The Poker Lab Rat

Frequently tournament players bet an improper amount and often make the mistake of giving their opponents the correct odds to draw out on them. (In online poker, that’s about the time you get the banter in the chat box about calling with bottom pair…)

When was the last time you witnessed a bet of $300 into a pot of $2,000? I’d think your opponent was hoping to get action with his top pair, but as a seasoned poker player you know he’s making a big mistake. Even with bottom pair, your opponent is being given the right price to draw with five outs. If there’s a straight or a flush possibility, the bet size is way too low to expect a fold from anybody with one of those draws. You want to bet an amount that makes it a mistake for your opponent to call.

I also see inappropriate bets like $3,000 into a $600 pot. By making such a drastic overbet, this player is just guaranteeing that he will not get paid off by a worse hand, but instead get a call by a hand that is beating him. I often see this mistake from players who foolishly limp in with pocket aces. After they receive three or four callers and no one gives them the chance to re-raise pre-flop, they bet huge post-flop thinking “I need to get rid of my opponents now and win the pot before something bad happens”. Unfortunately, something bad has already happened. In this multi-way pot pocket aces aren’t much of a favourite, and after their opponent re-raises they’ll make the mathematically correct all-in call, yet often be behind.

Here’s an example – think what you would bet in this situation:

It’s the first level of a tournament and everyone has $10,000. You raise with KsQs to $300. One opponent makes the call from the button while both blinds fold. With a total of $675 in the pot, the flop comes Qd10s3s. How much would you bet?

Top pair with a good kicker and a flush draw – not a bad flop. I recommend that players bet a fixed percentage of the pot every time they bet. Players ought to have a fixed percentage because too many players tend to have one pattern or another based on the strength of their hand. That % needs to remain consistent to ensure you don’t give anything away based on the size of your bet. Being consistent is the only way to protect yourself in the long run. I’d bet $600.

Betting the pot or close to it is the correct amount to bet. However, if the correct bet is more than a third of either your stack or your opponent’s stack, perhaps going all-in is  better.

Early in a tournament if I flop a pair and flush draw and know that this pot might get very big, I’ll size my initial bet or raise so that I can make the last all-in push. If my opponent has A-Q, it’s a virtual coin flip; and rather than flipping a coin for all the chips, I’d rather get him to fold by re-raising. If he has a set, we aren’t going to get him to fold no matter what we do, but there are plenty of hands like A-Q or K-K where putting enough pressure on our opponents might persuade them to fold. Remember that if our opponent has a hand with which he is really willing to get all his chips in the pot, then he is the favourite in this case. But the majority of the time, our constant pressure will do the trick.

Using this example above, let’s try to incorporate the method I mentioned. There is $675 in the pot, and normally you might bet between $550 and $650, which is a good bet size right now. If your opponent re-raises to $1,500, instead of your normal re-raise to $4,500, you’d push all your chips into the pot (as $4,500 is almost half of your chips anyway). That doesn’t tell him what kind of hand you have, but if I’m you opponent and have A-Q, I’m not going to be happy. At this time I’d rationalize that my opponent should have one pair beat or is holding a big draw. If I’m either a small favourite or way behind, why would I want to call all my chips?

Adjusting the pot size in the example, imagine if there were $2,000 in the pot pre-flop. Remember that we’re trying to be the ones who make the last bet, so our typical $1,800 bet would not work in this case. If we made that bet, our opponents would probably re-raise all –in and we’d be stuck calling since we have too much equity to correctly fold.

Given that this is the case, you might want to make a smaller bet to keep with our goal of making the final push. An unusually small bet, like $500 or $1000, would be ideal since when they re-raise $2000 to $3000 you can push all-in.

In this scenario, you’re giving your opponent a chance to fold a hand like A-Q again. Even holding pocket aces, your opponent might contemplate a fold since the betting has told the story that you might have flopped a set. Your opponent will realize that you will have a strong made hand or a strong draw. He might call, but he isn’t correct to do so.

If you’re a solid player, your opponent is in a tough spot and this is the way good solid players will mix it up. They’ll force the action and jam the pot with strong draws in addition to strong made hands. Even if they get called by a strong hand, they’re in good shape, with lots of outs, to win the pot.

 
>>For other poker tips from professional players check out the pro tips directory at PokerLabRat.com
>>For the latest online poker room reviews, ratings and promotional offers with bonus codes visit PokerLabRat.com

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 One of the most frequent questions I am asked is about how to play hands like middle pairs against a raise. This comes up when someone raises in front of you and you have the choice of flat calling the raise or re-raising with a hand like 10-10 (this comes up whether or not there are any callers in between you and the raiser).

There are arguments for playing it both slow and fast: Some players prefer the call and some prefer the raise. The justifications I hear have to do with risk and trapping and small-pot poker and the like; but in the end, the decision on whether to raise or not really comes down to math and decision making. I personally have no predetermined preference for either play. Instead I look at the specific situation I am in to determine which play is likely to be more profitable and give me fewer headaches – and that’s the choice I make.

So, let’s look at how you make the most profitable mathematical and game-theoretical choice. Suppose you have a single raiser in front of you and you are playing $10/$20 blinds, the raiser makes it $60 to go and you look down at 10-10. You must analyse the math of the call versus the raise. Basically calling will create some problems. Assuming you are against a reasonably aggressive player, you can suppose the player is going to bet at nearly all the flops. Over 50% of the time, the flop is going to have an overcard in it. Now you have gotten yourself into a guessing situation: You aren’t sure whether your 10-10 is good in the face of the jack, queen, king or ace that just fell on the board.

Even worse, if the board does come all undercards to 10-10, you are still in a guessing situation if your opponent puts any amount of pressure on you. You are likely to end up committing a lot of chips in that kind of spot. The only card you can be really happy to see on the flop is a ten – and you are 7.5 to 1 dog to flop a set. Since you are only against one guy at this point, he is going to have to sail off to you for 7.5 times your initial call or $420 bucks just for you to break even to the original call, assuming you break even to all other boards – which might be stretching it since you don’t have the lead.

The take away is that in poker, it is generally a good idea to avoid situations that are likely to present you with headaches down the road. When the overcard flops to your 10-10, you are scratching your head wondering why you played the hand so soft. When the board comes up nine-high and your opponent puts pressure on you, you’re left wondering what on Earth you can beat besides a complete bluff and are in danger of either folding to the worst hand or losing your stack to the best one. Trouble.

But that does not mean that raising is always correct, because raising is not always the most profitable choice. When is it correct? When you believe that you will win the pot over 50% of the time from the moment of the raise. Why? Because in order to justify putting in the extra chips beyond the call, those chips have to be earning and serving a real and describable purpose. Let’s looks at the earn first.

You know that at a minimum you’re going to call with the 10-10. That means that the $60 call is already part of the pot. But now you are considering a raise, trying to decide whether putting the extra chips in the pot will do something good for you. The price you get on the raise will be about even money. With blinds of $10 and $20, the original raise of $60, and your call of $60, you should be raising the pot, which is $150. That means you will be putting in a total of $210 or so ($150 beyond the $60 call you were going to make anyway). So you are risking an extra $150 to win $150. That means your break even point on the raise is 50/50. If you think there is a greater than 50/50 chance that you will win the pot by raising, either right there or down the road, then you should go ahead and make the raise. Mathematically, 50/50 is going to be your break even point (this holds true even if there are other callers in the hand, since you will be raising the pot then as well).

But there are also compelling decision-making and game-theory reasons for choosing the raise instead of the call. First, you can knock out the rest of the field even if your original raiser doesn’t fold. And with a hand like 10-10, which you would really like to win without improvement, narrowing the field is super important. Second, you can take the lead away from the raiser so, when the overcards come, your decision becomes less difficult; since your opponent will check you, you can bet and find out right there where your hand is (you will usually just win it right there). Third, when the raiser does call, you can determine a very, very narrow range of hands he can have. You have much more information about his holdings and that will help you make better decisions after the flop.

Most importantly though, you are avoiding the tougher decisions you will be put to when you leave the lead to the other guy. This means that if you conclude the raise will be profitable, you should generally take that choice to make things easier on yourself. The reason I have no overall preference on the play is that there are lots of games where the raise doesn’t really buy you anything. It doesn’t increase your chances of winning enough. When your opponents are playing loose, they are going to call with too many hands, so you don’t really buy any information. And they are not laying down when they catch part of the flop, so you aren’t buying much of a lead. This kind of game comes up a lot in the early stages of online poker tournaments, for example. In those kinds of games I strongly lead towards the flat call.

Poker is totally situational. Once you understand the implications of the choice you make, like raising or calling, you can adjust your choices effortlessly to the type of game you are in.

For more poker tips from professional players check out the tips directory at PokerLabRat.com

Compare the latest online poker rooms rated for USA residents

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How Good is your Poker? Do you Rate?

Poker is a game with worldwide recognition and a massive field of elite players. A new ranking system, recently introduced at popular Carbon Poker, aims to give players a credible reference on their overall poker skills. The rankings help players to set themselves goals and to monitor play progress better than factors such as “bankroll growth” or “number of hands played” (time-in). It also gives you another statistically based method to “stick it to the little guy” (bragging rights).

This poker ranking system is based on the ELO rating system, a world-class official system popular for ranking international Chess players that has also been adapted for player ratings at some sports. 

The ELO rating system ranks poker players by assigning a base numerical score, with wins and losses adjusting the score as you play. ELO rewards strong play against tough opponents, and penalizes bad play against weak opponents.

This is a long-term fully automated promotion on the Merge Gaming Network (Carbon Poker) and is available to all players.

Here is a typical example provided by by the team at Carbon Poker on how the new player ranking system works:

A player in a bounty tournament with a below-average ELO score may eliminate a player with a high ELO score. Because the high-ranking player is effectively judged as a stronger competitor, the low-ranking player is awarded more points, because they defeated a player far above their determined skill level. Alternatively, If the high-ranking player eliminates a weak player, they will still earn points, but not nearly as many because the ELO system has ranked them as an easy opponent based on their playing history.

For this reason, the ELO system can be used effectively by any player regardless of their time commitment to the game. It rewards quality of play (defeating tough opponents, avoiding eliminations) above quantity of tournaments and number of bounties claimed. While tournament place isn’t a factor in calculating ELO scores, the top players will generally progress to the later stages of the tournament, and therefore this is where all the top points are found.

To rate highly in CarbonPoker.com’s ELO system, you need to perform well with both eliminations and tournament placings. Check out the basics on site at Carbon Poker so you understand the mathematics - e.g. For every 3 consecutive days that a bounty event is not played, players will have their ELO rating decayed by 15 points.

The ELO system works across all Bounty tournaments and Sit n’ Gos, and every player is automatically registered for an ELO score. Play as many or as little Bounty games as you like and track your progress via ‘Player Admin’ throughout each month.

ELO points start at 1500 each month, and the highest ranking players at the end of the month will receive leaderboard prizes of cash and tournament entry coupons as well as player acolades. The counters are reset as each month rolls over.
Check out the Bounty Grand Master promotion at Carbon Poker if you want to know just how good your poker skills are.

For more information on this US-friendly poker site read the latest independent player review for Carbon Poker onsite at PokerLabRat.com.

Know your poker math?

In my opinion the most under utilized form of learning in poker is simple algebra. I’m not talking about anything complicated like Bill Chen’s calculus in his “The Mathematics of Poker” book, but simple eighth grade algebra that you can use in all kinds of poker situations.

Here’s a quick example:
You have a draw. Your opponent bets on the flop, and you think calling is a bad option because you don’t think this particular opponent will pay you off if the draw hits, but he will put you all-in if it doesn’t. Your options are to raise all-in or to fold. There is $150 in the pot, and your opponent bets $100. If you were to move all-in, it would be an additional $200 for your opponent to call. You estimate that you would win approximately a third of the time when you are called.

Q. How often does your opponent need to fold for raising all-in to be better than folding?

Let’s split it up into two situations: x% of the time your opponent will fold, and you will win $250; y% of the time your opponent will call. Of that y%, 2/3 of the time, you will lose your entire stack of $300. The other 1/3 of the time, you will win $450 (your opponent’s stack + the pot).

Your raise equity is x(250) - 2/3(y)(300) + 1/3(y)(450) if you move all-in. That is the same as 250x - 200y + 150y = 250x - 50y. Since x and y add up to 100% of the time. (x = when he folds, y = when he calls), we can say that x+y = 1. That is the same as x=1-y.

So we now substitute for x: 250x-50y = 250(1-y)-50y = 250-250y-50y = 250-300y.

Re= 250-300y. Let’s set Re to 0 to find out when a raise is break even: 0=250-300y. 300y=250; y=250/300=5/6; x=1/6.

That means that if our opponent folds just 1/6th of the time, we have a break even play. Any more than that and we will show a profit. Let’s check our work to make sure it’s right.

So if 1/6 of the time we win 250 and 10/18 of the time [5/6 x 1/3] we lose 300; 5/18 [1/6 x 1/3] we win 450. Let’s see if that adds up to 0.

(1/6)(250) + (10/18)(-300) + (5/18)(450) = 41.667 – 166.667 + 125 = 0. That math is correct.

To some people, that answer may seem extreme. There is enough money in the pot that, with just a 33% chance of winning, our opponent has to fold only 1/6 for an all-in semi bluff to be the correct play.

Generally this math is too complicated to do at the table, but I like to do a simple calculation like this every now and then when I am curious about a situation. The math may seem hard if you haven’t done it in a while, but it’s straight out of your eighth or ninth grad algebra text book.

I figure that if a 14 year old is responsible for knowing this math, a successful professional poker player should be responsible for the same math if he wants to be able to claim that he knows the fundamentals.

Professional Poker player Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo has held sponsorship deals with two top US-friendly online poker rooms: Bodog Poker and Full Tilt Poker.

For more information on these top rating online poker rooms check out PokerLabRat.com for the latest reviews and comparisions.

Justin was the unfortunate pro who got caught with multiple entries and publicly outed for cheating in major online poker tournaments, but he also can claim fame as the youngest player (at that time) to have ever made a televised final table at 19 years, 5 months, and 20 days at the French Open in Deavuille, France, where he finished 4th.

New bill to stop implementation of unworkable UIGEA regulations 

New legislation - H.R.5767 - introduced by House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank and Republican presidential aspirant Ron Paul, if approved, will effectively curtail the further operation of the UIGEA.

According to a statement from Frank and Paul, HR 5767 introduced this week seeks to prohibit the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the Treasury secretary from “proposing, prescribing, or implementing any regulation that requires the financial services industry to identify and block Internet gambling transactions.”

Both Congressmen claim the UIGEA unduly infringes upon personal freedoms. “The ban on Internet gambling infringes upon two freedoms that are important to many Americans: the ability to do with their money as they see fit, and the freedom from government interference with the Internet,” Representative Paul said.

And on the same subject but from a different source, it is great to hear the professional players getting stuck into this crazy political situation:

According to a recent article in April’s Bluff Magazine, four proposed bills are currently “floating through” Congress that could help legitimize online poker in the United States. Howard Lederer (on the board of directors of the Poker Players Alliance) is quoted as saying that he “believes that poker players will get some tangible results by the end of next year”.

Howard Lederer, Chris Fergusson, Barry Greenstein, Chris Moneymaker, Annie Duke, Andy Bloch and Vanessa Rousso were among the top professionals as members of the Poker Players Association, that met individually with about fifty members of Congress.

Roussou is quoted as saying “I found that the majority of Congress people are actually misinformed on what poker is. They see the old image of smokey backroom gambling.”

“When politicians see a losing proposition, they will abandon it”, Lederer said. “Once we accomplish some sort of national regulatory framework for online poker, I don’t think the PPA is going anywhere. You look at the National Rifle Association or Christian Rights groups, and once they have success they don’t just disengage. I would imagine poker players will be active for some time to come.”  (The PPA has a membership over 900,000 members - and you can join too!) 

“The bottom line is if poker isn’t a game of skill then I’ve been getting lucky for 36 years” Robert Williamson III

The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) is an American nonprofit Interest group formed to “to speak with one voice to promote poker, and to protect the players’ rights. The PPA aims to get laws such as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 overturned either through political or judicial means.

If you’re US based and looking for a good safe online poker room, check out the latest comparison of the top poker sites for Americans at PokerLabRat.com. 

You should always adopt a poker table image that’s most comfortable for you. Fine. But I teach that in most games, a quiet conservative image doesn’t extract the most profit. That’s because the biggest mistake most opponents make is that they call too often. And the money that excellent players earn is directly related to this one overwhelming mistake by your opponents.

Sure, you can play against other solid opponents and still win sometimes, because you’ll find weaknesses in their games. Maybe they’re easily bluffable in key situations or maybe they don’t get maximum value from their hands. But when your try to earn a living from other players who are also trying their best to make rational decisions, you’d better be exceptionally talented. And even if you are, I believe you still won’t average as much profit as you would against non-analytical players who simply make too many calls.

That’s why I teach that the biggest secret to winning poker is to create a wild and playful image. You image can even be bizarre, one that encourages opponents to think you’re playing much worse than you really are. That way, they’ll be less likely to exact full advantage when they have you beat, because they’re worried about what you’re going to do next. And, at the same time, they’re going to reward you with even more weak calls than they give other opponents, because you’re fun and playful, and losing against you is less painful.

ONSTAGE
If you’re uncomfortable being onstage, this isn’t the right image for you. There are other demeanours you can bring to the poker table, and I teach these too. But the wild image remains my favourite. It’s a very dangerous image, and you can easily get caught up in the chaos and end up playing a losing game. I know: I’ve done that.

PROBLEM
The problem is something I call FPS (Fancy Play Syndrome). It’s the disease that presents itself when you believe you’re so superior to your opponents that you need to prove it. So, you choose the fanciest and most unusual play, rather than the one that is apt to earn the biggest profit. Beware of FPS! You’re not going to be able to prove you’re the best player in a single session. No matter how good you are, your opponents may never acknowledge that you’re the best. Now, it’s true that the best players might not win the most money. They may be capable of winning the most, but – instead – they choose to play exhibition poker, as I did. They become to poker what the Harlem Globetrotters were to basketball – playing for the show, rather than the points. The Globetrotters still won – and I still won – but not by the big margins I should have!

I’d rip up $100 bills at the table, and sometimes I’d burn them. I did this in bigger games, because it got attention. The first $100 bill burned may have been profitable advertising. It suggested to the opponents that I didn’t care about them money, and made them more likely to call and to make mistakes against me. But I overdid it. Sometimes I’d destroy many hundred dollar bills in one sitting. If you’re in the retail business, it often pays to advertise, but you can buy too many ads and not be able to sell enough merchandise to cover the cost. That’s what I did. Often I made too many bizarre plays and didn’t have enough legitimate hands to sell and overcome the expense.

I remember playing all my hands open heads up – showing them face up on the table – for half an hour. And I’d almost always play like a maniac the first 20 minutes I entered a game. I wanted to establish an early image and then tighten up and reap the profit. I’ve often joked that opponents could have gotten rich just following me around and sitting down for the first 20 minutes wherever I played.

Showmanship can win money. It’s the image I advise for those who have keen psychological skills. But too much showmanship can ruin your bankroll.

Why am I telling you this? Because I do not want other players who follow my advice about poker image to get caught up in the act. Remember, the object isn’t to get attention. Getting attention is only a tool for making money, which is the object.

So advertise, but be stingy with your budget.
MC

You can play the mad genius of poker, Mike Caro, online at DoylesRoom.com Poker.

     Read the latest review of Doyles Room Poker, Doyle Brunson’s own online poker site

Despite financial institutions admitting that implementing measures required under the new American ‘anti online gambling’ legislation are verging on impossible, especially without further definition and clarification, some USA based poker players are still struggling to deposit and cash out from their favorite online poker rooms.

The team at PokerLabRat.com understands that a number of previously viable poker deposit methods such as ePassporte are now no longer options for US players. We have therefore developed a summary of poker deposit options at each of the US Player-friendly poker sites that we review and recommend. It may be of assistance to you when you’re deciding which site to join to build that bankroll!

Carbon Poker
With it’s friendly support team in Australia, Carbon Poker offers a couple of reliable payment methods that may suit you, namely: Fonelinx (pre-paid phonecard poker deposits), eWalletExpress (a US-friendly online wallet) and EcoCard Poker Deposits (another branded e-Wallet that takes US customers). Visa and mastercard deposit options are also available for US Players at Carbon Poker - but it really depends on your bank. Prepaid Visa cards are also a viable option for US online poker deposits if your bank does not play ball and let you use your usual Visa account for poker.

Carbon Poker has a good reputation for efficient, no B.S. processing of cash outs to American poker players. If you’re not a member yet at Carbon Poker, use the bonus code FIRST1K for a 200% to $500 join bonus.

Full Tilt Poker
This serious-money poker room requires some serious-money deposit solutions for its huge contingent of US-based players.

Moneygram is apparently the easiest (and cheapest) way to make large deposits at FullTiltPoker.com. Players just need to set up an account then e-mail the Full Tilt Poker customer suppoert team who’ll send instructions to make each deposit a nice discrete, hassle free transaction. Pre-paid visa cards are recommended by Full Tilt Poker for smaller deposits. If you reference the referral code GOG when you sign-up you’re eligible for the maximum deposit bonus available of $600.

Bodog Poker
Bodog offers an amazing online digital entertainment site specifically targeted at USA residents. Formerly Canadian based, Bodog’s popular sportsbook is focused on US-sports betting, their online poker has $5 Million in guaranteed tournament prizes a month and the Bodog Casino has excellent blackjack, video poker and even some slots worth a look if you’re that way inclined…
 
Deposit Methods at Bodog Poker that work well for US based players include eWalletExpress (an online wallet that takes USA residents) and Instant Check/eCheck (instant bank transfers). Depositing a Check by mail is also an option. Apparently Bodog is currently one of the easiest poker sites (and Sportsbooks and Casinos) for Americans to deposit with and they take cash outs pretty seriously with a great team onboard to process these ASAP. Bodog Poker’s latest bonus for new players is 110% to $550.

For more information on each of these Poker rooms for American players use the links above to visit them directly or:

Read the latest detailed poker room reviews of each of these US-friendly sites: 
>>Review of Carbon Poker
>>Review of Full Tilt Poker
>>Review of Bodog Poker

Compare the US friendly poker rooms on one page here at PokerLabRat.com

It doesn’t get much better in poker than to reach the final table play as the big stack. However, there’s a big difference between coming to the final table with the chip lead and knowing how to use your stack to take control of the final stages of a tournament.

There are many players who don’t slow down once they reach the final table with a big stack – I’m not one of them. By the time I reach the final table I’ll have already played a number of hands against about half of the other remaining players. I’ll have developed reads on their games and they’ll have done the same with me, which makes this a good time to switch gears. If I’ve been hammering away aggressively before the final table, I’ll often slow things down and be much more selective as the final table begins. This way, players might bust themselves against me by over-committing their chips in a spot where they think I’m being a bully although I’ve really got a hand.

Even more important to my success here, however, is that I begin paying very close attention to the size of my opponents’ stacks. I want to know who’s likely to be playing conservatively in order to try and move up a few spots, and who is short stacked and looking to get chips in the middle with any two cards. I’m more likely to play against the conservative players and avoid the gamblers.

Let’s say the majority of the players are sitting on somewhere between 40 and 50 big blinds each, but the short stack only has about 15 big blinds in front of him. He’s going to be looking for any chance he can to double up, which means I’m not going to raise his blinds unless I’m holding a hand that allows me to comfortably call his all-in re-raise. While doubling up the short stack probably doesn’t hurt me in the long run, it’s simply not worth risking chips that I can put to better use against other opponents.

When there’s a logjam of players who all have about equal size stacks, I’m willing to play a fairly wide range of hands against them, so long as I’m in position. For example, say I’m chip leader with about 100 blinds, and a smaller stack with about 40 blinds open-raises for 3 times the big blind. I’ll call this raise from the button or from late position with hands like 4-5 suited, 7-9 suited or J-10 suited if I think I can pick up the pot after the flop.

I know that I’m not often going to flop anything better than a single pair – if I connect at all – when I call with these kinds of hands. Yet I’m still comfortable making this play because I know my opponent will miss often enough that I can steal the pot with a post-flop bet. This is especially true against players who completely shut down their games if they miss the flop, because I can use my big stack to force them to commit a sizeable portion of their stack if they want to contest the pot.

When I do decide to play against the short stacks on the final table, I’m looking to do so from position and with hands that aren’t going to be easily dominated. If I don’t have to worry about someone entering the pot behind me, I’ll play coin flips against the short stack all day long because I know I’ll win enough of these hands over the long run to be profitable.

The times I won’t make this play with my big stack are when I think someone else may try to squeeze me out of the pot by raising all-in behind me, or when doubling up the short stack could drop me from being the chip leader back down to an average sized chip stack. In these cases, I’ll look for better spots and let the shorter stacks fight it out among themselves.

While having a large chip stack is a weapon in itself, you’ll get better results if you know how and when to use your stack to your best advantage. Put your stack to good use and apply pressure in the correct situations, and you’ll turn your chips into something much more valuable when the tournament is over.

Jordon plays poker online at FullTiltPoker.com. Join him at a table some time soon.
Full Tilt Poker accepts players from around the world including the USA. Compare the top US-friendly online poker rooms here at PokerLabRat.com.

A US-based Professional Poker player, Jordan has over $1 million in career earnings including 2 WSOP Final Tables and 8 WSOP cash finishes. (So don’t get sucker in with the “lucky” bit in his online moniker!)

If you’ve always wanted an easy way to relive those poker hands of the past or a more personalised poker experience, check out the latest software release at Doyles Room.

This week popular online poker room, Doyles Room, has upgraded their poker platform with a major revamp. Not just “tweaks” either, this one’s a major coup that in our view positions Doyles Room as one of the very best sites to play poker!

The new feature we like the best is the ability to replay poker hands from your play history. Relive them to analyse, or show off - we don’t care - just check it out.

We also like the new ability to resize and more readily tile tables for multiple table play. Excellent.

Doyles Room also now lets you customize stuff…like, uploading your own avatars, changing the colour of the table felt and even the poker room floor to make a personalized poker room on your own PC.

Other stuff has changed too so check it out.

If you’re already a member at Doyles Room, upgrade to the new poker software by opening your game client and the system will automatically do the rest.

If you’ve not tried Doyles Room poker yet, Download and experience how the game is meant to be played - the software is free.

Mike 

PS: Doyles Room may still not - in your view - offer THE most advanced or even THE BEST PLAY EXPERIENCE on the net, lots of this stuff is subjective - but it is pretty damned good poker software and the 500,000+ active players on the Microgaming Poker Network can’t be all wrong! I personally like what Carbon Poker has going down too…

Doyles Room is a lead member of the Microgaming Poker Network and is endorsed by poker greats like Doyle Brunson and Mike Caro. For more read the latest Doyles Room Poker Review here at PokerLabRat.com.

Poker players from around the world including 39 States of the USA are welcome at Doyles Room