Certain pre-flop situations can appear time and time again when playing hold ‘em poker; for example, pocket pair versus smaller pocket pair means that 80% versus 20% is in favour of the bigger pair.

Pocket pair versus two over cards comes in the form of 55% versus 45% in favour of the pair. This situation is one of the most common situations to find yourself in when playing the game of poker. Televised commentators regard to this situation as a ‘classic race’ or a ‘coin flip’ scenario.

Pocket pair versus two under cards comes in with the odds of four to one, with 80% to 20% being in favour of the pocket pair.

Pocket pair versus one over card and one under card is another situation you may find yourself in and 70% to 30% is in favour of the pocket pair.

Pocket pair versus the same card and one over card is very similar to that of the above situation and offers odds of around two to one.

Over card and under card versus two middle cards has an odds valuation of about six to four and comes in at 60% to 40% being in favour of  the over/under.

First and third highest card versus the second and fourth highest card is around two to one and is in favour of the first and third highest card.

It is wise to read up on the many odds available prior to play if you wish to win big.

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Avoid the urge to play every hand

This is one of the most common mistakes committed by beginners. Playing every hand in the hope of winning more or to feel like you are a part of the action is an unintelligent move. It is best to fold if you are relatively new to the game and are yet to master the art of bluffing.

Do not bluff randomly

Even though bluffing is an integral part of poker, doing so in every move or randomly will only make your opponent call your bluff and lead to your unceremonious exit from the game. Thus, while bluffing does work in certain situations, it should be done only after considering various factors such as the tell of your opponent, his or her raising pattern, your position at the table and so on.

Go easy on the alcohol

Getting drunk is one of the easiest and fastest ways to lose money on the poker table. Thus, while one or two drink is acceptable, you should keep a check on the amount of alcohol that you are consuming while playing poker. Otherwise you might just lose your entire stack of chips because you were too numb and drunk to pick your opponent’s tell or to play sharply.

Keep an eye on the cards on the table

While a beginner at the game can do by just remembering the basic rules of poker and paying attention to his or her own hand to play a decent game, a professional player keeps a hawk eye on the cards on the table. This helps them in assessing the best possible hand that can fit the flop while playing Texas Hold ‘em and playing the game accordingly. Even while playing a game of Seven Card Stud, you can call the bluff of your opponent with ease if you have been paying attention to the cards on the table as well as the cards folded by other players.

Observe other players

Poker is a game where you play with people as much as the cards in your hand. Thus, you need to pay attention and follow poker strategy to the mannerisms and body language of your opponents to get vital clues about when to fold or bluff to win the pot.

Poker is played with a standard deck of 52 cards that contains thirteen different ranks of cards. These include Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 that come in four different suits: Clubs, Hearts, Diamonds and Spades. Some variants of poker also use the joker as a wild card. However, such games are more commonly played at homes rather than in casinos. The game begins with each player placing a token betting amount in the common fund called the pot and keeps adding to it with every round of betting, which in turn depends on the particular variation of the game that is being played. The betting takes place in the clockwise direction.

Once the cards have been dealt, a player can choose to check, call, bet, raise or fold depending on his or her hand. By checking, a player passes on the turn to the next player without betting any amount but only if there is no bet on the table. In case there is already a bet on the table and the player wants to play his or her hand, he or she can bet the same amount or call by matching the bet. A player who deems that he or she has a good hand can raise the betting amount already placed on the table and pass on the chance to the next player. While all the above-mentioned actions are apt if you want to stay in the game, you can simply exit the game by folding your hand if you feel that you do not stand a chance to win the game with your hand. You can thus surrender your cards.

7 Card Stud Poker game takes place around these towers auction, Brings, following the direction of clockwise. When all bets are placed, one who has the bring-in can complete its application, raise the pot, or decide to fold, but this action makes no sense because it already has stakes in the pot. This first round of betting in Seven Card Stud is called the “3th Street or 3rd Street, because at this stage three of the seven cards are dealt. Following the tour of the 3th Street, the poker dealer will burn a card and deal a new card to each player. This tour 7 Card Stud Poker is called the “4th Street” and the betting begins differently this time. Instead of opening the card with the lowest value, the player with the highest up card starts the betting. When two players are tied at the highest card, the player sitting closest to the dealer starts.

The poker player who opens the action must call, raise or fold. 7 Card Stud Poker, from this stage of the game the pairs are authorized at the highest limit of the table. After another round of betting is completed, another card is burned and another card is dealt to each player. This process occurs twice, until each player has two cards canceled and four open cards on the table. 7 Card Stud, these towers are named “5th Street” and “6th Street. The last round is called Seventh Street. After a card is burned, one last face down card is dealt to each player (instead of face like the three previous maps). The last round of betting takes the showdown. The player with the best combination of 5 cards wins in 7 Card Stud Poker.

Playing the game

In Omaha poker game, the game takes place in the direction of clockwise until you reach the small blind. With only a bet equal to half the big blind, that player has the option to fold, losing only half of the blind, or he may decide to follow and bet the other half of the blind to stay in. If this player has a good hand, he may also want to raise the pot. Ultimately, the game goes to the player in the big blind position who can “Tcheck” or raise. The player will fold the least likely since it has an important development in the pot. In the game Omaha Poker, players feel more confident in their hand after the flop of the distribution (the first 3 cards dealt) and more action is during this round.

As in other poker games in Omaha, after the first betting round are completed, the dealer burns a card and distributes the flop. The game has another round of betting, and two more, Turn and River. Both the Turn and River begin with a “burn” card and are followed by the general distribution of a card. At the last round, there are five cards “community”, which are face up on the table. Following the recent pairs, the best kicker won the game but the winning hand should it be composed of exactly two of the card gap, plus three community cards. That’s what makes the particularity of Omaha Poker and it is this unique combination of hand that is likely to win. The winner takes it all, unless there is equality between both hands, and in this case the pot is split.

Kathy Liebert is one of the greatest woman poker players in the history of women’s poker and remains on the rise. Don’t take pokerkat lightly, even though she has only won 1 bracelet she has had money finishes in 30 events and two of those where the World Series of Poker Main Event held in Las Vegas. Kathy Liebert won her only gold bracelet in 2004 in a World Series of Poker $1,500 Limit Texas hold’em event.

If there was any person that I wouldn’t want to eliminate in an event it would be Kathey Liebert and the reason is simple, she holds a blue belt in karate and could probably take her opponents down. Another reason that it would be tough to eliminate Kathy Liebert is because she is the leader in prize money won by any woman and is ranked 38th overall amount professional poker players. With all the competition out there being ranked number 38 is a huge accomplishment, not to mention that one of her biggest winnings came in 2008 when she finished third place in the $10,000 Pot-Limit hold’em Championship earning over $300,000. Don’t you wish you could cash in during an event of such magnitude.

Kathy Liebert now lives in Las Vegas where she enjoys playing poker full time and continuing to rack up the winnings. What many people didn’t know is that Kathy Liebert was the first person to win the Party Poker Million event in 2002, which was the first limit hold’em million dollar prize tournament. There have been many things that Kathy Liebert has done in her lustrous career as a professional poker player, but be assured that you have not seen the last of pokerkat, she will be back and fighting for the top spot as best woman poker player of all time. It is just a matter of time before she wins the World Series of Poker Main Event.

What many people don’t know about Barbara and mostly because they weren’t into poker when she was doing a lot of the winning was that she was one of the very first woman to be seen regularly at the poker table. Barbara Enright is also the only player in history to be inducted into all three halls of fame which are; Senior Poker Hall of Fame, the World Series of Poker Hall of Fame and the Women in Poker Hall of Fame.
Most people would believe that to be inducted into all three poker hall of fames that she would have made millions upon millions playing, but this isnt’ the case. Being that Barbara did most of her winning when poker was still pretty new and not paying much she has only amounted $1.3 million in earnings with about $500,000 of that coming from her 13 cashes at the World Series of Poker Events. Among the earnings she was awarded the All Around Best Player Award at the 2000 Legends of Poker tournament where she won a new Chrysler PT Cruiser.

Being a female poker player can be tough especially when most of the people around your are male, but this hasn’t stopped Barbara Enright from doing what she does best and making the money she knows how to make. There have not been many tournaments that she hasn’t been in, for instance she has played in Tournament of Champions held in New Orleans, The Poker Royale: Batter of The Ages, and other evens as well. You would think that life has always been a dream for Barbara Enright, but it wasn’t always like this. She started out working three jobs as a cocktail waitress, bartender, and hairstylist just to provide for her family while playing poker part time. Soon she was making so much playing poker that she quit all three jobs and turn to poker to support her and her family.

Cyndy Violette didn’t always think she would be a poker player, at first she started out as a blackjack and poker dealer until later quitting to play for herself. Cyndy Violette wasn’t hooked right from the get go on poker, it wasn’t until she was pregnant with her daughter and won an event at the Golden Nugget Casino in Las Vegas in the amount of $74,000. At the time this was the largest single winning ever by a woman poker player. Soon after this win she married for the second time and took off two years from the poker scene.

Cindy Violette only has 1 World Series of Poker Bracelet to her name and that win came in 2004 when she won the World Series of Poker Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo event. It was this exact year that two other women also won gold World Series of Poker Bracelets, Annie Duke and Kathy Liebert being the other two. As of 2010 Cyndy Violette has won an estimated $1.2 million and is one of the older women on the poker tour. She is also a team member of the Full Tilt Poker Online Poker site, so you can play against her live if you are lucky enough to be placed at the same table.

What many people don’t know about Cyndy is that she has moved around the country many times. She was born in Queens, New York and relocated to Las Vegas when she was 12. From there she got married and moved to Washington State until she got divorced and moved back to the East Coast to Atlantic City where she continued playing poker. Now she spends most of her time between Las Vegas and Las Angeles. Cyndy Violette is a great poker player that has reached a money finish in 29 events including the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2006 where she placed 400th and has yet to finish higher.

Something many people would never guess about professional poker player Annie Duke is that the earlier years she spent in school getting a double-major in English and Psychology. Annie Duke was also awared a NSF Felloship to attend the University of Pennsylvania but decided to end her studies after 5 years of graduate school and only 1 month away from a PhD. It was at this time Annie Duke decided to marry long-time friend and fellow classmate Ben Duke and move to his home in Columbus, Montana. There she began playing poker with the help of her brother Howard Lederer in Billings, Montana.

Annie Duke played poker in Billings, Montana for about 2 years until leaving Montana to move to Las Vegas with her then-husband to play poker full time. Annie Duke and then-husband played poker full time but it wasn’t until the early 2000’s that she started winning large events. In 2002 Annie Duke moved to Portland, Oregon where she worked for company which developed software for real time online poker which would later come to be as UltimateBet. UltimateBet is one of the bigger poker sites out there and continues to grow with the sponsorships for Annie Duke.

It wasn’t until 2004 that Annie Duke started to see some real notoriety when she coached well-known actor Ben Affleck who then went on to win the California State Poker Championship. Also in the same year Duke  won the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions where she eliminated her brother Howard in 4 events. One of the biggest stages for Annie Duke was when she was eliminated 1 spot before the final table in the 2000 World Series of Poker Main Event held in Las Vegas. Annie Duke may only have 1 bracelet but she has cashed out in 38 different events since turning pro.

Annie Duke has done many things and has taught many people to learn to play poker. Learning from one of the best is always great especially when they continue their greatness like she has with her most recent win of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship where she took out long time poker pro Erik Seidel.

Jennifer Harman was born in Reno, Nevada and started playing poker at the age of eight. If you were ever wondering why she is so good then this might just be why. She is married to fellow professional poker player, Marco Traniello. If you are a limit hold’em player then you could pick Jennifer Harmans brain by reading the limit hold’em chapter of the Super System 2. This book is filled with many great tips and tricks, all of which you should read as a poker enthusiast. Some of the other greats that wrote for this book were; Daniel Negreanu and Jonny Chan.

Something many people don’t know about Jennifer Harman is that she founded a charity in 2004 called Creating Organ Donation Awareness (CODA). The reason for her creating this charity is because she has suffered from kidney problems just like her mother did and died from when she was only 17 years old. Could you imagine still playing at such a high level while dealing with kidney problems? Also in 2004 Jennifer Harman underwent her second kidney transplant which took her away from the poker scene for a little over a year. Another thing you may not know is that starting in earlier 2009 Jennifer Harman was the woman behind a number of celebrity poker charity events that rose over $100,000 for her Creating Organ Donation Awareness charity.

The life of poker star Jennifer Harman hasn’t always been easy, and that is shown with her luck at the tables. Jennifer Harman has never won a World Series Of Poker Main Event, which is everybody’s ultimate goal but she still has many great years left. Even though she hasn’t won the main even she has won 2 bracelets and had 24 money finishes that account for almost $750,000. So as you can see her time is not wasted at the tables. Jennifer Harman might just be one of the greatest women poker players to ever play the game, but she still has a ways to go and competition catching up quick.