5 Ways to Improve Your Pre-Flop Game
1) Take control preflop - Try coming in for a raise whenever you play a hand. I know this is tough, but taking initiative every time you open a pot will be very important to becoming a successful player, especially in no limit hold 'em.
2) Controlling tilt - Try to not care. As hard as that sounds you have to want to win but be OK with losing. I have losing weeks sometimes, and I try to remain positive. It always comes back around but if you tilt and continue to play it just won't work out.
3) Exercise! - Most people realize you have to be mentally tough to succeed in poker, but people don't realize the physical aspect of it. Most players don't take the time to work out or eat well, but let me tell you, it helps. Last year I made a sick run online and it all happened after I started working out. I also have got on a new plan for eating well and working out, and since then I have been playing well and winning.
4) Don't fall in love with your hand preflop - If you were playing a tournament, and you raise with TT and I re-raise you back. Chances are your TT is not very good (in the first few levels of a tournament). Try just folding this hand, because you are essentially set mining and have no idea where you are in the hand.
5) Taking breaks - I have written some articles on this, and find this to be supremely important while playing poker. Last year during WSOP I played 6 events, cashed in zero. I had three bubbles and the last tournament I made a dumb play to bust. The next day was an event I really wanted to play, the 2500 PLO/PLH mixed event. I decided to just drive out to Cali, and go to the beach and relax. So I did, I missed the tournament I really wanted to play so I could get my mind right. Low and behold it worked, the first event I played after I got back I took 3rd in a 3k buyin'.

Joseph Jagger - The Story of a Real Roulette Payout
The success and popularity of the game of roulette, is partially due to it's rich and enduring history. The game itself has been around for over 250 years so it's hardly surprising it has developed a whole variety of systems, stories and even legends. Joseph Jagger is a name familiar to all those who seek a system or method that will make their fortune in the casinos through a massive roulette payout.
His background was a long way from the glittering casinos, he was in fact a mill engineer in a small town in Yorkshire. But his inspiration came from his interest in mechanics and in particular the roulette wheel, he was convinced that many of these roulette wheels would have built in imperfections that if identified could create a small bias in the numbers that were produced. In the casinos of Europe, the house edge is so small that any slight advantage or bias would create the possibility of huge winnings for a disciplined gambler with access to this information.
For most people the dream would have stopped there, but Joseph Jagger was no dreamer he put his plans into practice. In 1873 he hired a group of 6 clerks and set off for Monte carlo, a daunting journey from a small mill town in Yorkshire. His clerks were the 'clockers' who would analyse and record every spin on as many roulette wheels as possible in order to spot some bias. The casinos simply had never seen anything quite like this, so they allowed the clockers in to do their work.
In 1875 the next phase of the plan was ready for action, the clockers though they had identified a single biased wheel that appeared to favour a certain group of numbers. Joseph didn't hang around and instantly started betting on that specific wheel. His very first day he won over $70,000 an enormous sum in 1875. Of course the bias was not so obvious that it guaranteed winning consistently but as any gambler knows an advantage or 'edge' will soon grow if you play sensibly. The second day Jagger alone won $300,000 and his growing band of followers won as well.
By this time Joseph Jagger had become a serious problem to the casinos who were losing vast amounts of money. They weren't quite sure how he was winning but they did guess correctly that it had something to do with the wheels. That night they switched all the table around and the next day Jagger was unaware that he was gambling at a different table. He lost heavily until he noticed his mistake, spotting the absence of familiar scratch marks on the wheel. He went in search of his 'biased' wheel and pretty soon started winning again. The Casino owners had now figured out the problem, the wheel was indeed biased due to some problem with the frets - the little dividers between the slots on a wheel. They replaced the offending equipment and removed the bias on that particular roulette wheel. With Jaggers advantage removed he started to lose heavily, but he was no mug and soon stopped gambling and cashed in his winnings. His profit was something equal to about 5 million dollars today, he paid up his associates and returned to Yorkshire to quit his job and invest his winnings.
This amazing man was often touted as the 'man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo' although this is not quite true he achieved amazing success. He certainly engineered one of the biggest roulette payouts ever and the engineer from Yorkshire certainly caused a stir.

Seven Card Stud Poker Rules - Everything You Need to Know
There are four basic things you need to be able to play Seven Card Stud Poker, a 52-card deck, opponents, chips and more importantly, the Seven Card Stud Poker rules and know how. Money is involved in this game and should therefore be taken seriously. It is necessary that before you play with real money on the line, you are already knowledgeable of the Seven Card Stud Poker rules.
The 7-card Stud poker is actually considered a classic poker game already. When playing as a newcomer, it is important to note that you may pick your final 5 card hand from a seven card choice. You may simply get the 5 ones that can best give you the highest hand. Next step is to put in the ante. Starting to the left, the dealer will give each player two cards each faced down (the hole down cards) and one card each faced up.
The player holding the lowest face-up card will make the bet, a small one, which is referred to as "bring in". Betting will continue with the player on the left of the first one who made the bet and so on. Any of the players may do the following: raise, fold or call their cards. Once the bets have been made, face-up cards (known as the 4th street or the turn) will be dealt to each player. After this, the players will again have another round of bets this time starting with the player with the highest card shown. The next one with the higher face up fourth street will be the next to make the best and so on. Once the betting is completed, a fifth card, otherwise called the fifth street or "the river" will again be dealt to the players face up. Betting will again be made by each player. Another card, the sixth one, will again be dealt to the players and betting will again be made by them. The final card, the seventh one, is dealt face down to players with remaining hand. Then, the final betting will be made. The players will now have to show to each one their hands as the showdown starts. The one who has the best 5-card hand from the seven cards that was dealt to them will win.
The game is actually very easy and entertaining. It therefore comes as no surprise that more and more people are getting interested with playing this poker game. Even the rules and how the games are played are readily available online for those who may not know them yet. The Seven Card Stud poker rules itself can easily be accessed online by just Googling the words. All that has to be learned, as well as the poker games that you may want to join in will be accessed through the internet. Even poker games of all types can be played online. Various online poker game websites can easily satisfy your want to play the game any time of the day.

Betfair Poker - Everything You Need to Know
Online poker is becoming bigger and bigger with poker players today. One of the reasons is the convenience it provides. When before, you would actually have to be in a real casino just to have fun at poker and make some money, today, you could do all of that and more by simply staying online. Indeed, one of the most effective ways to earn money from the Internet is to play online poker. People who do not have special skills in writing and web designing could make a name for themselves if they can be excellent poker players. While it is true that poker involves a lot of luck and is essentially gambling, knowing the right strategies in playing would do a lot in putting almost every hand to your advantage.
One of the best online poker sites today is Betfair Poker. Here, you could actually be confident that the money you deposited will be placed in your account and nowhere else. Scams are most prevalent on various websites on the Internet so it is hard to find an online poker site that is actually genuine but here, you can be certain that you would be able to play online poker for real and get the chance to win really big money.
One thing that could assure you that this poker website is really genuine is its offline activities. Since Betfair is actually one of the largest sports betting company in Europe, you can guarantee that this company operates for real. It is just starting out in the field of online poker but has quickly gained popularity among online poker players because of the large bonuses given to the new members and the biggest winners. A feature on this website that could enable you to really win lots of money is multi-tabling. Unlike most online poker player websites, this website actually allows you to open multiple tables and engage in several poker games. This feature would be especially useful in sit and go games because you can leave and enter a table whenever you please. If the situation on a certain table goes out of hand, you can just leave that table and go to another one. When you see that there is an opportunity for you to make it big again on your previous table, you can just reenter and start making bets. That is just one of the advantages of multi-tabling and you can successfully do that in Betfair Poker.
Betfair is pretty new in the field of poker so it is not affiliated yet with any poker group. However, even if this is the case, Betfair Poker still performs well and provides the needs of their members. The bonuses are still desirable and the customer service is reliable. The members of their staff are friendly and respond to the queries and complaints as soon as they were made. Because of this, players do not get annoyed and those who are having difficulty with the rules can easily get the answers they need.

What is a Full Tilt Poker Referral Code?
They offer what is known as a Full Tilt referral code which you can use to receive bonuses and rewards throughout your time with FTP. In order to be able to take advantage of the bonuses offered by using a referral code you will need to use the correct code when you register your account.

When you sign-up using a Full Tilt referral code you will be given a 100% bonus up to $600 on your first deposit which you will begin to earn the second you start playing poker. You will also be able to earn rewards and play in special tournaments which only players who used the code can play in. The bonus money is credited to your poker account as you earn points from playing poker in Full Tilt so you don't need to wait until you clear the entire amount before you get any of it.

The referral code can only be assigned to your account when you first sign-up your account with FTP so if you already have an account then you won't be able to use one. If you're a new poker player though, then you will be able to use a referral code when you sign-up which will earn you a nice bonus and the possibility of playing in potential special events.

Full Tilt Poker is one of the safest poker rooms on the internet and they take their security really seriously which is important for us players. If you don't want to need to worry about your details being safe so that you can focus on playing poker then I'd advise playing with Full Tilt Poker.

Poker Stars - Your Ultimate Strategy Guide
If you play poker then you've probably had poker nights with your friends, where you and the gang sit around the dinner table and pretend you're professional card sharks, playing for high stakes. But suppose you think your poker stills are good enough to compete with real professional poker players? Well, then you log on to the Poker Stars web-site and set up an account in order to try your playing expertise.
Pocker Stars is the world's largest online poker site, where you can play ten varieties of the game, including Texas Hold'Em, Five Card Draw and Omaha. You can hone your skills at the free play-only site before logging in to the main site, where you play for real money. Pocker Stars hosts weekly tournaments, which attract thousands of online players and are open to everybody as long as they can afford the buy-in. Pocker Stars also hosts the World Championship of Online Poker, the largest online poker competition on the planet.
But before you set your sights that high, you need to develop a strategy. What is the best strategy for winning at online poker?
One problem with playing online poker is that you can't see your opponents' faces. Poker is as much about bluffing as it is who has the best hand and thus, being able to read the other players' expressions and body language is a vital part of a winning strategy. But you can't do this in an online game, so you have to rely on other clues, or "tells", as to how strong or weak your opponent's hand is. One way you can do this is to use "betting tells" or reading how your opponent bets.
There are three types of such tells: how long your opponent takes to make his bet, how much he bets, and his use of the 'in-turn' box (used by players playing more than one game at a time). For example, if he pauses before he makes his bet, he may possess a weak hand. If you play with particular opponents long enough, you can detect patterns in their tells that you can exploit.
The most significant of these tells is said to be the use of the 'in-turn' box. There are three boxes he can pick: the check box, the check/fold box or the check/call box. Which of these boxes he uses reveals information about him which you can exploit. Your opponent also reveals information through his insta-bets and insta-raises when he is not in the blinds (forced bets placed in the pot to begin bidding).
Of course, experienced players are aware of this and will try to manipulate you by giving false tells, so you should also be wary. Study each player's style carefully and eventually idiosyncrasies in their playing styles will emerge that will alert you if an opponent is trying to trick you.
Learning how to read tells online may be one of the most important tools in your strategy box apart from mastering pot odds. Perfecting the skill of reading tells is a big step towards guaranteeing that you will do well in online poker games and tournaments like those on the Pocker Stars site.

Wild World of Pot-Limit Omaha
When you play poker you have to have your mojo fully engaged, and a few months ago mine had up and left the building. It would seem the 12 years of hold'em was plenty and I needed a new challenge. Pot limit Omaha was the answer, as it is for an increasing number of players. The brutal fact is hold'em games, particularly cash games, have become far tougher in the last two or three years. The general standard of play has increased a lot, the games are tighter, more aggressive and there are fewer casual players.
In Omaha the level of awareness is far lower, there is much less educational information and the game is not as close to being solved as hold'em. The problem when you move across from hold'em is that at first you are the dead money. Aggression is still key to being a winner, isolating limpers and weak players in pots, talking and keeping the lead in a hand, three-betting in position light, check-raise bluffing scary boards and so are still going to be valuable in PLO.
Also your well-honed basic poker instincts about hands and your opponents' tendencies will help you get a head start in the new game, however you will need knowledge and skill to be a winner.
Playing pre-flop is still debated about the amount of hands you can profitably and win. Good six-max players settle around a 27/21 (VPIP/PFR) style. However, there are players playing much looser, playing up to 40% of there hands. You certainly can win by 'nitting it up' at the low to medium stakes and playing tight pre-flop.
There will usually be a bigger gap between your VPIP and PFR numbers than in hold'em as you can cold call more raises and you'll also find yourself in more multi-way pots. The classic adage that hold'em players overvalue big pairs in Omaha still holds true. It takes a lot of trail, error and loss to finally accept that with Q-Q or J-J in them (unless highly coordinated) just aren't very strong.