Noon 85 Poker

Flush draws. They can drive a player crazy when facing off against someone else who’s on one. And there will be times when you think you’re getting beaten by nothing but flushes.

So how do you get somebody off a flush draw, what’s the best strategy? Lord knows, you can keep going on having your set or top two-pair crushed on the river by a lucky heart.

Well, one thing most internet poker players playing on Poker Stars would try as the obvious method of attack is to trap the flush right away, bet small enough to keep them hunting but big enough to make it worth your while to stay in the game. This is a fine strategy, but I know many players will tell you during a bad run of beats, you feel like the trapped instead of the trapper.

Another, less profitable but usually more successful approach is to take ‘em out as soon as possible. If you see a flush draw right after the flop, bet big to get them out. I like this approach if you can stand behind your bet, but unfortunately in a world of less-than-knowledgeable poker players, you’ll find it a futile attempt to put them off their draw. Why? Because they don’t know the odds anyway, and getting them to fold their flush draw is one of the hardest things to do in the game. They think they’re sitting on a powerhouse and have a skewed view of the realities of their hand.

Ultimately, if that’s the case when you play poker online, you want to take advantage of their ignorance. (It’s either that or hope you’re betting high enough for them eventually to “get it” and fold.)

Bet small, keep them in the game. If you are a true poker star and you know you’re winning the percentages game the whole way through the hand, milk them out for what you can without investing yourself in the game too much in case they do catch their flush. Mathematically, you’ll take the pot more often than not, and hopefully teach these guys to do their homework instead of getting wide-eyed over the possibility of a upper-middle strength hand in the game. What this also will do is allow you to control the pot size while at the same time giving your opponent the illusion that their adding to the pot. If they’re calling, they must be certain they’re going to get the flush, so play off this to your advantage as much as possible.

Great hand I’m about to cover here from a high stakes poker tournament.

The action starts with Gus Hansen sitting on pocket fives pre-flop at our table. Daniel Negreanu does him one better with pocket sixes. Hansen gets the pot growing with a $2,000 raise. Negreanu bumps it to $5K, and the games begin. A third player wisely realizes he’s out of position against two greats and folds his Ace, Queen. Hansen calls and the flop is out.

9, 6, 5. Ohhh, sweet. Two sets made from the flop. Negreanu holds a comfortable 80 percent advantage, and after Hansen checks (presumably to set a trap), Negreanu bets like it with an $8,000 raise. Hansen plays with his chips a bit, trying to give off a “I’m thinking about limping along” vibe, and then raises to $26K. Will Negreanu think he’s bluffing? Probably not, but it does give him something to think about. So far, two big-timers playing their hands perfectly.

Negreanu of PokerStars just calls, and the pot grows to more than $63K. The river is, wait for it, the last 5. Hansen makes quads, and you couldn’t tell from his face whether he’d won the lottery or his mother just died. He’s exhibiting great control. My blood pressure probably would’ve flushed my face redder than a raspberry.

Hansen comes out with just $24K. As the commentators note, you know Negreanu is putting him on at least a set of fives, but nothing more, possibly not even a boat, and he’s trying to think how he can pull the most chips into the pot as possible. He just calls, another ploy that will horribly backfire on him and he doesn’t even know it yet. Gotta love this game.

Hansen know, showing patience and control like nothing I’ve ever witnessed on TV or in person, checks his quads. He lays the trap, and Negreanu comes right in with a $65K bet. Hansen goes all-in, and before Negreanu of absolutepoker.com even calls or folds, at $408K they’ve created the biggest pot in the history of high stakes poker.

Negreanu, who is the spokesman for PokerStars net calls the $167K raise and quickly realizes he’s been beat. But as he is Daniel Negreanu, he takes it politely, and he shrugs his shoulders like only man who just lost $300K could.

and you’re thinking about becoming a professional poker player, but you don’t know what to do. We’re going to spend some time today going through some questions you need to ask yourself if you’re contemplating on becoming a professional poker player.

* The most important thing you need to ask yourself is what your bankroll is for poker and also for your expenses. If you’re single then your expenses are probably pretty low and you might be able to afford trying to become a professional poker player, but if you have a family it’s much more difficult and stressful. You also need to make sure you can handle some losing streaks at the poker table and still have enough money to bounce back.

* Playing poker on TitanPoker as your job can make it a lot less fun and a lot more stressful since you need to make money when you play. It’s important you have friends and family who know what you’re doing and who you can rely on for a support system. There is no doubt you’re going to run into some rough times in the early months of your career, and it’s great to have some family and friends who can help you through the rough patches.

* If you want to play poker everyday on PokerStars as your career you need to make sure that you absolutely love playing poker. If you don’t love playing the game then you’re going to quickly become bored of playing the game everyday and then you’re going to be jobless. When you’re not playing for fun and you’re playing for your job the game becomes a bit different and it isn’t the same as sitting down on a weekend to play for fun.

* You’re going to have enormous amounts of pressure on yourself and especially in the early months of your career while you’re building up your savings. When you have this much pressure on you a lot of people can’t handle it and collapse under the pressure. If you can’t handle the pressure then you shouldn’t try becoming a poker player for your career.

* You need to keep taxed as a poker player and every three months you need to cut a check for the IRS or else they might come after you which isn’t worth the hassle since it’s a felony. Typically you should hire an accountant to take care of your taxes for you throughout the year so that they’re ready to be sent out every three months to the IRS.

* Playing poker for a living on PokerStars.com is going to be long and tough hours as well and you might end up spending more time at the poker table then you did at your old job. Some days it will take 12-15 hours to make a small profit and you can’t do anything about this except deal with it. Your social life is going to need to take a hit and your health can even become in jeopardy due to the long hours needed in the poker room.

While there are several ways to acquire rakeback when you play poker online, how do you know which way is the best way for you to get rakeback going for you? By understanding how online poker players go about getting rakeback set up, you can make a more informed decision as to what the best way to get your rake back when playing poker online.

Approach a Poker Room Directly

The first way you can get rakeback is by approaching a poker room directly. You can typically send an email to the poker site, which may or may not be handled in a quick manner – asking them for rakeback. While this method of getting rakeback might be more favorable to you in the there is no middle man in the equation, it is not all it would seem cracked up to be.

Firstly, the poker site may not get back to you – and even if they do, they might not approve your account for rakeback. If you are an existing player, while most poker rooms offer poker rakeback as a retention tool – like Ultimatebet.com – they want to see volume from you as a player. If you are a new poker player, they may require seeing your player statistics from a competing poker site. Additionally, they may not give you the top rate of rakeback for their poker site. Also, like it or not, some poker sites are horrible in responding to their players unless it is a cashout issue. Therefore, there is a chance that either the poker room does not respond, or maybe they even decline your request for rakeback for any number of reasons (you do not push through enough volume; they do not wish to offer it to you at this time, etc.).

Use a Rakeback Site

The most popular and effective way to get rakeback is to sign up via a dedicated rakeback provider. A dedicated rakeback provider sets up agreements with one or many online poker sites, which are usually favorable in nature for the poker player. These providers of rakeback can typically negotiate the top deals for you as a poker player, because the rakeback sites drive volume of players to their poker sites. Additionally, many rakeback providers provide added value – whether it be special tournaments for players receiving rakeback through them, or dedicated customer support, or special bonuses on top of the rakeback.

Additionally, the approval process is typically instantaneous, as it is rare that you will be denied rakeback – providing you are willing to open a new poker account. When seeking rakeback from online poker sites, the best method of getting a rakeback calculator going for you is to use a poker site dedicated to setting up and providing rakeback on behalf of their customer base.