Poker Pot Odds

Top 5 Rookie Poker Player Mistakes

Types of Poker Players

What type of poker player are you?  What type of poker player are your opponents?  If you can’t answer those two questions, you’re missing a key component of your game.  Poker players are generally classified by two attributes - tight or loose and aggressive or passive.  These combine to create the four main player types:

• Tight-Aggressive
• Tight-Passive
• Loose-Aggressive
• Lose-Passive

The Rules of Texas Hold ‘em

Texas Hold ‘em is one of the easiest games to learn.  A hand of Hold ‘em starts with the placing of the blind bets.  There is a small blind and a big blind, which is typically double the size of the small blind.  The small blind is placed by the player to the direct left of the dealer and the big blind is placed by the player to the right of the dealer.

After the blinds have been placed, each player is dealt two cards face down.  These are called the hole cards.  Any player can look at their cards at any time.  The first round of betting begins with the player to the left of the big blind.  This player may call the big blind, raise the big blind, or fold.  Betting continues clockwise around the tab le until every player has called or folded.

After the first betting round ends, three cards are dealt face up in the middle of the table.  These three cards are called the flop.  They are community cards and can be used by any player at the table along with their hole cards to make up a hand. Once the flop is laid out, another betting round begins.  This time the betting begins with the first person to the left of the dealer that is still in the check (which means they don’t bet, but they don’t fold), bet, or call, raise, fold, or they may check as well if the player before them has also checked.  Once someone bets all other players must either call, raise or fold.  You can’t check once someone else has bet.

Once the second betting round has finished, one card is dealt face-up next to the flop.  This card is called the turn; this is another community card and can be used by any player at the table.

After the turn card has been dealt, another betting round begins.  It is played out in exactly the same manner as the betting round that followed the flop.

After the third betting round is finished, one final card is dealt face-up next to the turn card.  This card is called the river.

After the river card is dealt, the final betting round begins.  It is played out the same way as the betting rounds that followed the flop and the turn.  After all players have bet or folded, any players still in the hand reveal their cards in the showdown.  The player that makes the best five-card hand out, of their two hole cards and the five community cards wins the pot.  After the post has been paid out, the dealer rotates one position to the left.  The blinds are placed again, and another hand is dealt out.

Hold ‘em can be played with a set limit or no-limit betting.  In set limit there are actually two limits set.  For example, the limits could be $1/$2.  In this game, the big blind would be $1 and the small blind would be 50 cents.  The minimum bet during the first two betting rounds is $1.  During the third and final betting rounds, the minimum bet is $2.  Betting increments must be made the same size as the minimum bet.

In no limit, a player can bet all of their chips at any time.  However, a player can only lose all of their chips if they are in a showdown with a player who has an equal number or more chips.  If you go all-in with $100 and another player goes all-in with $75, the most you can lose is $75.

Poker Types - Texas holdem

1. A small dealer button identifies one player as the dealer. The dealer button moves clockwise to the next player after every completed hand.
2. Before any cards are dealt to the players, any enforced bets must be put into the pot. These enforced bets are usually in the forms of blind bets and antes.
   1. The first player to the dealers left must post the first blind bet, called the small blind.
   2. The second player to the dealers left must post the second blind bet, called the big blind.
   3. The small blind is usually smaller then the big blind- hence the terms ‘small’ and ‘big’ as identifiers. In most games, the small blind will be half of the big blind.
3. Each player is dealt two cards face down, called hole cards. A players hole cards may be used only by him, and are visible to nobody.
4. After the deal, the player to the left of the big blind must open the betting action by either calling the big blind, raising, or folding. All players participate in the first round of betting, and continue to the next.
5. In the next round, known as the flop, or Third Street, three community cards are dealt face up. Betting begins with the player to the left of the dealer. A betting round ensues.
6. After betting ceases on the flop, a fourth community card is dealt face up for all players to use. A new round of betting begins. This round is known as the turn, or Fourth Street. On Fourth Street, the bet amount doubles to the game’s highest limit.
7. Once betting is complete on the turn, a fifth and final community card is dealt face up. A betting round follows, known as the river, or Fifth Street. This is the final round of betting in a hand of Holdem.
8. After the final round of betting, any players remaining in the round must show down their hands. The player with the highest ranked five-card poker hand wins the pot. If two players show down identical hands for a tie, they must split the pot.
9. The round of Holdem is over after the pot has been returned to the winner, and dealer button moves clockwise to prepare for a new hand.
10. Now that you know the rules of Holdem, test your skill by playing a complete hand using our interactive tutorial! You don’t have to spend a penny!

Omaha Poker

Omaha Hi poker, usually known simply as Omaha, is very similar to Texas Holdem. There are two main differences between the games:

1. In Omaha, instead of receiving only two hole cards, each player receives four.
2. In Omaha, players must use exactly two of their hole cards in combination with three community cards to make their five-card poker hand.

Structurally, Omaha is pretty much the same game as Holdem. Let’s take a look at the rules:

1. A small dealer button identifies one player as the dealer. The dealer button moves clockwise around the table, and is passed at the end of every hand.
2. All blinds, antes or other required bets must be put into the pot before any cards are dealt. In Omaha.
   1. The player directly to the left of the dealer posts the small blind.
   2. The player two spots to the left of the dealer posts the big blind.
   3. Generally, the small blind is half the size of the big blind.
3. After the required bets have been placed, four hole cards are dealt face down to each player. A betting round begins, beginning with the player to the left of the big blind. This player is said to be ‘under the gun’.
4. Once betting has completed in the first round, three community cards are dealt face up, for all players to use. A second betting round follows the deal, beginning with the player in the small blind. This betting round is known as the ‘flop’, or ‘Third Street’.
5. Once betting has completed on the flop, one community card is dealt face up, for all players to use. A third betting round follows the deal, beginning again with the player in the small blind. This betting round is known as the ‘turn’, or ‘Fourth Street’.
6. Once betting has completed on the turn, a final community card is dealt face up, for all players to use. A fourth and final betting round follows the deal, beginning once more with the player in the small blind. This betting round is known as the ‘river’, or ‘Fifth Street’.
7. Once all betting is complete on the river, any players remaining in the hand must show down their cards. All players still involved must compare their five-card poker hands. The pot is handed over to the player with the highest ranked hand.

Omaha Hi-Lo (Omaha 8):

Omaha Hi-Lo, usually known as Omaha 8, is structurally the exact same game as Omaha Hi. There is, however, one fundamental difference:

1. In Omaha 8, players can aim to make either the best high poker hand, or the best low poker hand. In the case that one player shows down a winning high hand, and the other shows down a winning low hand, the two players split the pot. In order to win the full pot at showdown, a player must have both the best high and low hand, or there must be no low hand in play.

Rakeback Bonus - What is Rake?

What is rake?

Rake is the money taken out of the pot by the house. Depending on the limit it can be from $.05-$3.00.

What is a Rakeback or rake back?

Rakeback is a percent of the rake paid back to you for playing at a poker site. Serious players earn thousands of dollars a month just in rakeback. When you sign-up for a rakeback deal via RRR your rakeback money is usually paid automatically by the poker room directly to your poker account. However, sometimes your rakeback money will be paid to your Neteller account.

What is a rakeback affiliate?

A rakeback affiliate such as RRR is a site that helps promote online poker rooms. In return we are paid a percent of the rake collected from poker players that sign up via us. Each month we pass on the vast majority of our cut from poker rooms to our players.
I am already signed up at a room, can I get rake back there?

No. You can, however, on some networks switch skins and play on the same network.

What is a skin?

A skin is a group of poker rooms that share are on the same poker network. For example Cryptologic skins would include InterPoker and Sun Poker and a handful other rooms. Players at all of these rooms play in the same games. Most networks will allow you to sign up under all skins regardless of the number of rooms on the network you are already signed up for.

How does the poker room come up with my rake amount?

The rooms use a formula called Monthly Gross Revenue (MGR) a ka net rake. This is the amount from which your rakeback is calculated, i.e. if your rakeback percentage is 30 and your MGR is $1,000 you would get $300 in rakeback.

To calculate your MGR some rooms subtract any bonuses earned during the month, while others don’t. The same goes for whether or not tournament fees are included in MGR. Rooms also have different methods for calculating your share of the actual rake. Some poker rooms use what is called contributed rake where you must participate in the pot to have rake credited. Others use the dealt method where you are credited with rake in every hand where you’re dealt cards.

Read more about how a certain poker room calculates rake by visiting its page here on RRR.

Will I get a sign-up bonus when I sign up for a rakeback deal?

In most cases yes. Read more about a certain poker room’s sign-up bonus by visiting its page here on RRR. Please note that in some cases this bonus will be subtracted from your net rake.

Can my spouse, parent, brother, sister, roommate or anyone else that shares my computer have an account at the same poker room as me?

Usually, but they will need to get their own funding source for their account. You usually can not share Neteller or Firepay accounts with them. You may however transfer them money at most poker rooms. Signing up underage people, pets, appliances, lawn gnomes or some other figment of your imagination just to get a rakeback deal is fraud. You risk the poker room asking for ID and then having your account frozen and funds confiscated. It will also be hard to fund this account as it is not possible to get Neteller accounts for these fantasies.

Poker Professional Annie Duke

In a game that has historically been dominated by males, Annie Duke is making some serious waves. Beyond kicking the stereotype, Annie Duke has gone one better by not only beating the top women players, but taking out the men as well. She is currently the top female poker player in the world, and also has a WSOP bracelet to show for her success.

Annie Duke was born into a very competitive family, and family card nights were the norm during her childhood. Between herself and Poker star brother Howard Lederer, those must have been some pretty intense games! As a child, Annie excelled in school and went on to pursue studies in English and Psychology at Columbia University. As a student, Annie frequently visited her brother’s poker games, but oddly never joined in. Instead she continued her studies in cognitive psychology at graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania, where she won an esteemed National Science Foundation Fellowship.

In the early 90s, Howard Lederer brought Annie to Las Vegas during a weekend off of Grad School. It was the WSOP week, and Howard taught Annie the basics of Texas Hold’em. A couple of trips to Las Vegas was all it would take for the competitive Duke to get hooked on the game, and in 1992 she left her studies to take up the game.

This was a very bold move indeed for a young woman who had just competed 5 years of Graduate School! Her poker career began in Billings, Montana, where she played the local tournaments. Big brother Howard taught her a few things, and after some small successes in Montana, he convinced her to enter her first WSOP tournament. She placed in 3 tournaments in her first year, and cashed out over $70,000 in winnings, and secured her future as a professional poker player.

Annie’s commitment to poker has paid big dividends for her; she has won major tournaments and even took the title (and $2 million pot) away from the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions, knocking out 8 of the top players in the world along the way. She also does instructional seminars, and is even personal tutor to movie star Ben Affleck.

Perhaps the only thing that exceeds Annie’s commitment to Poker is her commitment to her family; she’s a mother to four children, and they will always take priority over Poker according to Annie.

When she does finally retire from the game, it’s safe to say she’ll be remembered as one of the all time greats, not one of the all time great women. Annie has proven herself against the top players in the game, irrespective of gender.

Vanessa Rousso Poker News

Vanessa Rousso can speak three languages. She’s a citizen of two countries, graduated from Duke in two and a half years, and one look at her academic resume (debate team, business club, mock trial, volunteer work and the Alpha Delta Pi sorority) conjures an image of an overachieving young woman not unlike Election’s Tracy Flick. Rousso has a knack for achieving her goals in record time and her rise in the poker world came on just as quickly. With less than three years of professional play behind her, Rousso has already earned close to $2 million playing tournament poker both live and online — all while earning a law degree on the side. Not bad for a 26-year-old.

Vanessa Rousso was born on February 5, 1983 in White Plains, NY. She grew up in Paris, living there until she was 10, when her parents divorced and her mother decided to return to the United States. Vanessa went with her and after moving around the east coast quite a bit, they finally settled down in Wellington, FL, where her mom worked as a high school guidance counselor. In high school, Vanessa showed advanced academic aptitude and graduated as her class valedictorian, earning a full scholarship to Duke University.

Rousso majored in economics and minored in political science at Duke. Several courses in game theory also drew her interest. She began playing backgammon and chess to apply the skills she’d learned in the classroom, but soon found herself taken with the mathematical and psychological aspects of poker. On track to graduate three semesters early, Rousso began playing online while she was applying to law schools. She was accepted to the University of Miami, and was offered a full scholarship. While at law school, Rousso turned 21 and was finally able to play live. The Hard Rock Seminole Casino was a short trip down the freeway and Rousso began making frequent trips, building her bankroll and gaining experience by playing $65 single-table sit-’n’-goes.

After completing her first year of law school in May 2005, Rousso traveled to New Orleans to play in a WSOP Circuit side event. She ended up finishing seventh in the $200 no-limit hold’em event, earning about $6,400. Buoyed by her success in the Crescent City, Rousso decided to hit up the World Series of Poker that summer. She cashed the ladies event in 45th place, and picked up an extra couple of grand when she won one of the Palms’ daily tournaments. In the fall she returned to law school, but played poker whenever she had a chance—either online or traveling to small buy-in tournaments on breaks. She made three cashes and two final tables in early 2006, her biggest score coming in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Event at Atlantic City’s WSOP-Circuit stop where she banked $17,550. That’s when Vanessa Rousso got a funny idea in her head — she wanted to play in the $25,000 World Poker Tour Championships.

To buy in directly would have nearly leveled her bankroll, so Rousso sought out backers, selling shares of herself to a number of friends to come up with the $25,000. With nothing more than a dream and a whole lot of chutzpah, Rousso sat down amidst poker’s elite and much to everyone’s surprise, she ground her way to a seventh-place finish and a $263,625 score, busting on the TV final-table bubble when her A-K fell to James Van Alstyne’s A-J. Her breakout performance at Bellagio put her on everyone’s radar, and soon she was signed to a sponsorship deal as a member of Team Poker Stars Pro. It’s also where she met the man who would become her fiancé, Chad Brown, who finished the tournament right behind her in ninth place.

Rousso cashed three times at the 2006 WSOP, her best finish coming in $5,000 Short-handed No-Limit Hold’em, where she finished eighth. She cashed the 2006 WPT Legends of Poker in 42nd place and appeared on the WPT’s Ladies Night Out IV, where she finished fifth. Returning to the east coast in September, Rousso ended up taking down her first major event, winning the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event at the Borgata Poker Open. The win was Rousso’s largest-ever live score, at $285,540.

In the two years that followed, Rousso added three WPT cashes, three WSOP cashes, and two WSOP-Circuit cashes to her growing C.V. She also made her largest tournament cash ever – via an online event – when she finished second in the PokerStars WCOOP Main Event for $700,000. Rousso also made several appearances on NBC’s “Poker After Dark,” winning $120,000 in a six-handed, winner-take-all sit-’n’-go with the theme “Gus and the Ladies” featuring Gus Hansen, J.J. Liu, Erica Schoenberg, Beth Shak, Clonie Gowen, and Rousso. She also started traveling on PokerStars’ Latin American and European Poker Tours, notching a tenth-place finish at the 2008 LAPT-Punta del Este and a 39th-place finish at the 2008 EPT London. It looked like Rousso was headed for her first WPT final table at the 2009 Southern Poker Championship in Biloxi last month, but she ended up with another break-your-heart seventh-place finish, bubbling the televised final table once again.

When she’s not living out of her suitcase on the tournament circuit, Vanessa Rousso lives in Las Vegas with her husband-to-be, Chad Brown.

Interview With a Poker Pro - Jennifer Harman

Jennifer Harman has clinched two WSOP bracelets and despite her penchant for high-limit cash games, won more than $1.5 million in tournament play. Besides donning a Full Tilt jersey and writing a chapter in Super System 2, Harman tries to keep her free time free, but she parted with some of it to tell us about tough swings, the Corporation, and her fight with kidney disease.

You grew up playing poker, so were you a total shark by the time you were in high school?

“No. I wasn’t. When I started going into casinos and playing when I was 16, I felt like I knew nothing. It was a real reality check because everybody was so much better than me. I had a fake ID, but actually, I never got carded. Isn’t that weird? I don’t know if I was winning for the first two years or not - I probably wasn’t. It takes a little while to learn those games.”

Any wild tales of underage casino hopping?

“Not really. I remember one of my very first hands I played in texas holdem. Before I went to play in a casino, I went and watched one of my father’s friends play. I watched him for about two hours, sitting behind him, and I thought, ‘I can do this. I can play this game.’ So, the next day I was going to go down and play, but I had an eye doctor appointment first. I got to the casino, and my eyes were all dilated. We were playing seven-card stud, and I couldn’t even see the up-cards because my eyes were so dilated - everything was so blurry. Here’s my first time playing in a casino, and I can’t even see the cards.”

So, did you essentially become a pro the day you turned 21?

“Not really. I had no plans to become a professional poker player. I wanted to move out of Reno, and I decided to go to L.A. and got a job as a bartender at this Japanese hotel downtown. I was working there for about three days, and I ran into a friend from Reno at the grocery store in L.A. He told me I had to go down to the Bicycle Club and play poker because these games were amazing. I went down there and immediately quit my job after five days and started playing poker. But, I never thought it about as my profession. I was just having fun playing poker and I would get a job later.”

Was there a point where you did feel like a pro?

“Yeah, but it was years later - like 10 years. I was just having fun; that’s not a job. I was in L.A. for about two years; then I went to Maryland. I gave up poker for a year, started a business and went broke. So, I had to come back and play poker because I was in debt. I’d never been in debt in my life, so I borrowed some money and came to Las Vegas. I might get yelled at for this statement, but I feel like all players have to go through Las Vegas to become great players because it has the toughest competitors. That’s where you get your learning experience. I may be wrong, but that’s my opinion.”

You’re also known as a cash game player, where most pros rarely play them and mostly play tournaments. Why do you stick with them?

“Cash games are what poker’s all about. To be a professional poker player means freedom, and that’s what cash games are - they give you that freedom. You don’t have to set your alarm, and you play when you want. You go on vacations when you want, and that’s the ultimate freedom. Whereas tournaments, you do have to set your alarm and take your dinner breaks and go back and do it again the next day.”

What are the tradeoffs between tournaments and cash games?

“Tournaments vs. cash games … Tournaments can change people’s lives. They can win a big pay day, and their life is changed forever - tournaments are over $1 million for first place. It’s a small buy-in compared to the prize pool.”

Tell us about the $4,000-$8,000 game at the Bellagio - that’s one of your regulars, right?

“Yeah. It’s way too high. It’s a big game; a lot of great players play in it. You always have to be on top of things and focused. I played until 5:30 this morning, although the game started at 10, so it’s not that bad. Everybody’s yawning, but they’re still on top of their game. You always have to be focused and read every player. It’s a very mental game, and it can be exhausting. But, it’s so competitive that it’s a rush when you play well or bluff players whose greatest strengths are reading players. Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu - they all play it.”

You said the limit is too high, how so?

“You see people lose a lot of money, and it can be painful. I’m sensitive. Sometimes it hurts you too when you see somebody lose that kind of money. And, it really hurts when you lose that kind of money. You just have to be really detached from money and think of it as chips. You have to have a lot of confidence to take those kinds of swings. I’ve lost $450,000 in one session and I’ve won about $470,000.”

That’s like half a million in one night…

“You just try not to think about it. Please don’t say that: ‘half a million.’ That’s just one of the challenges. You can’t be attached to the money. You need a pretty big bankroll to play that game; I’m probably the poorest player at the table. If someone’s taking a shot, they could do it with half a million. If you’re ready to play non-stop … it just depends what you feel comfortable with. Some people would do it with $1 million and a half, others would need $5 million. It all depends.”

What’s the deal with the Corporation and Andy Beal?

“Andy first came to town five or six years ago. He wanted to play $10,000-$20,000 at first, and nobody felt like they could afford him. And, he likes to play heads-up because he can play more hands; he got bored in ring games. So, we decided in order to make it fair for everybody, that we’d pool our money, have one person play him and take pieces of him. And, the Corporation has grown - from seven players to around 20. When we find out Andy’s coming to town, everybody has to post up and have their money there. If people are in Europe, they’ll make arrangements to get money to the Bellagio. It makes it a little chaotic for people when he comes to town. The bankroll depends on the stakes we’re playing and how much we decide to raise. The limits got up to $100,000-$200,000, but we only played that once.”

You’re a two-time WSOP event champ - what advice do you have for amateurs jumping in for the first time this year?

“Get plenty of rest, eat well and stay focused. You’re going to have different decisions against different opponents, and the more you watch them and study them, the easier your decisions will be. In no limit, the biggest mistake I see is a player going all in instead of making a big raise that would be just as effective. They’ll risk all their chips instead of some of them. I think TV has a lot to do with it; especially if you’re a beginner, you have nothing else to go by. The poker on TV is mostly highlights, so it’s hard to understand the whole game.”

When we talked to Annie Duke, she told us she gets lots of fawning email about how she should pose naked for magazines and all this stuff - do you have to fend off admirers in such a male-dominated game?

“I’ve been really lucky. The question I get from emails is ‘Will you marry me?’ Maybe I look like a wholesome girl, and they don’t want me to pose nude. The emails I get are more like people saying their proud of me and that kind of thing.”

You wrote a chapter of Super System 2, what other projects are you working on?

“Nothing. I like to enjoy life, so I try not to make myself that busy. I might be working on a book about the psychology of poker, but I haven’t decided. The main thing I like to do is play poker,  so that’s what I do. The other thing I love to do is be home with my family, so I play tournaments based on geography - what’s close to home? I go to charity events - I really believe in that kind of stuff.”

Speaking of charity, you founded Creating Organ Donation Awareness, and have had two kidney transplants now?

“I’m trying to create donor awareness because a lot of people are dying, waiting for organs. People are undereducated on how important it is to give that kind of gift. It is truly a gift. My mother died from the same disease my sister and I have when I was 17. In 2004, I was under the knife during the main event. I wish I could have been in both places, but you have to set your priorities [laughs]. Going through stuff like that always makes you realize how everything is so important in your life. My health now is doing great. As far as I know, I’ll be at the Series this year, and I’m very excited about it. I’m going to take, like, two weeks off and go hang out in Tahoe beforehand so I’m nice and rested. The World Series is long.”

« Previous Page — Next Page »