Molly's Online Poker and Sportsbook Guide

It's hard to miss the fact that recent winners of the World Series of Poker were not professional poker players and the fact that Chris Moneymaker (2003) and Greg Raymer (2004) are online players. It's no wonder that online poker is exploding. With so many new players out there giving online poker a shot it's feeding frenzy for the skilled player, or even the player with a modest amount of skills. Most of these newbies start out at the lowest limit tables until they either bust out or improve their skills and bankroll enough to move onto the higher limit tables. Even if you're a veteran of the Friday night home dealer's choice poker games, you most likely will have to change your playing style to win consistently online. But fear not, there are more unskilled players at the micro limit tables than there are skilled players. more online poker strategy...

The big difference between big-bet (Pot-Limit or No-Limit) Omaha Hi/Lo and Limit Omaha Hi/Lo is that the former plays much more like Omaha High. Low hands become much less valuable because of how often they get quartered.

If you get quartered in Limit games, you may not lose too much of your overall chip stack because the action is capped on every street. In Pot-Limit games, however, getting quartered can be much more expensive because you may have had to call big bets on both the turn and river before the hand ended. Losing half your stack in this situation could be your best-case scenario - and getting completely felted if your hand is counterfeited on the river is a real possibility. more...

Many players understand the concepts involved in building a large chip stack during a tournament. What they dont' understand, however, is how to use their chips effectively once they've gotten them. Once they've accumulated a lot of chips, many players want to control the action, but they haven't thought through how to take command of the table.

When I'm the big stack in a tournament, being the bully is always my first consideration. I want to eliminate players, continue to build my stack, and avoid dangerous situations. If I can create a scenario where I'm the table captain - meaning I dictate the size of the pots - the rest of the action becomes easier to read. I can frequently steal the blinds and antes, and if someone else re-raises, it's pretty easy to put them on a hand because I know they can only play back at me with really strong cards. more...

During this year's World Series of Poker*, I talked with a number of pros about the problems that so many online qualifiers had playing Big Slick during the early blind levels. It seemed to us that a huge percentage of the field - we estimated as much as 70 percent - was more than willing to go broke with this hand if they hit a pair on the flop.

But many pros, myself included, feel that Ace-King is a very difficult hand to play in the early levels of big buy-in tournaments, when the stacks are deep compared to the blinds. The fact of the matter is, top-pair/top-kicker is probably no good if another player is willing to risk all of his chips. This isn't always the case - you may find an extremely weak player willing to go broke on K-Q, but that's the rare exception. more...

Players get excited when they flop two pair because they know they're in a great position to take down a pot. But often, two pair is not nearly as powerful as it seems. This is especially true when holding bottom two pair or top and bottom pair. These hands may look dominant on the flop, but they're usually quite vulnerable.

For example, say you're playing a No-Limit Hold 'em ring game. There's a standard raise to four times the big blind from middle position. You figure the player has A-K or maybe a middle or high pocket pair. Everyone folds to you on the button, where you find 5d-7d. You've got favorable position and a hand that can flop some powerful draws, so you decide to call. The blinds fold, and the flop comes 5c-7h-Ks.

This is great. Not only do you have two pair, but it's very likely that your opponent has a piece of this flop, with top pair top kicker or maybe an over-pair. He bets into you, and you have to decide what action is best. more...

Stud-8 or Better is a great game. The rules are nearly identical to regular 7-Card Stud, but there's one key difference. At showdown, the pot is split; half is given to the player with the best high, and half to the player with the best low. In order to take a portion of the pot, a low hand must have no card higher than an 8. If there is no qualifying low, the high hand takes the entire pot.

With players aiming for both high and low hands, Stud-8 invites a lot of action. But beginning players, even those with some 7-Card Stud experience, often come to a Stud-8 table with a poor understanding of what hands do well in this split-pot game.

To understand what types of hands you should play in Stud-8, you must grasp this key concept: In Stud-8, you're looking to scoop pots. By scoop, I mean that you want to take both the high and the low halves of the pot. That's where you're going to make your real profit. more...