Theory has it, that if you were to enter a free poker tournament at a no limit table and manage to steal the blinds just one time when the deal button rounds the table, that you could win the tourney. This is even though you have never raked in a huge pot.

This isn’t something I would recommend you do when playing in your next tournament, but it does suggest the importance of stealing the blinds. So, lets go through what ‘stealing the blinds’ actually means when playing free poker.

In short, stealing the blinds is defined as making a pre-flop raise that is designed to induce folds and win the hand pre-flop. When making this move the value of your hole cards is of no importance. You do not intend to see a flop and when successful all players remaining in the hand will fold.

A raise in late position with AQs that induces folds may have the same affect, but it is certainly not the same play.

Since our goal is to induce folds there are several things we must consider before pushing a raise across the line.

What is my position?

How many players have called the big blind pre-flop?

How many big blinds are left in our stack?

How healthy are the stacks of those left to act?

What is my image at the table?

If a decision to steel the blind is made, then it should preferably be made from the last position. This enables you to look at how the other players play pre-flop before making a decision to steal.

Generally we will only want to attack those players in the blinds as their money was in before they got a look at their cards. It is acceptable to make a play for the blinds against 1 (maximum of 2) calls, but only if those calls were made by players who have played loose all night.

It is never okay to try a steal when there is a raise in front of you! Let’s assume we are sitting on the button (last to act), there is one call (by a loose player) and the rest of the table has folded.

We must now determine if our chip stack will allow us to make a move on the blinds. The intent of our raise is to take away any equity in the pot and make the only smart play for the blinds a fold, but our stack must be adequate enough to afford to do so.

In our hand there is a small and big blind in the pot and we have 1 caller. Using $100 / $200 blinds as an example the pot is now at $500. In order to take the equity out of the pot for anyone considering a call we must raise at least 3 times the big blind.

Many players still see a 3x raise as standard, however I have found a raise of 3.5 or 4.5 to be extremely effective (3x = 600, 3.5x=700, 4.5x=900).

Ideally we would like to have 30X the big blind or more left in our stack after we make the raise (30x=6,000), so our chip stack of 8,000 will allow us to attempt the steal in this position.

Note that this play is much more effective when your image at the table is that of a tight player that raises with solid hands.

As with all poker, whether you are playing free poker tournaments or casino poker live, its all about patience. Sometimes it doesn’t matter what you do, another player will always have a better hand. Stealing the blind can be an effective method at times and gives you an opportunity to hold out for premium hands.

By: Nick Moseley

About the Author:

Get $600 Free to Play Poker Online!

It is essential to be able to calculate poker odds in order to play online poker. It gives you quite an insight into whether you are in a good or bad situation. It therefore allows players to make more money from their game than before. Many people who try doing calculations by themselves realize that it isn’t as easy as described in books. The reason for this is that when you read books, you have time to analyze and reflect on what you have read. On the other hand, in Poker you don’t have the luxury of time. Odds have to be calculated correctly in real time to win. Calculating the exact odds in the middle of a Poker Game is a trademark of only the best poker players. The situation gets even more complex when you are playing multi-tables.

One solution to the problem is to learn and remember the odds for common situations and draws. This includes learning start hands, number of outs in a straight draw, the probability of getting two-pair if you have a bottom pair and so on. This can be especially helpful if you are new to the game however, if you are chasing big money you will need to go further than this. You have to be ready to deal with all kinks of situations occurring at the poker table. Making smart decisions quickly is the key to success: such as when to raise and fold? All of these decisions are based on calculations.

Counting outs is probably the easiest and most convenient of calculating odds. The key is to doing it in real time while you also multi table. However, if you get it wrong or in an untimely manner, you are going to be eaten. Getting it right can help you decide when to play it loose and tight.

Finally, if you are interested in becoming a successful poker player, you will need the ability to calculate correctly in the shortest possible time. One way of going about this issue is to use a Poker calculator.

By: Zulfiqar Dodhia

About the Author:

Texas Holdem whether it be online or offline gameplay is without a doubt the most popular casino poker game period. You can visit any online poker gaming website and find literally hundreds of money tables for Texas Holdem going at once.

While the idea and style of Texas Holdem is simple and easy to understand, it is said by many experts that this game is the most complex of poker games. It’s complexity and the ability to favor any player at any point during the game makes this game both easy and hard to novice and experts alike. The re-raises are bigger than most typical played poker games and the action is quicker and faster with more players and bets.

Whether you lose or win, the money involved is never a small amount. This game has been often labeled King at the Casino, because all of the factors that make the game so enjoyable.

When you’re playing online poker and unable to observe facial reactions to try to get a perspective on this makes it much harder to do but also offers new ways of getting a gain on your opponent. When most novice or new players have a great hand, their reaction time is fairly quick and they will not hesitate to raise. While this isn’t something to go by all players, it’s common that most players will get excited and cocky once they see a great hand in their favor.

In online poker there is a button which represents a dealer. The dealer in most cases in an online game is a computer or sometimes a professional which makes a button essential. When you’re trying to determine your positional strategy, it’s important to keep up with the current location of the in-game button.

Texas Holdem uses blind bets to force an action without an ante. Meaning that the two players left of the button are forced to put in blind bets.

The blinds are usually quite small during the first two rounds of the game and this is when you should play tight. Obviously the quicker the blinds go up and the lesser your chips, the less tight you’ll be able to be. It’s best to limp on your bets with a small pair and if the flop gives you a set to bet aggressively. There’s plenty of players who are more than willing to throw in half of their chip stack with horrible starting hands and this should be used to your advantage and not to put fear in you.

Players who reach the position of the top 3 finishers are able to relax a bit more because at this point you’ve at least doubled the buy in amount and you’ve reached a point in the game where you can be extra aggressive when you sense a hint of weakness. Seek out your limpers with raisers and more than likely they will fold.

It’s easy to use this strategy at sit and go tournaments because you’re picking out the weeds early, and while you may still suffer your fair share of bad beats just like every other player there, you should finish off with a good sum of money.

By: Tyler James Ellison

About the Author:

Now that more people are getting hooked on online gambling, it would be good to look around the Internet and find the best place for you to play. One good site that you can go to is Poker Stars. Poker Stars is your online Poker casino. The possibility of winning big is real and you don’t even have to leave the comforts of your home because it’s online.

If you’re new to Poker Stars then here are great ideas that will help you to get started. Before you can play on Poker Stars you have to be ready to make a deposit. Once you do this, you can qualify for a roughly $50 bonus. The thing is you need to have a code for the web site to recognize and list your bonus in Poker Stars. If you don’t have one, then it’s a good idea to search around online for the code or you can go to flop turn river.

To optimize your gaming experience, you have the option to modify or make changes to the program. Customize by going to the Options Tab on the main page of the software.
From here, you can also change the settings for your time zone or select to show some hands. It’s all up to you. Customizing is so easy that’s why Poker Stars is considered user friendly. This is another reason why the number of players on this web site is growing.

In case, you prefer to have the hand history option, all you need to do is go to the Requests stab which is also on the Main Screen. The hand history feature allows you to view your statistics and it’s an awesome reference for you to play Poker strategically.

There are several ways on how you can use the hand history. You can set your software to view the hands you used for the past week, a specific number of hands, the hands used in a specific game or the last 100 hands. The hand option that you will choose will automatically be sent to the email address that’s linked to your account.

Once you have set your hand history, on your first game it would be good not to get a lot of hands. You should learn a technique which allows you to position and play hands that would lead you to win. If real money is involved, you should aim to win as well as have some fun.

Of course, you will have opponents when you play online Poker. It would be a great idea to study their moves or techniques. If there’s any pattern on how they bet, you definitely should take note of that. This is the first step for you to predict their habits and gain a winning edge.

Finally, never play on Poker Stars just because you want to learn something new. There’s a big change you will loose a lot of chips or money and this something you don’t want to happen.

By: Matthew Donaldson

About the Author: