Online Tournament poker

Get started with playing poker tournaments

Over the past few years, online gambling has grown like never before, mainly because of the expansion of the internet and online poker. But this expansion wasn’t limited to the internet, poker has grown in both the online and the offline worlds due to the expansion of online poker. It’s simple, actually – the two types of games aren’t that far apart, as you will see. Todays most wide spread poker variations are Texas Hold ‘em, Omaha, and also others.

Poker tournaments are quite possibly the most well known type of poker available, as they get the most exposure and media coverage – the largest events in the world are tournaments. They even act as poker’s world cup.

As you might have heard, there are two distinct types of poker play – cash games (often called ring games) and poker tournaments. Even though they are basically the same game and both rely on the same set of rules, they couldn’t be more different – the players adopt different strategies, the game play is totally different and the whole feel of the game is different between the two types of games.

The first type of game we’re going to talk about is cash games. A cash game is practically a straight forward game. You decide practically everything about the game (except the cards you and the other players are dealt). Usually, these games only impose upon only two things: the amount you take with you to the table and the blind size. The amount that you bring to the table isn’t fixed, but rather there are some limitations to the minimum and maximum amounts. This is so that players are somewhat equal at the table. The blinds, on the other hand, are fixed. They are shown in plain view when you first join a table, so that a $5/$10 table would mean that the small blinds are $5 and the big blinds are $10. In a cash game, whether it is online (in an online poker room) or offline (in a casino, or even playing with your friends), players always tend to play looser than they would in a tournament game. They would play much more hands, and therefore, they would play much weaker hands. Also, in a cash game the amount of money you win or lose is not very large in a single game compared to your bankroll. But professional poker players who tend to stick to cash games usually win constantly, even if it is just small amounts. These small amounts eventually add up and build up a huge bankroll. Online poker rooms and casinos have something to gain every time you place a bet. Their pay comes from each bet, so they are very interested to get you playing as much as possible. Another thing that is characteristic to the ring games is freedom: as we’ve said, you control almost everything, from the amount of money you get in with, the time you spend at the table, even whether or not you take a short break and sit out a few hands without losing any money (an action that you cannot take when you’re playing tournaments).

And then there are tournaments. Let me just start by saying that, in essence, tournaments and cash games both rely on the same set of rules. The same hand rankings are available for both types of play, the same play order, everything except for a few little details, which, of course, make all the difference.

In a tournament you must pay a fixed amount to get into the game unless you can become a sponsored poker player. That amount is called the buy-in, and once you pay it you are given a fixed number of chips, that doesn’t have to be equal to the buy-in. And you and all of the other players get the same amount of chips. The blinds start off small, and then gradually increase at a specified interval. Once a certain level has been reached, all players must also place an ‘Ante’ before going into a hand. An ante is smaller than the small blind and it usually gets even the tightest players to start betting. Once a player runs out of chips he is out of the tournament. The player who ends up in first place wins, but usually there are more than one paid spots in a tournament. However, the player who wins the tournament gets the biggest piece of the prize, around 20% of the whole amount gathered from the players. Online poker rooms, or casinos, get their share of the money, too. In some cases, the rake (the amount that they collect from each player’s buy-in) is included in the buy-in itself, while in most cases the rake is an amount that is shown before a player enters the tournament, but it is not included in the buy-in.

Let’s look at a real live example, to start with. We’ll take a standard, 9 player Sit And Go (a tournament variety, which we’ll cover a bit later on). Before you join you would see it marked as a $1+$0.10 tournament. If you are lucky enough to place first, you will get about $2 or $3, at these limits. If you place on a lower position your prize will decrease. Depending on how many paid spots there are you will either get more or less money from them. Usually, each player will be dealt 1,500 or 2,000 chips for a standard game and the blinds will start off at around 10/20 (10 chips the small blind and 20 chips the big blind). Then, at a specified interval, the blinds will increase.

If a tournament is larger than 9 players then it is called a multi table tournament. This is what most large tournaments are, in fact. Players compete in standard, 9 player tables, and the winner (or the last few players) from a table will be moved to a different table. This will happen throughout the tournament, and when there are only 9 players left they are moved to a different table called the “Final Table”.  For most large tournaments even getting to the final table is an achievement by itself, and you will often see players writing that on their “resume”.

As opposed to cash games, blinds do not stay the same, as we’ve previously covered they will be raised at specified intervals. These intervals are the difference between standard tournaments and Turbo Tournaments. In a standard tournaments, blinds will increase anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes. In a turbo tournament, however, the blinds will increase much faster, somewhere between 2 and 5 minutes, depending on the tournament. However, this interval is shown in plain sight somewhere, so it won’t catch you by surprise. Then there are Super Turbo Tournaments, where the pace of the game is much faster. Not only do the blinds increase every couple of minutes, but the players are dealt much less chips (about 300 chips per player).

Another difference between cash games and poker tournaments is the game pace. In cash games, as we’ve covered, the pace is very fast and constant throughout the game. Tournaments don’t have a constant game pace, but it is very connected with the stage of the game. For instance, usually in the early stages of the game the players will play very loose, behaving erratically at times (especially at lower stakes, where inexperienced players will often play any card they get – even go all in with a poor, poor hand). However, as the game advances, you will start to notice a distinct change in play: everybody will play tighter and tighter, they will throw away high cards and they will be much more afraid to go all in (usually this will happen in the middle stages). In the lower stages, it is not uncommon to see players making one of two decisions: either fold or go all in. The only exceptions to this type of game play are the Super Turbo Tournaments, which only last for a couple of minutes. Due to the low time between increasing blinds and the small number of chips that every player has, players don’t have the time to play very tight, as they will “attack” at the first sign of a strong hand.

Sit And Go’s (also called SNG’s) are a specific type of tournament, which we have mentioned earlier. Standard tournaments, in general, have a specific start date and a maximum number of players. For example, you will see that a 4,000 player tournament will begin at precisely 8:00 PM today. And it will begin at that time no matter what, even if there are only 1,000 players who have entered the game. Some tournaments have late registering rounds, where they allow players to register during the earliest stage of the tournament, before the blinds increase for the first time. SNGs, on the other hand, start as soon as they have the specified number of players who have registered in the game. For instance, a 27 player SNG will start immediately when the 27^th player registers.

For tournament poker players, success doesn’t come as often as it does for cash game players. They will not win as often as the players who only play ring games. In fact, it’s not unusual for tournament players to go a very long time between wins. Some of the greatest players in the world have gone years without a big win at a large tournament, but that doesn’t make them worse players. Not at all! But, when they do win, they win a lot of money. They can win thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars, by paying only a few bucks to get into the game. So, in the long run, it will all even out: ring game players will win less money more often, and tournament players will win more money less often.

The most famous tournaments in the world are the largest ones. We’re talking about the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour. These two alone act as the “world cup of poker”. Each winner of the main event gets a bracelet, and he’s considered the world champion. Some of the best players in the world have a lot of these bracelets. Since the early 2000’s, the WSOP* and the WPT* have not been “restricted” to the offline world, and they have evolved and created a tight bond to the online poker world. This happened back in 2003, when Chris Moneymaker, a then unknown player, won the main event at the World Series of Poker after qualifying from an online satellite worth less than $50. Since then, online poker rooms everywhere have competed to send their very best players to represent them at the WSOP and WPT, and this has been beneficial to all.

And since we brought up satellites, let’s take a moment to explain what they are: a satellite is a poker tournament that doesn’t necessarily pay out in cash. Instead, the player who ranks first gets to participate in a larger tournament and not pay the buy-in. This is how you can enter a $1 satellite and get to participate in a $1,000 tournament for free. Well, for $1.

Freerolls are another type of tournament worth mentioning. Basically, it’s a tournament with no buy-in whatsoever. But the payout is there. So you don’t pay anything going in, but you get paid if you win. This is a great way to build up your bankroll, or increase your existent one. Freerolls are an indispensable part of professional poker. Let’s take Chris Ferguson as an example – he has completed a challenge of gathering $10,000 starting with $0. He managed to build up a bankroll by playing freerolls, and without them this task would have been practically impossible.

Many tournament poker variations exist beside these. There are knock out tournaments, where you get paid for every player you throw out of the game, rebuy tournaments, where players who were eliminated get to play again by paying the buy-in again, and many more.

We hope you have liked our presentation on the basics of poker tournaments. Tournaments are a large part of poker, and an invaluable one at that. So if you decide that you want to become a tournament poker player, we wish you the best of luck and one day you may be good enough to get a poker sponsorship!

Poker Hands

Do not play every hand it will be expensive

If you are just starting out to learn the game of Texas Hold’em Poker, you might not realise quite how much there is to learn! That being said, it is quite an easy game to dive straight into, and if you have got a good handle on what the order of rank in terms of poker hands is, then your best bet is to start out playing to build your knowledge. When you have read this article and you want to try online poker, then you should read our article starting off at an online poker site first.

The statement comes with a disclaimer though: If you are new to the game, ease yourself in! By this I dont mean hold back on playing, far from it. You should play as much as you can, but just because you are participating in a game of HoldEm, doesnt mean you have to bet on every hand! Learn to be selective with the hands you put money on. This is what all of the best players do and it will benefit a beginner to the power of ten, because it further enables you to observe and learn.

Firstly, if you ignore specific suits, there are 169 different possible opening hands. Out of all these, only five are considered premium hands:

1. AA
2. KK
3. QQ
4. AK (Suited)
5. JJ

These hands should always be played, whatever position you hold at the table so long as no one ahead of you is raising. If someone does raise, particularly if there are people calling and re raising, you should still proceed with caution.

If you think of HoldEm in this respect you can quite quickly see how risky it is to play too many hands. There are always an enormous amount of variables which will affect whether or not you should play or fold, but erring on the side of caution is always advised, particularly if youre just starting out. You should always look to avoid being dominated at the table, and a golden rule for beginners should be to keep tight unless you know you have a great hand. Look at it this way: If someone ahead of you is raising and you have KQ, think carefully. It seems that you have a great hand but actually AA, KK, QQ, AK and AQ are all very dangerous for you. As your poker skills develop over the coming weeks and months you will learn how and when top lay hands like this but for now you really have to be looking out for the moments where you shouldnt be playing these hands.

I lost a lot of money playing poker in my first few months, and if I were starting out again I would restrict myself to playing only the best 15 hands available to me. As time progresses and you keep studying the game you will learn how to out think and outwit opponents as well as learning how to pick up on some of their tells, developing your game to be able to include good bluffing skills.

Until that time, you should stick to playing only these fifteen hands:

1. AA
2. KK
3. QQ
4. AK (Suited)
5. JJ
6. 10/10
7. AQ (Suited)
8. AJ ( Suited)
9. AK
10. KQ (Suited)
11. A/10 (Suited)
12. KJ (Suited)
13. AQ (Off Suit)
14. 9/9
15. JQ (Suited)

Remember that the stronger your opening hand, the fewer decisions there are to make. Help yourself by keeping the game simple until you have a proper handle on how to develop your skills. Until that point, hold back!

How To Play Seven Card Stud

Seven card stud is one of the oldest forms of poker. This article will discuss how to play seven card stud and tell you where to best place to Seven Card Stud poker is. If you’re someone who only ever plays Texas Holdem then branching out into a new form of the game has many benefits most notably when the Holdem games are full of regs then you have another avenue for finding fish. There are far less players who play Seven Card Stud to a high standard than there are players who play Holdem to a high standard. Learning another game really can help increase your bankroll and give you the opportunity to play weaker opponents. Seven Card Stud is virtually the same as Razz poker so if you can play one you can play the other.

Here’s How To Play 7 Card Stud

- First all players must put an ante into the pot (this is a forced bet before the cards are dealt)
- Each player then receives two cards which are face down on the table and one card which is face up
- In 7 Card Stud the player who has the lowest value card showing must act first
- A round of betting commences
- After the first betting round players are given another card face up by the dealer
- The player with the highest card showing will now start another round of betting
- Once all betting is completed players are given a sixth card by the dealer
- Another round of betting occurs
- Finally players who remain in the pot receive one more card from the dealer which is dealt face down so that other players at the table cannot see it.
- There is one last round of betting and the player with the best five card hand is the winner (hand rankings are the same as in Holdem from high card right up to a royal flush)

Where To Play Seven Card Stud

There are quite a few online poker rooms who offer Seven Card Stud to players. However, there is only really one poker room on the net which has enough traffic to support regular Seven Card Stud games and that is Pokerstars. Seven Card Stud games do also run on Fulltilt and other online rooms that we endorse here at Carolina Gambler, but less often than they do on Pokerstars.

Hopefully now you know a bit more about how to play Seven Card Stud and where to play Seven Card Stud online. If you can make a commitment to becoming a good Seven Card Stud player then your game selection options will open up significantly.

How To Play Badugi Guide

Badugi is one of the newest poker games in the online world and as a result there isn’t alot of information available on the web about how to play badugi. One of the first rooms to have the game is Carbon Poker. This article will show you how to play Badgui. Once you have finished reading it you should be have enough knowledge of the game to play online in the small stakes games.

A maximum of 8 players can sit at any Badugi poker table, players are dealt 4 cards straight off the bat. The player who sits directly to the left posts the small blind and the player to the left of the small blind posts the big blind (the same as any Holdem game). Play starts with the player who is on the left of the big blind and moves around the table in a clockwise direction.

A betting round takes place immediately and all players who remain in the pot the proceed to a drawing round. During any drawing round players have the option of discard any or all of their cards and replacing them with new cards from the deck. Once the first drawing round is over another round of betting commences. After a total of four betting and three drawing rounds play goes to a showdown.

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Badugi uses very different hand rankings to all other forms of poker. The best possible hand is an A-2-3-4 rainbow. When playing Badugi suited cards and pairs count against you, a hand with 4 non paired and non suited cards in is known as a Badugi. If you get to showdown and you hand contains a pair or two cards of the same suit then you are forced to discard one of your cards leaving you with a 3 card hand. You can be left with 4 card, 3 card, 2 card and 1 card hands when playing Badugi.

Note: In an 8 max Badugi game a 3 card hand is rarely good at showdown.

Most Badugi games online are fixed limit, in fact all online Badugi ring games are fixed limit. When playing fixed limit Badugi the betting limits are restricted to just the small bet amount until two betting rounds have passed. Then players can bet and raise in the big bet amount. In a $1/$2 game the small bet is $1 and the big bet is $2.

Badugi has only been available online since 2008 and as a result there just isn’t a lot of Badugi strategy advice out there. This is great for players who have mastered the game but if you are trying to learn how to play Badugi then it can be a right pain.

One of the best Badugi resources out there is the Badugi Poker Tips website. It covers everything you could want to know about Badugi and some top quality articles which can help you improve your win rate when you play Badugi online.

You can find some easy tables for Badugi Poker at Carbon Poker .

The poker hand rankings are listed here from the best hand down to the lowest. Always remember that it is the best five card hand that wins a pot. An example would be if two players have a pair of kings. The winning hand would be the one that has the highest single card, known as the kicker. So if you had an ace as the kicker and your opponents next highest card was a seven, you would win the hand because you have the biggest kicker.

Royal Flush - The five highest cards, the 10 through the Ace, all five of the same suit. A royal flush is actually an ace-high straight flush. Which suit it is doesn’t matter in poker.

Straight Flush - Any five cards of the same suit in consecutive numerical order.

Four of a Kind - Any four cards of the same denomination.

Full House - Any three cards of the same denomination, plus any pair of a different denomination. Ties are broken first by the three of a kind, then the pair.

Flush - Any five non-consecutive cards of the same suit.

Straight - Any five consecutive cards of mixed suits. Ace can be played high or low.

Three of a Kind - Any three cards of the same denomination.

Two Pair - Any two cards of the same denomination, plus any other two cards of the same denomination. If both hands have the same high pair, the second pair wins. If both pairs tie, the high card wins.

Pair - Any two cards of the same denomination. In a tie, the high card (known as the kicker) wins.

High Card - If no hand is achieved, the highest card wins.

7 Card Stud Instructions

7 Card Stud was the most popular game of poker in the U.S.A. until Texas Hold’em took over. This is one of the games that I first learned to play back in the 70′s. This is a game that players can win a lot with at the online poker rooms like FullTilt Poker due to the fact that a lot of the young players have not fully grasped the game. Though I enjoy the game, I don’t claim to be no expert of stud (or any game for that matter), but here are the basic rules of play.

Dealing Cards & Betting Rounds

3rd street:

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7 Card Stud begins with each player being dealt two cards face down and one card face up for everyone at the felt to see. Most online poker rooms will have a bring-in, this is a forced bet that happens after the cards are dealt, but before any other action. The poker player with the lowest-ranking up card pays the bring-in, and betting proceeds after that in normal clockwise order. The bring-in is considered an open, so the next player in turn may not check. They must either call, raise or fold.

If there is no bring-in, as is the case of a lot of home games, then the first betting round will begin with the player showing the highest-ranking upcard, who may check. If two players have the same high upcard, the one first in clockwise rotation from the dealer acts first.

4th street:
Another card that is known as 4th street is then dealt up to each player and starts at the dealer’s left as will all other rounds, followed by a second betting round beginning with the player whose upcards make the best poker hand. On this and all other betting rounds, the player whose face-up cards make up the best hand will act first, and may check or bet up to the game’s limit.

5th street: There is then dealt a third up card known as 5th street and a betting round.

6th street: The fourth up card dealt is known as 6th street and then you have another betting round.

7th street: The last card, 7th street, is then dealt face down card with a fifth round of betting. After this comes the showdown if necessary and the best five card hand wins.

Just remember in 7 Card Stud it’s “two down, four up, one down”. Another good piece of advice is at your home games, due to the number of cards in a deck (52), only have seven players dealt in a hand. But if you do decide to have eight and you run out of cards to deal each player a final hole card, just place 7th Street face up on the board. It is then similar to a community card like in Texas Hold’em.

If you need further help to understand the game, here is a nice little video to help. Just click here to view.

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I’m not a big Omaha Poker player, but I have friends that will pick this poker game over any other any day of the week. Some even say that there’s a lot of easy money at the online poker sites to be won by playing this game.

Omaha Poker is played in the same format as Texas Hold’em, with there being a pre-flop, flop, turn and river. The betting pattern is the same with there being a round of betting after each round of cards are dealt.

The most noticeable difference right off the bat is you are dealt four cards face down instead of the two hole cards you get in Texas Hold’em. The poker player then uses two of them, plus three of the five community cards on the board to make his hand. Unlike Texas hold ‘em, a player cannot play three or four of the cards on the board with fewer than two of his hole cards, nor can a player use three or four hole cards to disguise a strong hand.

I always tell players that are new to this game to just remember two in the hand, three on the board.

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I consider Omaha Poker a HUGE drawing game, with so many cards being dealt that you can use to make a hand, your best hand can change dramatically during each round of play. For example, a player may have both a draw to a flush and a full house using different combinations of cards. At times, even the seasoned players of the game need additional time to figure what draws are possible for their hand. So be very cautious of folk outdrawing on you !

There are other variations to Omaha Poker like Hi/Lo . In high-low split, each player makes a separate five-card high hand and five-card ace-to-five low hand (eight-high or lower to qualify), and the pot is split between the high and low (which may be the same player). To qualify for low, a player must be able to play an 8-7-6-5-4 or lower (this is why it is called “eight-or-better”, or simply “Omaha/8″). A few casinos play with a 9-low qualifier instead, but this is rare. Each player can play any two of his four hole cards to make his high hand, and any two of his four hole cards to make his low hand. If there is no qualifying low hand, the high hand wins (scoops) the whole pot.

If you need more info on Omaha Poker, I suggest maybe reading Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia .

You can find plenty of Omaha action at Fulltilt Poker !

Texas Hold’em Poker has become the hottest poker game going . The games popularity has grown leaps and bounds due to all the exposure it receives on television, the Internet and in land based casinos. Hold’em has replaced 7 Card Stud as the most common poker game in the U.S.A. and even a large part of the world.

Types of Texas Hold’em Poker :

The three choices of Texas Hold ‘em Poker are no-limit, limit and pot-limit. The basic rules for each of the games are the same except for how much the player can bet, which changes the strategy on each game. With no-limit hold’em you can bet any amount equal or above the big blind and even pushing allin (betting all your chips) at anytime.

In limit hold ‘em, bets and raises during pre-flop and the flop must be equal to the big blind; this amount is called the small bet. In the next two rounds of betting, the turn and river, bets and raises must be equal to twice the big blind; this amount is called the big bet. Any time you wish to re-raise, you must raise at least the amount of the previous raise. With pot-limit holdem, the maximum raise is the current size of the pot . (the total amount that has been played)

Basic Texas Holdem Poker Instructions :

Texas Hold ‘em Poker is played by using small and big blinds. What this does is force bets by two players and in most tournaments the size of the blinds will get larger as the tournament progresses. A dealer button is used to represent the player in the dealer position; the dealer button rotates clockwise after each hand, changing the position of the dealer and who has to post the small and big blinds. So at the table, everyone will take their turn .

Betting and Playing in Texas Hold’em Poker :

Each player is dealt two cards face down,known as your hole or pocket cards, with the player in the small blind receiving the first card and the player on the button having the last card dealt. This is known as the “pre-flop” betting round . Betting begins with the player to the left of the big blind and continues clockwise. Players can either check, bet, raise or fold.

Next comes “the flop” which is three cards dealt face up on the table. This is the board and all cards there are community cards (cards that everyone uses to make their hand). Another round of bets are then made beginning with the player to the dealer’s left and continues clockwise.

After the flop betting ends, another card is dealt on the board. This card is known as “the turn” and is followed by a third round of betting.

After the turn round, the final card is then dealt on the board. This is “the river“. Another round of betting is done, and then it’s time for a showdown if two or more players are left in the hand.

Just remember that in Texas Holdem Poker, your hand consist of both hole cards, one hole card or no hole card (playing the board), along with the community cards in an effort to make a hand . The best five card hand wins !

So good luck at the felt and never bet more than you can afford to gamble with .

A great place to play Texas Holdem Poker online is at Carbon Poker !