Multiway Pots

Small pocket pairs hold ground during multiway pots. If you have experienced playing live NL, then you know that there are a lot of times that a number of players draw something out of the flop. Having a small pocket pair is a good advantage since you have a good chance of making sets which will be the best hand for a round. You need to be cautious though since it might not just be you who made a set. If you think everyone will call, go for a raise instead of limping into the pot.

Heads up

If you have a good position, small pocket pairs can help you during a heads up. In multiway battle for the pot, you will know the real value of the cards when you get a set but in heads up, you have to handle unimproved hands and win the pot so position is very important. Position dictates if you can go for a showdown even if you have a weak pair. You can bet for value and squeeze some extra from your weak hand.

Reraised pots

Small pocket pairs do not do well in re-raised pots especially during heads-up. If you opened the betting but an opponent re-raises while everyone else folds, you might be better off by folding your cards. If you have unimproved small pocket pairs, you have a very small chance to win against a re-raise.

The spokesperson of the poker tournament relayed that the armed men stormed into the Grand Hyatt in Berlin where the poker games are being held. They threatened the staff and caused a bit of a panic. The robbers ordered the poker tourney staff to give them the money.

Good thing no one was seriously injured but seven people were hurt. Among those who needed medical attention was a security guard who tried to stop one of the bad guys.

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According to a police report, the panic in the area cost the robbers one bag of their loot. The closed circuit television of the venue was able to capture scuffle. Poker tables were turned, players trying to hide under the tables, and people running all around.

The heist took about 10 minutes and witnesses commend the security staff for acting “very bravely” against the robbers armed with Kalashnikovs. There was no official report about the amount of money taken but a local press said that the raiders were able to get away with about $1.1 million, some of them belonging to Sven of Sven’s Tight Poker Tips.

The European Poker Tour (not the World Poker Tour!), the organizer of the event, is calling on anyone who may have videos or photos of the incident to turn it over to the police.

Here’s an excerpt:

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They’re not hugely educational, are they?

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I was hoping they’d mention some of Belgium’s biggest names in poker like Kenny Louagie or even Laurens De Smet.

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Chris “Jesus” Ferguson can actually sing. Much respect, winning the World Series of Poker and making millions playing the game is one thing – but this is… NICE!

In order to be able to conceal emotions from revealing all and mastering the practice of concealing these revealing signs it is important to first understand what habits and practices actually act as indicators. They are manifested in the form of behaviors that can either be seen or heard and can be used by strong players to gauge the strength of their opponents’ hands. Most newcomers to the field betray their state of mind and thus their playing position by unconsciously responding to their card hands and reacting on a mainly instinctive level.

These clues are broadly classified into three categories, on the basis of their form. When players react in the form of emitting sounds such as sighs or gasps the indicators are classified as audible. If the player has a noticeable physical reaction such as slumping of the shoulders or the chest expanding, the clues are said to be ‘visible’. And if the manner in which the play bets during the rounds is used to gauge the strength of the hand, the clue is classified into the category of ‘betting indicators’. Betting indicators become most important in the context of online games of poker where visible clues and audible reactions from the players cannot be used to discern the quality of the game.

In order to be able to conceal these tells you need to be able to recognize their source. Once you have come to identify certain behaviors as exclusive to arising out of nervousness or anxiety, you need to isolate these behaviors as unwanted and the work on controlling them and thus eliminating them. It is important to recognize the exact point at which these specific habits begin to establish so that you can nip the bud right away in the beginning.

Since it is not always easy to limit reactions and stop them from surfacing it is advisable to develop a routine that you can establish as yours so that other players cannot tell the difference between your different behaviors or emotions. This means creating some standard ways of laying your stacks of chips, picking up and scanning the hand of cards, laying the cards on the table and so on. This way, if you have a fixed way of behaving, the possibility of reacting to an unprecedented development instinctively is lowered significantly.

More on Poker Tells you need to learn and observe at the excellent poker blog Abdellatif Poker!

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Barry is so successful with the women. No joke!

A great game to watch, for sure. I honestly rate Patrik Antonius higher than Gus in PLO – but hey, when the cards are in the air…. they both like to gamble!

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