Common Mistakes of Beginner Poker Players

Over the past 5 years or so, the game of Poker, and especially Texas Hold’Em, has gained massive popularity. As a natural result, hundreds of people every day sign-up with an online poker room account and start learning the game. Most of them, however, lack enough preparation and knowledge, and therefore will commit one of a few basic mistakes that every serious poker player should quickly eliminate.Here are five of the most common of these mistakes.1) Spending no time on hand analysisAnother common mistake. Since everyone is running about saying how poker is such an easy way to make money, most people who start playing the game do not think that there is actually some learning involved. Unfortunately, as with anything else, poker is not an easy way to make money. You will need to put in a lot of effort before the game rewards you.Make sure to signup at some community forums (the best of witch is currently TwoPlusTwo). Make it a habit to save every problematic hand that you’ve had during a poker session. After you are done playing for the day, post all of your saved hands to the forums, and ask for advice. Make sure to give as much detail about the hand in your post as possible. Write down any history that you and your opponent might have had, what kind of player did he seem to be (tight? aggressive? passive?). The more detail you give, the more likely you are to receive a helpful response. Try to make a few poker friends online, too. There is absolutely no better way to evolve as a poker player than to have a few people to discuss the game with.2) Poor Bankroll ManagementMost beginner poker players are unaware of what proper bankroll management really is. They will deposit $50 to their poker account and dive right into the $1/$2 limits with a quarter of a buy-in. While poker is definitely a game of skill in the long-term, there is still a huge luck component in the short-term. This means that no matter how good of a poker player you are, there is a very reasonable possibility that you will go on losing in poker for many consecutive weeks (sometimes months). This is an entirely statistical thing — even the best hands can lose many times in a row. When a poker player faces a losing streak as this one, it is called a downswing.When a player is on a downswing, his skills can only help him to minimize his losses.To avoid facing a downswing, make sure that you always have at least 25x buy-ins for any stakes that you want to play. If you are going to play a No-Limit $0.50/$1 Texas Hold’em game, then you should have at least $2500 deposited to your poker play. The higher you go up the stakes, the more conservative you should be (meaning, you should have more buyins in your bankroll), because the size of a downswing grows proportionally to the skill of your opponents.Makes sure to learn as much as you can about bankroll management before proceeding — you will save yourself a lot of time and agony by doing so.3) Being Too CockyMost poker beginners will inevitably get cocky at some point and start believing that they are poker prodigies. This usually happens when they are running hot for a longer period of time and the cards are being kind to them. They start believing that they are winning thanks to their superior skills, even though their actual poker knowledge is very limited. This in turn will result in bad decisions being made: they may move up the stakes to a level way beyond their level of experience, or they may start doing absolutely terrible plays at the table. With their minds clouded by their false sense of security, they are bound to lose their entire bankroll sooner than later.Keep your ego in check and watch out for this trap. If you suddenly feel that you are unstoppable, post some of your hands to online poker forums for review. You will quickly learn if you are as good as you think you are, or if you’ve simply been running good. And try believing what the forum members tell you — they will most likely be right.4) Not treating the game seriously enoughI’ve seen it many, many times. A beginner poker player has a few tables open, and in between his raising, folding and bluffing, he is chatting on Facebook and watching YouTube videos. “That Metallica song is so cool…oops, I’ve got Aces! Gotta raise it up! Gimme fuel, gimme fire, give me all that I desire, yeah!”This kind of approach to poker will do you no good. The game requires absolute and full concentration. The field of poker is extremely competitive nowadays, and you will need every edge that you can muster. Most of the players out there are more focused on YouTube than on the tables, so if you can eliminate this clutter, you are already at a huge advantage. Turn off ICQ, Facebook and YouTube. Keep your tables open at all times and don’t ever minimize them. Even if you are not involved in a hand at the moment, you should still be looking at the tables and trying to get reads on your opponents by analyzing their play.Poker is not an easy game.5) Playing too many tables simultaneouslyUnderstand that having more than 5 tables active at any given time is reserved for the most experienced players only. If you have been playing poker for less than 6 months, chances are very high that you have not yet mastered the game enough to be able to handle that much action all at once. It may seem to you that you can because you can click fast enough, but what this usually means is that you are not giving your hands enough thought. If you catch yourself playing poker and not making any money for a long period of time, reducing the number of tables played and paying more attention to what is going on at them should be your first move.Make sure not to fall for any of the traps described above, and you are on a very good start towards becoming a long-term profitable poker player.

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Full Tilt Poker – The Ultimate Online Gaming Experience

OverviewFull Tilt Poker in the opinion of many is probably one of the best all round poker rooms online today offering a wide variety of games, great software features, and is also one of the busiest online poker sites out there today. Designed and played by many of the world’s leading pro’s, this poker room has a vast library of poker lessons written by the games best players including the Full Tilt Poker Academy which offers comprehensive video tutorials, interactive challenges, poker lessons, and strategy.SoftwareThe software available is said to be some of the best online poker software in the world. Designed by poker players for poker players and was created with direct input from the world’s brightest poker minds in the industry.Choose from three unique views of the main lobby and find a table using an advanced filtering system which allows you to easily navigate your way to the table of your choice.This great software also allows you to change the background theme whilst playing by right clicking on the background for your table. You can play poker almost anywhere from the jungle, the beach, or even in outer space.Another great feature of is the new FTP Hand Replay feature which lets you replay and review each hand you’ve played at every table during your current session.It really is a great addition to the games software, it’s easy to use and can be a great tool to help you improve your game.GamesFull Tilt Poker has a wide range of tournaments and ring games to choose from with a large variety of games to choose from at limits to suit every bankroll.SIGN UP and you’ll have instant access to a wide range of games including Texas Hold em, Omaha Hi, Omaha Hi/Low, Razz, Stud Hi, Stud Hi/Low, Draw Poker and Mixed Games.Mixed Games allow you to play a variety of different games without changing tables and is a great way to learn all the poker games available. Playing at a Mixed Games table means that the game type will change every 10 hands and is a great way to test your all round poker skills.Also available exclusively at to Full Tilt Poker is Rush Poker.Rush Poker is a new poker format exclusive to Full Tilt Poker that is designed to minimize your wait time between hands and can be played in a ring game or a variety of Tournaments.Other Tournaments available to play at include Re-buy Tournaments, Double Stack Tournaments, Step Turbo Sit & Gos and Multi-Table Tournaments.Loyalty ProgramFull Tilt Poker offer a points scheme called Full Tilt Points.These points are a way of rewarding players who participate in a real-money game and can be earned by playing in any real-money Ring Game, Multi-Table Tournament or Sit & Go’s with a tournament fee.The idea is simple the more you play, the more points you earn. And once you’ve earned enough points you can use them to get a range of gear and Tournament Tickets from the Full Tilt Poker Store or enter exclusive tournaments.Also available at Full Tilt Poker is Happy Hour.During Happy Hour you can double and even triple your Full Tilt Points by playing in your favorite ring games and tournaments during daily Happy Hour periods. To get involved just look for specially designated tables with the smiley face next to them in the game lobby and start earning points faster.

Who Invented the Game of Poker?

If you mention the history of poker to poker players, you’re bound to open up a debate with many differing opinions. Even the name poker, origins are shrouded in mystery. It’s most likely descended from the French word poque which itself is comes from the German word pochen (to knock), but it’s not very clear if the games bearing those names are the origins of poker. Poker has a resemblance to the Persian game of as nas and could well have been taught to the French settlers in New Orleans by Persian sailors.It is widely believed that pokers beginnings can be found in the Renaissance game of primero and the French game of brelan. Brag, an English game, original known as bragg clearly has its roots in brelan and included bluffing, though bluffing was used in other games around this time. It’s highly likely then that poker early development into the game we now play was influenced by all of these games.In 1829 Joseph Crowell, an English actor, wrote of the game being played in New Orleans. The game was played with a 20 card deck, had 4 players who bet on which player’s hand was the most valuable. The book An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling published in 1843 describes how the game spread from New Orleans to the rest of North America via the Mississippi riverboats where gambling was widespread. With this it spread up the Mississippi and West particularly during the gold rush. It’s then thought to have become part of the frontier pioneering culture.Initially poker was played with just one round of betting. Five cards were dealt face down to each player and there was no drawing of cards. The rules where later tailored by professional gamblers to raise the profitably of the game. Sometime after 1850 it became common practice to have wild cards and bluffing in games and around the same time drawing cards was introduced.With the introduction of the draw another round of betting was included. This was especially useful for the professional gambler due to it giving them another chance of cheating their opponents. It also moved from a pure gambling game to one that now included skill. Not long after this the full 52 card English deck was used and the flush was first introduced. At the time of the American Civil War, many additions were introduced including draw poker, stud poker (5 card variant) and the straight. Poker developed further in the U.S.which included wild card circ 1875, lowball and split pot poker circ 1900 and community card poker games circ 1925. Poker, in all its forms, was spreading to other countries, in particularly, Asia. This is generally credited to the presence of the U.S.military.Such is the influence poker has had on American and English culture that the jargon in poker has become common place. Phrase such as ace in the hold, ace up one’s sleeve, beats me, blue chip, call one’s bluff, cash in, high roller, pass the buck, poker face, stack up, up the ante, when the chips are down, wild card and many others are in use in everyday conversation even by those unaware of their origins are at the poker table.The modern era of poker started with the inaugural World Series of Poker in 1970. it was played in Binions Horseshoe casino Las Vegas and has grown into the massive event of today. Around about the same time the first serious strategy poker books start to appear on the bookshelves. Poker has constantly evolved over the years first with online poker which made it possible to play poker 24/7. T.V. got in on the act with the introduction of the hole camera. Then, followed the poker boom of 2004 which started with the Chris Moneymaker effect.