Build Your Own Poker Table

Any big poker player has always wanted his or her own private poker table. The only problem is that it is very expensive to buy one and even then its not even custome made to the owner's liking.

So one day I was searching through the internet and come across this nice website. This website gives someone a step by step method to build a poker table. Now any custom features would then be added to the plans. Here is the url to this website: 

http://www.buildyourownpokertables.com/ 

I would like to know if anyone has built their own table and if the plans were any different. Plus, if you have some tips and tricks for other followers, please list them.

80/20 Rule Applied to Poker

If you don't know what the 80/20 rule is then I will breifly explain it now. It says that 80% of your results come from 20% of your inputs. So relating that to a game of poker, 80% of your chips come from 20% of the hands your play. When playing a game of poker one needs to focus on the 20% of hands he/she plays. If the 20% hands you play are loosing hands than the 80% of your chips will be lost. It is important to make sure the 20% hands someone plays are strong hands so that your results will be in the positive.

Another way to look at this principle is that 20% of life is what happens to you and 80% of life is how your react to it. So in this example of the rule, you may interpret it has to focus on how you react to those 20% of hands you play.

What I'm saying with this rule, is that poker is not a game of luck. It is a game of strategy and mental composure. The really great poker players who consistently bring home the bacon are the ones who do not rely on "luck" to win. So if you are loosing your hard earned cash on poker I would advice you to either quit, or stop complaining about luck and get better. I would like to see how many people ether agree or oppose my statement.

5 Reasons Why People Loose

Do you ever wonder why you lost all your money in that Texas Hold 'Em cash game? I bet you have, so this last week I went back and analysis anytime I had lost in the last month or two. These next 5 points is what I came up with.

1. Not paying attention to betting habits.
• Betting habits tell alot about a players hand. If someone calls a bet relatively quick, then they are not worried about what you have and are going to let you build the pot for them. On the other hand if they call a bet slowly, they might be chasing the turn and.or rive. So your next move should be a bigger raise to get them out unless a card comes up that your suspect to help their hand.
2. Chasing the turn and/or river.
• People are always thinking they are going to catch their hands with the next two cards. Unless you have an open ended straight draw or high flush draw don't chase hands. Never chase a "gut buster" which is a straight draw from the inside.
3. Betting too aggressively
• Some people problems are that they bet just to bet and try to take control of the hand. Not always possible. I'm not saying never bet, but you need to recognize when to do that.
4. Not paying attention to tells.
• I've noticed that when I loose a big hand it is because I failed to notice some very easy poker tells. So sharpen those observation skills and read a book about poker tells.
5. Playing every hand.
• This is another reason why beginner poker players loose. They think the more hands they play the better their odds of catching a  winning hand. This is generally true but the money it cost to see everyhand is not worth the profit gained by one winning hand. A true poker player picks and chooses their hands carefully.

If anyone has one of these problems and has trouble getting over it, feel free to comment and I can give some advice to get better at it. I am willing to hear as well on how to combat these issues too. So whether you have a problem or have a story how you got better, please comment and tell me about it.

Happy Valentines Day

So this post is obviously not going to be about poker. I know valentines day is viewed as a walmart holiday. However, there is some history behind this holiday.

The legend of Saint Valentine that was a priest in the third century Rome would secretly marry young couple. He did this because atthe time the Emperor Claudis outlawed marriage for young couples because they made better soldiers this way. Once Valentine's offenses were found he was to be put to death.

So what i did for my significant other was instead of buying her flowers, I bought her a pot of flowers so she can enjoy their beauty for longer. Also, she really likes the Twilight series, i bought her Breaking Dawn that just came out on DVD.

So this week I wouldlike to hear your stories of what you did romantically for your significant other.

"CARO`S BOOK OF POKER TELLS" is a must read

For anybody who is lookng to improve there poker game, I highly recommend reading Mike Caro`s book, "CARO`S BOOK OF POKER TELLS." So in this blog this week I want to cover some of the tells given by Mike Caro.

So "Caro`s Great Law of Tells . . . Players are either acting or they aren't. If they  acting, then decide what they want you to do and disappoint them." (Pg 12, 2003) This law has great insight on how poker is looked at. People always talk about poker faces, well I think the truely great poker players don't need to have a poker face. Players in the game will always try to hide the truth about their cards. It's other players` job to read their own situations they come into contact with and decide what their best option is.

This next tell I have used in some pretty tough decisions in poker, especially when I might not have the best hand. "Caro`s Law of Tells #6 . . . A genuine smile means a genuine hand; a forced smile is a bluff." (Pg 95, 2003) So when I`m in a tough situation and my pot odds aren't exactly what they should be, I come up with something to say to get my opponent to smile about something. Then I judge their smile on how real or fake it was and make a decision based on that.

The last tell I want to talk about is, "Caro`s Law of Tells #14 . . . Players staring at their cards are usually weak." (Pg 74, 2003) I like this one because it doesn't just apply to the player`s but it applies to the community cards as well. They stare at the cards because they are looking for a better hand than what they have.

The last thing that is great about this book is that at the end of the book there is a quiz to see how much you have picked up from the reading. What I usually do is review this book before I play any tournaments. Please comment back for any feedback or other tells you would like share.

Easy way to know your pot odds.

This last week I took the week off from poker. So I decided to blog about something useful I found on Youtube for figuring out pot odds.  Here is the link for the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wux3avg1CM . Now if your anything like me figuring out pot odds in the middle of the game is kind of hard to do quickly unless your a mathatechian. This video will break it down for you.

The video talks about the 2 and 4 rule of thumb. To quickly figure out your odds after the flop you multiply your hand odds by 2 for your odds of getting a better hand on the turn and by 4 to get the odds of getting a better hand on the river. So if you call with Ks and Qs and the flop is As, Jh, and 5s. You have 12 outs or 12 different cards that could approve your hand assuming pairing your cards won't get you the winning hand. so you have a 12 x 2 = 24% chance of getting an improving card on the turn and a 12 x 4 = 48% chance of getting that card by the turn.

The video also talks about pot odds which refers to the bets and how much one as to give up to win. Watch the video to get a better understanding of this.

Pleace comment back this week if you use this mathmatics to improve your poker game and any suggestions o do faster calculations.

5 Guidelines to following to consistently win in cash games.

A good mentorof mine once said, the best way to communicateis to KISS (keep it short & simple) it. So i have come up with 5 guidelines to follow to consistently win money at a cash game.

- If you can help it, sit to the right of the chip leader.
- Control your game. Don't let others push you all in or make emotional decisions.
- Never go all in before the flop.
- Play a tight game. Only play the top 10% of hands (AA, AK, AQ, AJ, A10, KK, KQ, KJ, K10, QQ, QJ, Q10, JJ, J10) These hands are really prefered if they were suited as well.
- Never try chasing an inside draw.

If you follow these guidelines when buying into a cash game, should produce consistent wins overall. Of course if someone breaks a guideline it result in an overall lost for that player. These guidelines are used personally and have made my odds of winning a lot greater. Any additional suggestions are appropriated.