: this bonus is on FIRST POKER DEPOSIT-TRANSFER, not on the first deposit to Betsson.

For more about Betsson Poker, check out our latest poker room review on Betsson Poker onsite at PokerLabRat.com here.

** As with any poker site, the rate at which you earn Betsson Poker Play Points depends on the number of raked hands you play and the stakes of the tables at which you play.

Position is crucial in heads-up play. So is aggression and reading your opponent. In fact, playing aggressively in position can often be the deciding factor in whether or not you win the pot. You can have a much worse hand, but if you trust your reads, you can often take the pot with the right board.

PLAYING POSITION
I don’t recommend playing that many raised pots out of position - in other words, don’t call a lot of raises from the big blind. Hands like two face cards, A-8 and up, and pairs are worth re-raising with. Hands like 8-7 suited are fairly worthless because suited connectors like these can be easily dominated by larger hands and lose a lot of their value heads up.

In general, I’m looking for big cards like K-10. Even though these cards are easily dominated in ring games, they play much stronger heads up. If I hit a big pair with cards like these I can feel comfortable going with it, which is something that’s hard to do with middle cards like 6-5.

I’m usually going to do one of two things in the big blind when I’m heads up; fold or re-raise. My standard re-raise is between three and four times my opponent’s bet, and by pumping up the pot pre-flop, I’m making it difficult for my opponent to call me with marginal hands. If he does call, I can always make a post-flop continuation bet or lay down my hand if I’ve missed and my opponent leads out at the pot.

The only time I call out of position is when my opponent plays back at me by moving in a lot. My decision here comes back to paying attention to my opponent’s tendencies and going with my reads.

READING IS FUNDAMENTAL
Reading your opponent becomes even more important in heads-up play. Because your opponent is likely to raise with a much larger range of hands heads up, making reads is much more difficult. Learning to gauge your opponent’s hand requires paying close attention to their patterns. Do they always raise the button? How often do they call your button raises? Do they ever re-raise from the big blind? Asking questions like these helps to narrow down their possibilities.

You have to trust your reads enough to act on them. If you sense strength, are you willing to lay down the second-best hand? If you sense weakness, will you apply the pressure it takes to win the pot?

In my experience in both ring games and heads up, many players try to accumulate chips too quickly. If you just sit back and wait for your opponents to make mistakes, you’ll end up with all of the chips in the end. For instance, you should avoid making pot-sized bets when smaller bets will usually accomplish the same goals with less risk. Sometimes half-pot bets are even too high and betting the minimum is enough to gather the information you need about your opponent’s hand.

This becomes especially true when your opponent becomes short-stacked. In these cases, I will usually limp on the button once they are around the 10 big blind range. If I do raise, I must have a hand I’m willing to go with because my opponent’s only options are folding or pushing. Some people think it’s weak to limp on the button, but I don’t want to keep folding semi-decent hands in this situation. By limping when my opponent is short, they have to decide if they want to gamble with a high-risk/low-reward all-in move to win one of my blinds.

In heads-up tournaments you want to play in position, trust your reads, and play small pots to build a lead. Once you have a 3-1 lead, then you’re looking for hands to gamble with against your opponent’s short stack.

I’ve had a lot of success using these principles in heads-up play; they were instrumental in helping me win the 2007 National Heads-Up Championship. Put these ideas into practice and you may find the extra edge you need the next time you’re playing heads up.

Paul Wasicka

Paul Wasicka finished 2nd in the 2006 WSOP Main Event (and scored a cool $6.1 million for his second-place finish), won the 2007 National Heads-Up Championship and finished 12th in the 2007 Aussie Millions.

Paul Wasicka plays online at Full Tilt Poker. Join him at a table some time soon! US residents can still play online poker at FullTiltPoker.com

>>Check out our directory of pro tips and poker advice from professional players.

Here’s a pro tip from Jamie Gold - 2006 WSOP Champion.

Poker is as much an internal game as it is external competition, and like most sports, it takes more practice and knowing yourself than it does actually playing the game in a professional environment. Before I decided to make the leap to the Bodog Team, I actually played around 40 hours a week all in hopes of learning more about the game, my opponents, but most importantly, myself.

Something that I learned through the many online and actual tables I’ve played at is my own style of play, and I think this has been one of the most important components of being a successful poker player.

Before I even tried to start reading other players and figuring out how everyone else played, I needed to know my own style and how I could benefit from how I play as opposed to playing off everyone else. Poker is a game of control and whoever has the most control throughout the game will usually come out on top. I know there are a lot of other factors in gaining control, but knowing how you play is a great foundation you can build off of.

Generally there are two types of poker styles people play with, that being Tight and Loose. I would define a loose player as someone who is willing to play almost anything just to see the flop. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing because what you are doing is paying to see more cards that could potentially help you. But it also gives the other players at the table an opportunity to figure out how you play. If you play loose and basically buy more cards, you could land something really big, and from there, it’s a completely different game. The consequence of playing loose is that it gets expensive fast.

The other style of play would be Tight, where you would wait for something quite high and then start playing. If you’re a tight player in a game like Texas Holdem, you would usually wait until you are dealt a monster hand, and then make a move. If you aren’t dealt anything worth playing, you would usually just toss the hand and wait for something better. This style can keep you in the game for a long time, but if you don’t make a move eventually, it can hurt you in the long run.

It really doesn’t matter what style you play, but it’s very important that you know how you play. If you aren’t conscious of your own style, it leaves the door wide open for your opponents to figure you out. Probably the biggest benefit of knowing your own style is that you can start to mix it up after a while. Think of it as bluffing your own style, it lessons the chances of your opponents getting a good read on how you play.

-Jamie Gold

Join Jamie online at Bodog Poker. US players welcome too…
Check out the latest review of Bodog Poker here at PokerLabRat.com

In one of the most star-studded final tables of this World Series, Robert Mizrachi outlasted poker legend Doyle Brunson, Patrik Antonius and Rene Mouritsen to secure a gold WSOP bracelet.

As the buy-ins have increased we’ve seen the entry numbers plummet and finally we are getting to see the pros playing at the final tables.

There were just 314 entrants in this field with the $10,000 buy-in obviously having an effect - and that seems to suit the pros just fine.

Poker legend Doyle Brunson finished 6th although in the middle stage of the final table he was poised to take control before twice getting the chips in ahead twice against Antonius… and Brunson took the worst of it both times. 

The final table went three handed for alomst 2 hours before Antonius moved in preflop under blinds pressure with AK82 and Mizrachi called with AA65 which was enough to win.

This gave Mizrachi a 3 to 1 advantage over Mouritsen in heads up play - and the tournament only lasted another 10 hands before the Dane capitulated.

Final Standings and Payouts:
———————————
1. Robert Mizrachi — $768,889
2. Rene Mouritsen — $464,877
3. Patrik Antonius — $311,394
4. Tommy Ly — $209,564
5. Marco Traniello — $156,435
6. Doyle Brunson — $123,967
7. Stephen Ladowsky — $92,975
8. Jonas Flug-Entin — $69,363
9. Steve Sung — $50,177

If you’ve wanted to try out the Microgaming Poker Network - without any risk - and not as part of a freeroll frenzy of freeloaders then here is your opportunity!

A top ranked UK poker room 32Red (named after a roulette sweet spot) has just announced a Friday 13th Cashback Tourney that may be just your thing.

Why not enter the 32Red Poker $13 buy-in $13,000 Guaranteed Cashback Tournament on Friday 13th July - if you fail to get into the money, they’ll give you your buy-in back, which means you can’t possibly lose!

Check out the details of the inaugural 32Red Cashback Tournament…

Name: $13K GTD Cashback
Date: Friday 13th July
Time: 21:00 UK Time
Buy-in: $13 + $0
Tournament Type: Freezeout

Join up and book your seat in this fantastic tournament today - simply log into 32Red Poker and click the Specials Folder within Multi-Table Tournaments - the $13,000 Cashback Tournament can be found under ‘$13K GTD Cashback’.

The latest review of 32Red Poker is onsite at PokerLabRat.com here.

In order to really understand the competitive beauty of poker, you need to accept the fact that a good liar can make a great poker player. Acting like you’ve got something - or pretending like you don’t - can take you a long way in a poker tournament, so becoming an expert in bluffing can almost guarantee at least mild success. Personally I love to bluff; it stirs the pot and keeps people from getting a pinpoint idea of the cards you are playing. If you win a hand or two with a solid bluff and your opponent knows this, you’re letting your opponent know that you are not afraid of losing and that “you won’t be pushed around”.

So what is a bluff? Bluffing is representing what you don’t have, hoping to win a pot you have no business winning. But remember, your bluffs have to make sense. I like to think of bluffing as telling a nice fictional story. As a kid, I’m sure most of you told a little lie or two to avoid a bad situation, and poker essentially works the same way. But also like as a kid, if you bluff too much, you can get yourself in some serious trouble, so be careful.

There are a couple different kinds of bluffs you can use as the game unfolds. There is the obvious cold bluff where you’ve got nothing and you continue to raise the pot to scare everyone else into folding. This type of bluff only works on rank amateurs that don’t understand the finer points of the game. I wouldn’t suggest you try this if you’re sitting with Jamie, Evelyn, David or myself; we will most likely pick you apart.

Bluffing also works well in the complete opposite situation. This is when you’ve got a good hand, but you play as though you’ve got nothing and you’re just waiting for the right cards to come up. Again, this won’t work unless you’ve set up your opponent(s). In this case you want to give your opponent(s) as much confidence as they can handle. This can prompt them into burying themselves by raising you.

The other type of bluff is a semi-bluff. Semi-bluffing is when you represent as if you’ve got something good, when in reality your hand isn’t complete. Most of the time when you semi-bluff, you’ve probably got 8-12 cards that you can definitely win the pot with if you get lucky fishing, but at the moment you’ve got nothing. Hands like these are the ones that make the top aggressive pros so deadly. Yeah, you might get the cards in time, but your opponents are going to put tons of pressure on you, trying to convince you to fold your hand.

Even if you do call with the best hand, you’re only a small favorite to win the pot. This play is extremely strong for a couple reasons. One, your opponent may fold his/her superior hand; or two, you could make your draw and complete your hand. I would typically use this type of bluff when I know my opponent has the ability of laying down a good hand.

Now, I’m not going to get into every single scenario of when you should and shouldn’t bluff, but there are a few things I always keep in mind when bluffing becomes an option. If I have a good read on my opponents and I’ve been playing at the table long enough to recognize that they are conservative, I will bluff a ton because I know my opponents are looking for good hands, not good situations. You have to keep one thing in mind when you bluff. Remember to ask yourself this question, “Does this make sense?” Remember that you are telling a fictional story and if it’s not a good one, it won’t sell. The more believable your bluff is, the more often you will win the pot.

Bluffing these days is much harder than it used to be, so I would suggest keeping your bluffs to a minimum and try to make hands. Players enjoy making the “great call” and, if you develop any kind of loose image, you’re going to get called down in most situations. Good luck at the tables and just make sure that the story you are telling makes sense.

-Josh Arieh

You can play Josh and other top rated professional poker players online at Bodog Poker. Check out our latest review of BodogPoker.com for all the details on this great US friendly online poker room.

David Williams is a damned good poker player. Despite being only 26-year-old, David has earned over $5.5 million in tournament poker winnings. He’s the type of player who has advice worth listening to and in this blog posting he answers some Qs.

What type of approach do you take to big stack poker tournaments do you play a lot of hands?

In big stack tournaments I try to see many flops cheap early on (when the blinds are still very low in relation to the stack size). I don’t try and outplay my opponents as most of them are very weak and I just wait for them to make a mistake.

Let’s say someone bought into 20 tournaments, how many cash finishes out of that number would you consider doing well? Also, what is the usual ratio for you?

The number of cashes is not what I aim for. My style, and the style of many other top tournament poker pros, is “go big or go home”. I take a lot more chances and try and win the tournament instead of hang around and try and cash. I don’t have very many cashes, but when I do cash, it’s big. So my ratio is low, but my payouts are high.

As one of the world’s best poker players when you go places like to the store, mall or even out of state - has poker brought you fame?

I get a medium level of recognition. Most of the time I notice someone giving me a weird look, usually meaning they recognize me but they aren’t sure where from. Living in Vegas does increase the amount of recognition, because there are lots of gamblers in this city.

How do you handle a maniac to your right who repeatedly raises into you?

I sit patiently and wait for premium hands and punish them with position. This is a great situation to be in, because most of the time when you reraise them with a big hand they can’t call and you pick up valuable chips.

Sometimes the pros can misread the other players at the table. On T.V. they just show the good reads, I was wondering at a typical tourney, what is the percent of good reads vs. bad reads?

It is hard to put a quantity on something like this because it’s not a stat I keep track of, but I would guess most of the world class pros are correct about 90% of the time. They may miss some big ones but there are many small reads going on in most hands being played.

I know I’m a good poker player but one of my biggest fears of playing in a live tournament (like the WSOP or WPT, etc.) is first of course the money and secondly is that I actually play in one and not walk away with any cash to pay my bills or anything else. So how did you start out? Did you have anyone help you out? Maybe you have some pointers or advice for me?

I started out eight years ago playing small limit hold’em games. I grinded it out daily and slowly until I felt I had the confidence to play in big tournaments. Then I didn’t directly buy in. I played in satellites with a small percentage of my bank roll to keep me from going broke. The best way to get in the large live tournaments is to play small satellites online like the ones on Bodog.com. They are also a good way to gauge your tournament strength. Usually, if you can’t win a seat in a satellite, you aren’t ready for the big leagues. It takes time and patience.

You can play David Williams online at US friendly Bodog Poker.

Check out our latest review of Bodog online card room.

Harrah’s has just announced that there will be four day ones this year for the Main Event.

There appear to be so many participants willing to pay the $10,000 entry feee in order to say that they’ve participated in the main event at the World Serie Of Poker.

So, players will now have a choice of day 1A (July 6th), 1B (July 7th), 1C (July 8th), and now, 1D (July 9th) - as July 9th was previously marked as a day off for the Main Event.

There will be two Day Twos, and the rest of the event will play down as previously scheduled.

This gives Harrah’s the ability to seat as many as 11,000+ players in the Main Event, though very few of those in the industry believe the actual number will get that high.

We’ll have to wait until July 6th to find out.