Hello mates! We have pleasure to tell you all that the store link on the site is now open to take your orders! I have placed an order myself and I am excited to finally get a “team” hat and t-shirt. Go ahead and browse, there is all kinds of apparel and cool merchandise to choose from! Keep an eye out for other site improvements coming soon!

Hello mates The Captain here with another shit talkin slur for ya! On occasion we get the pleasure of being short stacked at a table where there is a bully that has marked us “the weak” spot! Welll mates, being card dead doesn’t give us much of an option but take the bully’s abuse. WRONG! Choose your spot and SHUV~ all your chips allin not once but every time the bully comes after your blinds! The Captain here to tell ya mates, Texas NL Holdem poker is NOT a passive game and prepare yourselves to SHUV~ your chips into your next table bully! If you don’t put the ole crackalack to his ass, you definately will set the record straight and he will find new blinds to steal! NOT YOURS! Remember mates being passive in this game will only take you so far! Good luck in your next games!

Donkabulary definition

SHUV~ :What we need to do to fend off a table bully that has obviously made us the mark as the weak spot and we decide to take no more of his non-sense!

Types of Poker Players

Most poker players fall into one of four categories, and once you’re experienced enough, you’ll be able to place your opponents into particular groups very quickly. This is a detailed definition of the different types of poker players you’ll find. As you play poker online you should try to pick up as much information about a player to accurately place them into a category.

But remember the boundaries of the different types of poker players are not clearly defined and the best pokers players can change their style of play very quickly to mislead the rest of the table.

Types of Poker Players :

A Fish: The weakest Texas Hold’em player there is. Also the most prevalent, fishes have poor hand selections and will call just about anything (also known as calling stations). This person has very little skill or discipline,investing into too many hands, hoping for a lucky break. Chips are earned mainly from these playes. However, fish players enjoy the bluffing element of poker, so don’t be surprised if a fish tries to make a move with nothing or slow-playing by checking the best hand.

Basically, a fish is just a bad player. You can’t bluff a bad player. When a fish has some kind of hand and is still in the pot, it’s obvious he’s got something. Play straight forward - no tricks or fancy plays against these players.

Weak-Tight: These players understand the fundamentals of winning at poker and have better hand selectionk but with one exception - they’re afraid. They are quite passive and wil often check or call rather than bet or raise. They fear losing a pot with an average hand and get bullied around with raises. This player may seem easy to bully around, but are capable of trapping you later on.

It’s better to lead with a bet if you’re acting before the weak-tight opponent rather than check. When you bet into a wak-tight player, their common reaction would be just calling or folding. If they fold, great, if they call they’re probably holding a decent hand, but are afraid to bet or raise at the pot because they’re skeptical they might lose the pot. So making a strong play at the Turn would scare them away.

Maniac: Also known as a loose aggressive Hold’em player, these players play as many hands as fishes but are inclined to raise and re-raise. It’s quite difficult to tell if they are bluffing or not. They are known to bully players by re-raising them off guard or having a decent hand will scare them away. Play tight against these opponents and trap these players to knock them out.

Play strong hands against these opponents (AK, AQ, KK, etc) or play a hand if you can see the flop for cheap, and if you hit a good hand on the flop, lead off with a bet. The maniac may try to play back and raise, but if you have a considerable hand, then don’t be shy to re-raise to make them second think their move.

The Rock: Super tight Hold’em player who plays premium hands. They play so few hands, that when they do limp in or call a bet, you’ll know exactly what they have (AA, AJ, KK, etc). Also known as the predictable player. So when a rock raises or calls your bet, you should have alarms flashing in your head that you up against a premium hand.

It’s best to stay out of the way when these players raise pre-flop. But knowing these players only hold big hands pre-flop, flops with no aces or face cards can be most profitable for you, knowing you rock opponent didn’t hit, unless they hold high pockets. Try to bet a substantial amount ot take the pot down.

Strong-Aggressive: These Hold’em players are at the top of the pyramid: Strategic and tactically sound players with the ability to adapt and change gears in every game. They have control over the tables and are much more eager to bet at the pot rather then call. They change pace at anytime, making them very unpredictable and feared by their opponents.

Posted By The General

Playing a Short Stack in Multi-table Tournaments

The key to succeeding in tournament play is being able to handle the ups and downs, because it’s not always going to go perfectly. Your chip stack is not always going to shoot upwards, which means you’ll often need to make good decisions when you don’t have a lot of chips.

Many players get frustrated when they have a short stack. They look down and see Ace-rag, King-Queen, King-Jack or some similar hand and they just focus on their own cards instead of seeing the whole picture. That kind of short-sightedness can quickly make a short stack even smaller and put the player on the rail.

Successfully playing a short stack takes a lot of determination. I believe it’s like a mental war when you have the short stack because it isn’t fun when you look around and everyone has all those chips. They’re getting to play fun hands like 9-10 suited and Jack-10 suited and you don’t have enough chips to play those hands, so you’re just sitting there watching while everyone else is playing poker.

I was playing in a $1,500 No-Limit tournament at the World Series of Poker* when I raised under the gun with pocket Kings. It was Day Two of the tournament and it was the first hand I’d played after about 90 minutes of folding. Another player went all-in behind me and it was one of those situations where she didn’t take her time to properly evaluate what had transpired so far. After not playing a single hand, I had raised with 40% of my stack in the earliest pre-flop position, which usually signals a monster. She pushed anyway with KJ and I think if she’d taken her time, she might have made a different decision.

You need to have patience when you’re short stacked. You can’t let poor results from previous hands affect you. Instead, I think it’s really good to tighten up after losing a pot so that you can regroup. To recover from being short stacked, you really have to take your time and evaluate every situation. Who cares if you’re taking longer than anyone else at the table?

Before the words “all-in” escape your mouth, take a couple of deep breaths, take 20 seconds and take a look at where the raise is coming from, how much it is for, and how much the person has behind. So many times I see people coming over the top of other players and not realizing their opponent is already committed and that their chips are going in the pot. Before you push all of your chips into the middle on a call with a short stack, look at the person you’re playing, re-evaluate your hand, the raise, and what position it’s coming from at the table. You have to remember that as long as you have chips you have a chance to climb from the bottom of the ladder to the chip lead.

That brings up another key point: I don’t care what anyone else has in the tournament because when I start worrying about how many chips other people have, I’m not focused on the task at hand, which is increasing my chip stack. Short stacked or not, I own my chips until I push them into the middle; it’s up to my best judgment to determine the best time to commit them to a pot.

Being on the short stack demands that you make the right decision every time you play a pot because making the wrong one will bust you. Don’t be in such a hurry to shove those chips in. Find the right spot. Don’t get frustrated by a string of poor starting hands. At some point, you might have to take a gamble and push if you can open the pot, but until that time, you control your own destiny. Effectively reading the table and the situation before you act will help you survive and, quite possibly, even win.

Posted By The General

Hello team, what is new in your game of online poker? Anything new to report to the team? There has been an endless contraversial debate over the question of “Are these donkeys who we want in our hands calling us down to the river with rags?” Well The Captain here to tell ya mates these are exactly the players we are looking for when we are looking to get a lil action on our pocket AA or KK! Of course giving these donkeys “The Crackalack” and railing their asses becomes “Donkalicious” and there is nothing better than a lil donkey for dinner! The Captain here to tell ya mates, make sure you make your next meal at Pokerstars “Donkalicious”!

Donkabulary definition

Donkalicious: The delightful yummy feeling of busting up any donkey who calls off all their chipstack trying to get lucky with their rags!

Understanding Implied Odds

Most players know what pot odds and implied pot odds (aka implied odds) are, and how to calculate them. Just about every poker book or website has a section on the topic. Still, I often see people making mistakes in calculating implied odds - especially when playing online. Too often, implied odds are invoked as a reason for a play when “wishful thinking” would be the more accurate description of the situation.

A perfect example came up in a recent tournament on Full Tilt Poker. The table was short-handed and playing rather loose pre-flop, but tight after the flop. The blinds were getting high, and a hand developed where we got to see a showdown between a loose player who I’ll call “Loosey” and a player I’ll call “Impy.”

Impy had no pair and only an inside straight draw on the flop, yet he called a pot-sized bet from Loosey. Impy hit his straight on the turn, but was only able to extract a small amount from his opponent and ended up checking down the river. Impy’s fuzzy logic on the flop was that, although he was behind, if he hit his hand he’d get paid off at greater odds than it required to chase his four-outer. As we saw in the hand, he got part of what he wanted (the straight), but failed to extract enough from his opponent to make his call on the flop reasonable. Furthermore, Loosey was short-stacked, had top-pair with a weak kicker, and was unlikely to have paid off much more than he did.

So, what can Impy do to improve his game? Here are some guidelines for using implied odds to greater advantage:

Only Play Against Big Stacks

When two players are contesting a pot, their maximum implied odds are exactly the same: the size of the shorter stack. If you and your opponent both have large stacks relative to the blinds and antes, your implied odds are much better than if one of you is sitting on a smaller stack, simply because there are more chips that can be committed to the pot during the hand. Players who are short-stacked tend to play tighter and are less likely to try to pick off a possible bluff because they don’t have any extra chips to spare, unlike a tall stack.

Don’t Play Short-Handed

The more opponents there are at your table, the greater the likelihood that one or more of them will pick up a good hand, be in on the flop, and ultimately pay you off when you hit your draw. In short-handed or heads-up situations, you have to get very lucky: first you have to hit your hand, then you have to hope your opponent has a good enough hand to pay you off. My advice is, unless you have a really good read on your opponents in the hand, don’t even consider implied odds unless you are at a full 9- or 10-handed table.

Play Against Tight-Aggressive Players

Implied odds are greatest against tight-aggressive players. Why? Because these are the players who are likely to have strong hands after the flop, and are likely to commit a lot of chips to defend their good hands. Tight-aggressive players are also going to be involved in smaller pots on the flop, and will check-raise more often than loose players when out of position. This gives you free-card opportunities, which improve your implied odds. Psychologically, once involved in a hand, tight players may have a harder time letting go after the flop than loose players who are always in action. Over time, those loose players are going to have a harder time finding a reason to play with you after the flop.

The key to playing against tight-aggressive players after the flop is to keep the pot as small as possible until you hit your draw. If they put a lot of pressure on you, you’re better off folding your draw and waiting for a better situation. Not every hand can be played profitably after the flop.

Incorporate Bluffs and Semi-Bluffs

If you are drawing on the flop, you should be betting and raising instead of passively checking and calling to hit your hand. This gives you two ways to win by:

Forcing your opponents to fold, or
Hitting your draw
This is called a semi-bluff. The only time you should play passively is if you think a free card will help your situation more than getting your opponent to fold.

Another thing to remember is that you are definitely going to miss your draws more often than not. In these cases, you should sometimes be bluffing, but the question is, how much and how frequently?

Let’s say the pot has $100 in it and you have $100 left, and you are deciding whether to bluff on the river. You’re giving your opponent 2-1 odds to call you, which is exactly how often you should bluff in that situation (two times for every one that you don’t).

How do you choose the right balance between keeping the pot small after the flop and playing aggressively as I am advocating here? That’s the art, and it requires lots of practice and a good read on your opponents. You may want to pick up Sklansky’s Theory of Poker to learn more about optimal bluffing frequency and semi-bluffs. By employing these techniques correctly, you can vastly increase your implied odds and positive expectation.

Posted By The General

Playing Heads Up

Heads-up play is one of the most important aspects of poker, and many players could benefit from strengthening this part of their game.

Position is crucial in heads-up play. So is aggression and reading your opponent. In fact, playing aggressively in position can often be the deciding factor in whether or not you win the pot. You can have a much worse hand, but if you trust your reads, you can often take the pot with the right board.

Playing Position

I don’t recommend playing that many raised pots out of position - in other words, don’t call a lot of raises from the big blind. Hands like two face cards, A-8 and up, and pairs are worth re-raising with. Hands like 8-7 suited are fairly worthless because suited connectors like these can be easily dominated by larger hands and lose a lot of their value heads up.

In general, I’m looking for big cards like K-10. Even though these cards are easily dominated in ring games, they play much stronger heads up. If I hit a big pair with cards like these I can feel comfortable going with it, which is something that’s hard to do with middle cards like 6-5.

I’m usually going to do one of two things in the big blind when I’m heads up; fold or re-raise. My standard re-raise is between three and four times my opponent’s bet, and by pumping up the pot pre-flop, I’m making it difficult for my opponent to call me with marginal hands. If he does call, I can always make a post-flop continuation bet or lay down my hand if I’ve missed and my opponent leads out at the pot.

The only time I call out of position is when my opponent plays back at me by moving in a lot. My decision here comes back to paying attention to my opponent’s tendencies and going with my reads.

Reading is Fundamental

Reading your opponent becomes even more important in heads-up play. Because your opponent is likely to raise with a much larger range of hands heads up, making reads is much more difficult. Learning to gauge your opponent’s hand requires paying close attention to their patterns. Do they always raise the button? How often do they call your button raises? Do they ever re-raise from the big blind? Asking questions like these helps to narrow down their possibilities.

You have to trust your reads enough to act on them. If you sense strength, are you willing to lay down the second-best hand? If you sense weakness, will you apply the pressure it takes to win the pot?

In my experience in both ring games and heads up, many players try to accumulate chips too quickly. If you just sit back and wait for your opponents to make mistakes, you’ll end up with all of the chips in the end. For instance, you should avoid making pot-sized bets when smaller bets will usually accomplish the same goals with less risk. Sometimes half-pot bets are even too high and betting the minimum is enough to gather the information you need about your opponent’s hand.

This becomes especially true when your opponent becomes short-stacked. In these cases, I will usually limp on the button once they are around the 10 big blind range. If I do raise, I must have a hand I’m willing to go with because my opponent’s only options are folding or pushing. Some people think it’s weak to limp on the button, but I don’t want to keep folding semi-decent hands in this situation. By limping when my opponent is short, they have to decide if they want to gamble with a high-risk/low-reward all-in move to win one of my blinds.

In heads-up tournaments you want to play in position, trust your reads, and play small pots to build a lead. Once you have a 3-1 lead, then you’re looking for hands to gamble with against your opponent’s short stack.

I’ve had a lot of success using these principles in heads-up play; they were instrumental in helping me win the 2007 National Heads-Up Championship. Put these ideas into practice and you may find the extra edge you need the next time you’re playing heads up.

Posted By The General

Hey mates.. Any wins to report to the team? We as poker players always enjoy the feeling of getting inside the bubble when playing online tourneys as there is always a breath of relief and the sensation of curiousity as we see how far we can climb the money ladder. Of course we will always have 1st in our sights for the largest percentage of the prize pool and taking 5th 0r 4th is not really going to be acceptable to us. Well mates when we find ourselves short stacked with 4 players between us and 1st place The Captain calls this transition “Bang time”! As they say, “this can get ugly” and The Captain is ready to hit ya with the ugly stick! BANG! Of course we will reserve “Bang time” for when we are short stacked in our darkest time of need at a final table!

Donkabulary definition

Bang time: The urgency to regain momentum in order to take down a monster 1st place win when climbimg the money ladder!

When To Continuation Bet

When you raise pre-flop in a game of No-Limit Hold ‘em and are called, you’re faced with a decision when the flop hits the board. Should you put out a continuation bet on the flop or should you check and let the turn come off for free? Of course, there are a variety of factors that will effect any decision in a hand of poker, but if I was the one who raised pre-flop, I’ll put out a continuation bet on the flop a large proportion of the time.

I can afford to put out a lot of continuation bets, whether I hit or not, because my post-flop bets are usually pretty small - about half the size of the pot. Pre-flop, I normally raise to three times the big blind, then on the flop, I’ll put out a bet of the same amount. When I bet these relatively small sums, I don’t put a whole lot at risk. If I get check-raised on a flop that I missed, I can fold without having lost a whole lot of chips. Most of the time, however, my opponents will have missed the flop, so my small bet will win me the pot right there.

While I prefer to put out continuation bets on most flops, there are some situations where checking is the right play. For example, say I raised with K-T and was called by the big blind. The flop of A-J-2 gives me a gutshot straight draw. I know my opponent in the hand likes to check-raise on top pair. When he checks to me on the flop, I’m happy to check behind and have the free draw to the nuts. If my opponent hit something like two-pair, I could double up if the Queen comes on the turn.

I also like to check the flop in hands where I’m either very far ahead or very behind. Say I raise pre-flop in late position with pocket Kings. The flop comes A-J-3. Here, my pair of Kings is either very far ahead (if he missed completely or has something like pocket 5s) or is very far behind (if he hit an Ace). In a spot like this, I don’t want to get check-raised and I don’t want to just give up, so I’ll often check the flop and then call a bet on the turn. I can then try to get a read on my opponent if he bets the river. The worst thing I can do in this sort of situation is to put out a big bet on the flop and then call an all-in check-raise.

As with every aspect of poker, it’s vital that your continuation bets don’t become predictable. If you check every time you miss and bet every time you make top pair or better, then you’re opponents will know exactly how to play against you. They’ll be able to bet any pair with total confidence. So occasionally, you’ll want to check when you hit top pair on the flop. Your hand will be disguised and you’ll stand to win a big pot if you hit trips on the turn. Showing that you can sometimes check a good hand will keep your opponents off balance.

It’s a good idea to put out frequent continuation bets, but also be sure to look for spots where a check may be to your advantage. If you’ve got a draw or hold a hand that will be difficult to play for a raise, a flop check may be your best play. Also be sure to mix up your play - being unpredictable is vital to playing winning poker

Posted by The General

Playing Small and Medium Pocket Pairs

Ring Game Play

In ring games, I like to build a really small pot when I have these hands in early and middle position. Sometimes I’ll make a min raise; other times I’ll just limp in. I want to keep the pot small when I have a small or medium pair because I lay them down if I’m faced with a large re-raise.

If I min-raise or limp in and an opponent makes a small raise, I can call, but if I open with a big raise and my opponent comes over the top, I’m not usually getting the right odds to call. By keeping the pot small, I have a better chance of seeing a flop and I may pull other players into the hand. Then if I do flop a set, someone’s going to pay me off. To me, the biggest moneymakers in No-Limit ring games are small sets, like 2s and 3s, because they’re so disguised.

A lot of players get overly aggressive with the middle pairs: 8s, 9s, and 10s. They raise before the flop with them, but if the blinds fold, they’re only going to win a small pot. I’d much rather try to win a big pot by flopping a set. If the flop comes J-8-2 and I have pocket 8s while my opponent has a hand like K-J, I’m going to win a big pot a lot of the time.

If I’m in late position and have a small or medium pair, I’ll raise in hope of taking the blinds if nobody else has entered the pot. If one of the blinds calls, I’ll try to win the pot with a bet on the flop, but if both blinds call my raise, I’ll be more cautious. Against multiple opponents I’m trying to flop a set. If I don’t and there are several overcards on the board, I’ll check if it gets checked to me and I’ll probably fold if one of my opponents bets. If I’m in late position and someone in early position raises pre-flop, I’ll generally just call and hope to flop a set.

Tournament Play

In tournaments you have to treat small and medium pairs much differently that you do in ring games. You have to play them more conservatively because you can’t usually rebuy. In fact, I will often fold 2s, 3s, 4s and 5s under the gun in tournaments. In ring games, I always play these hands because of my implied odds. Even if I lose 15 of these hands in a row, I can always rebuy. In a tournament, if I lose five times in a row, it’s going to really hurt my stack.

How I play small pairs in tournaments often depends on the size of my chip stack. If I have a big stack and get dealt a pair of 3s or 4s, I might raise, hoping to win the blinds and antes. However, if I’m on a short stack and in late position, I might just move all-in.

In tournaments I try to stay away from middle pairs because they can cause big problems and tough decisions. Let’s say I call a pre-flop raise with pocket 9s and the flop comes 10-4-2. In a ring game, I would check and call or possibly check-raise trying to find out if my 9s were good. In a tournament, however, that’s scarier because you really have to be careful about the amount of chips you use to get this information.

My decision is easy when there’s an Ace or King on the flop, but when the flop is 10-4-2 and I’ve got pocket 9s, it becomes very difficult. You can’t fold every time, but you don’t want to get too crazy in these situations either. Middle pairs are so difficult to play that I notice that I often find my best tournament results come when I simply stay away from them.

The beauty of small and medium pairs is that they very rarely get you into trouble. However, when they do, it really hurts. When the $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em event at this year’s World Series of Poker* got down to the last three tables, I opted to defend my blind with pocket 3s. The flop came J-8-3. My opponent and I got all our money into the pot, but as it turned out, he had pocket 8s. When you do flop set over set and you have the bottom end of it, you really get punished. But when that’s not the case - and it usually isn’t - you’re going to be in great shape.

Posted by The General