So what advice changes? And what tips stay the same?

Let’s start with the basics of the situation: When you’re at a table with loose callers, that means:

• More people will call your raises preflop
• More people will continue on the flop against a bet with marginal holdings
• The larger pot will draw in more weak hands on all streets
• The hand is far more likely to go to showdown than a heads up hand

Keeping those four axioms in mind, our strategic adjustment becomes clear – raise with far fewer hands that need to bluff or semi-bluff post-flop to show a profit overall.  That means just limping behind with small pairs and other speculative hands.  It also means that big cards – especially suited and connected big cards – go way up in value.

Bluffing just doesn’t work against calling stations.  That means you just have to fold those speculative hands when you miss, which will be far more often than not.   Problem is, many players feel compelled to keep firing after they raise preflop – and those players are the ones who will empty their stack trying to get a loose-passive player to fold middle pair on a rag board and then shake their head in disgust while they reload.

So if you can’t play speculative hands, you’re left with the hands that will really do well against loose players: Big cards, especially suited and connected big cards.

Why?  Because of the value you can extract from calling stations who make the second best hand with pairs involving broadway cards and weak kickers, along with other set ups like flush over flush and straight over straight.  These are the ways that you make the most money from calling stations – by getting them to showdown with the second-best hand.

Poker portal BestPokerSite.org came out with a new set of rules and tips designed to help online poker players select the EWallet that best fits their needs today.

There are a bunch of different EWallets available for players to choose from today, but the problem that many players face is knowing the ones that work best for them specifically as a poker player. Certain nations may be better off with particular EWallets, but those Ewallets may not be compatible with very many online poker rooms – even some of the rooms that you’ll find on best poker site lists –  leaving them with plenty of money online to play poker with, but no online poker site available to take said money from their EWallet account. Having a list of accepted EWallets for all major sites at hand on one page would make the life of your average online poker player much, much simpler in the long run.

Luckily, BestPokerSite.org is on your side when it comes to simplifying the EWallet search. On their list of the best online poker sites for your money, the reviews of each individual site all come with banking information that lists every available method of deposit that a site allows, which includes all the EWallets that it allows, as well. NetTeller, Moneybookers, PayPal, and others are all listed and shown for sites that they’re compatible with, making it easier than ever to find out which of the EWallets you’re considering choosing will be accessible with the sites you’re hoping to play on in the future.

About BestPokerSite

BestPokerSite.org is the place for finding the perfect EWallet for your online poker playing needs.  Along with the EWallet information, BestPokerSite.org also gives you detailed site reviews, bonus codes to help boost your profits at each site, and a seperate section for US players still looking for their online poker fix in the wake of Black Friday.

PRESS RELEASE –  Media Contact: Editor /  http://www.bestpokersite.org/
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Learn more about common tells from one of the best poker players in history:

Consider Online Poker

While there are still tells in online poker, they are much easier to control that the reflexive, deep-seated tells that can wreak havoc with your live poker game.  Online poker can be intimidating in its own right, but sites like this one make finding a safe and entertaining room a relatively easy process.
 
Have a Friend Play With You
 
If you don’t even know what it is you’re doing, how do you correct the behavior?  One good way to find your weak spots is to have a friend play with you.  Your friend can observe your behavior to help you identify and move past it and you can do the same for your friend.
 
Record a Home Game and Evaluate Yourself
 
Another great way to observe your tells is to make a video of yourself in a home game.  Just like a football team reviews the game footage after the game, you can analyze your game.  What are you doing wrong?  What indications and signals are you giving off?  Knowing what you are doing, and in what situations, is going to aid you in correcting the behaviors.  If you don’t even know what’s going on, you have no options for recourse.  Arming yourself with video footage and the observations of friends is ammunition in your battle against tells.
 
When In Doubt at the Table, Just Do Nothing
 
In doubtful moments, it is tempting to try to revert to tricks like fake tells.  This is a bad decision.  After all, you are playing poker, not acting in Hollywood movie.  In these moments, taking the action of inaction is the best.  Just do nothing.  Stare at the wall or the floor or the table and work on being silent.

For example, if you held 5d-6d (d= diamonds) on a Td 8d Jc flop (c = club) and you were all-in against someone holding pocket aces you’d have 33% chance of winning the hand. While the exact equation for this is too cumbersome to do at the table, you can calculate your equity (chance of making your hand) by using the rule of 4 and 2.

This brings into play a concept known as your “outs”  which refers to the number of cards left in the deck that will improve your hand. Thus, in the above example there are 9 potential cards left in the deck that will complete your flush.

If you multiply this by 4 ( when you’re on the flop with 2 cards to come) you get an answer of 36%. This is a close approximation of your chance of hitting and flush. You can then use this number to determine whether the price the pot is offering you is great enough that you can call a bet. Additionally, when you are on the turn (with 1 card to come) you should multiply your outs by 2.

Thus, 36% equates to a roughly a 2/1 chance of a flushing being made by the river. Thus, if you have to call $5 and the pot currently stands at $15, then your pot odds (the amount in the pot vs. what it costs you to call) and greater than your actual odds. When this dynamic is apparent you can profitably call and in the long run expect to see a profit.

While it isn’t necessary to memorise every scenario, you should familiarise yourself with the most common situations by referring to one of the numerous charts available online with companies such as Unibet casino.

Why is that the case?  There are a number of reasons, not least among them that the bonus is an effective marketing tool that can lure potential customers away from other rooms.  The primary reason, however, is that the value a poker bonus represents can easily make the difference between a company appearing on a list of the best poker rooms and a company stuck in the middle of the pack.

Some readers may find that last bit a little tough to swallow.  After all, so much goes into an online poker room –  security, banking, software integrity and licensing, just to name a few key elements –  that it seems impossible for a bonus to make or break a room’s viability from a player’s perspective.

The key is that bonuses are effectively a form of short-term rakeback at the room, and that even short-term rakeback can easily swing a player from a loser to a winner. 

Let’s take John and Jack, who play at Poker Room ABC and Poker Room XYZ.  Both have equal skill and play 100 NL, and both rooms charge the same rake.  As regular players, they’re likely to pay about $400 a week in rake.  John gets a deposit bonus and Jack does not.  John’s bonus pays him 33% rakeback (not uncommon) and Jack gets nothing.

If both are break-even players, John will have over $130 in his bankroll at the end of the week that Jack won’t.  In short, the bonus matters.  Do the math and you’ll find out just how much it might matter to you.

For those interested in tracking the events relevant to online poker in the US, your best bet is simply to create a Google Reader subscription to a few poker news sites.  Picking perhaps a dozen or so –  just Google “online poker news” and give the first page a look –  should give you a good sample. 

You can also seek out sites that focus specifically or primarily on the US situation to help cut out news that may not necessarily be relevant to you.  After all, if you’re only concerned about news related to us poker you don’t want to be sifting through dozens of articles about who won the latest European Poker Tour event.  You just want updates regarding the status of the rooms that still serve the US market.

When looking through sites, it’s important to distinguish between legitimate poker news sites and sites that are simply looking to get you to sign up at a room.  The latter will not necessarily provide updated or objective information, while the former is likely to be a timely, credible source.  How can you tell the difference?  Consider the proportions of the content –  how much of it is news and how much reads like a sales pitch.  Also, consider the balance of the content and see if the site is giving you the positives along with some negatives.  After all, no poker room is perfect.

It’s tough to say what the landscape of online poker will look like in the US within the next few months, let alone the next few years.  Keep informed by finding and consulting reputable news sites that do the legwork for you.

Lock Poker (read the Lock Poker review) is no different, offering a deposit bonus of 100% up to $750.  How well does that bonus reward players?  Let’s examine it in greater detail.

Deposit bonuses are important

First it’s worth noting that deposit bonuses are an excellent source of value for players.  While they may seem a bit cliche as far as bonuses go, they are worth a tremendous amount if structured well, and can provide players with temporary rakeback rates reaching above 50%.  For this reason, it’s important that you get the best bonus code for Lock Poker and attempt to maximize the bonus you can earn at the room.

How does Lock measure up?

Lock Poker offers a reasonable value to players via their first deposit bonus.  The bonus multiplier and amount are fairly standard, and the clearance rate is a bit on the low side.  That said, there’s nothing in particular about the bonus that should make players wary –  if you’re looking to clear a bonus and you’ve run a bit short on eligible rooms, Lock is a good choice.

What other promos does Lock have?

In addition to the first deposit bonus, Lock offers many of the promotions that are standard for Merge Network online poker rooms.  You’ll find a great selection of daily promotions like the Royal Flush bonus, Bad Beat jackpot and a variety of ongoing promotions like tournament and SNG leaderboards.

All in all, Lock is a viable choice for players looking for a new online poker home, especially for those hunting for a room that is a part of the Merge Network.

The list goes on and on, but one thing that many players may not have considered is the potential risk that the other games at the casino may pose to their bankroll.  While some online poker rooms also offer casino games, they’re often heavily segmented from the poker lobby.

The opposite is true for a live casino, where players often have to stroll through dozens of slot machine banks and table game pits before they even reach the poker room.  Then comes the waiting list, leaving players with free time and little to do but take in the sights of the casino.

What can you do to protect yourself?  The first and most important step is to be honest with yourself about your tendencies and your weaknesses.  Do you have established issues with self-control that might manifest themselves in a live casino setting?  If not, then sampling non-poker games isn’t a big deal. 

You want to pick a game with a low house advantage, like blackjack or craps, and also you want to educate yourself on the basics of the most popular games by researching things like pai gow basics and roulette tips online.

Walking into a live poker room is a much different experience than firing up your laptop and playing a few hundred hands per hour.  With some planning and some self-awareness, however, you can turn a potential trap into a profitable trip.

Poker is a fine activity

There will be plenty of online poker players who enjoy playing the game as an activity and will be glad to get the chance to play for nothing. There will also be online poker players who want to improve their skills which they can only really do by playing poker online against other players. These are very good reasons why online poker should be made available for free or at various levels but there will be some players who are only interested in playing for money. This is why it is good to see online poker sites amending their services to ensure that players can get what they want from a site.

It has to be said that paying for money brings out the competitive streak in many players and this is the sort of spirit that can’t be replicated when playing for fun. If you are looking to become a professional poker player that makes a living from the activity, getting as much experience under your belt will go a long way. No two poker hands are the same because the reaction of players and the remaining cards can be different but there will be certain situations that will arise time and time again. The more you play, the more experience and confidence you will pick up, which can only help you in the long run.

Take the free poker option

However, there is no need to accept the first offer that is provided when you are looking for a free poker option. There are a number of great poker sites that provide free options and you should be able to examine a site in great detail before signing up. An example would be the free Club WPT trial that allows players to play on this site and see if it is a suitable match for their playing style and preferences.

When it comes to big names in poker it is hard to argue against the WPT and the big name events that are played under the organisation. If you have dreamt of being a big time poker player, it is likely that some of the World Poker Tour events have been your inspiration and playing on the site can give you the chance of making it on the big stages. There are plenty of satellite events to book your seat at the major events but there are also free poker games to enjoy as well.