False Tells

This comes from a question I received about using false tells. Here is one example of a false online tell I will use.

yes - i do use false tells.

generally they only work against really good opponents who would actually notice online tells (online tells are harder to notice as there is less information to convey to your opponent. ie: they cant actually see you, just your betting pace and amount).

it really depends on the game. i try to just think about what i have done earlier in the game, or against that player at another time.

for example: lets say on the turn in a heads up game against a really aggressive opponent i have top pair, weak kicker (or some fairly marginal hand) he may make a large bet on the turn and i may just decide that i think my hand is the best and i am going to call him here (i WONT raise here because he will only call if he has me beat).

now, lets say it takes me awhile on the turn to decide what i want to do. i may use up almost all of my alloted time to decide. assume the player is bluffing, and he fears i have a monster hand so he checks on the river. he sees that i have top pair with a weak kicker, and thinks to himself - "i probably could have bluffed him off that hand." (which he probably could have)

later on in the match, or sometime against that player, i may use this false tell. if i have a MONSTER that i want to slowplay, i will play it the same way. I will not only slowplay it, i will use a lot of time to 'think' about if i want to call on the turn (or flop or whenever). this player will be very likely to think i have that same marginal hand again, and continue to bluff.

this is just an example of using natural tendencies the other way around to trick players. i would be interested to see if anyone else has some examples that they use.

taylor

Answer to Zac's Question

Zac Wrote:

Hey Taylor, I'm currently playing $5/$10 HU SnG's at UB looking to improve. Eventually, I want to play higher cash games. What's the most important things you learned from HU SnG's that helped make you a great cash game player? Also, what do you think helped improve your HU the most? Thanks in advance.

This question hits home for me as this is just how i started to play poker online.

The are a TON of things to learn from HU SNG's. I would recommend anyone that has a basic knowledge of NLHE to start playing these before they dive into the cash games.

First, you get to play a TON of hands. Playing one on one you should be playing maybe 8o% of hte hands you are dealt. However, along with playing a lot of hands, you should be noticing some things. Simply put, higher cards win more pots than lower cards. Same thing goes with pairs. You will start to see that hands with just one face card and a 2 or 3 just dont win too many hands. You basically have to hit your big card to win.

You should also concentrate on how opponents play their hands. When an opponent shows down a huge hand like a full house or something, go over the hand history and look at how he played it. Most poker players tend to check their big hands trying to trap the other player. Look at peoples tendencies. You can get a feel for how 'the average' player plays his big hands. Also, when you see a monster hand, think back to any pauses or inconsistencies in the way the player was playing. Did he make the bet really fast? Did he pause? Most times a player with a HUGE hand will change his pace a little bit because he will either A) bet really fast because he knows what he wants to do (bet) or B) wait a little longer because he is unsure of how to play it. If a player is usually chatting, or never chatting, changes in this might also tell you something about his hand.

You can go through the same rundowns of players when you catch someone in a bluff. Basically you just want to make a mental profile of what the average guy tends to do in different situations. You also want to make sure YOU are never doing these things either.

You should focus on playing hands in position as well. it cant be stressed enough in poker to play a hand in position as you have a lot more information with which to act on. When you raise a hand preflop and you are in position, you should make a bet near pot sized about 3/4 of the time. Sometimes if you flop middle pair or if you have two overcards you might check just to keep your opponent off balance. BUt you need to get in the habit of following up a preflop bet with a bet on the flop in order to try to win the pot there.

Once you start to do well at these games, you can start to move up in stakes. See my bankroll management posts for information on that. Once you start to master the higher stakes games, you are probably ready to try to apply this knowledge at the cash games. Along with playing these HU SNG's, you should be playing some full table SNG's too to get experience in full games.

Hope that helps, keep the questions coming.

Taylor

I'm Back....Sort Of

Sorry for the big delay in posts...I've had a crazy spring so far. I am going to be taking a lot of time off of poker this summer (maybe an hour or two a day at night) because I landed an internship in New York. I figured the opportunity was too much to pass up even though it will cut into my short-term bottom line.

I would however like to talk some poker with you all still. Right now I don't have anything in particular I want to talk about, but I'd like to leave this page open for any questions anyone might like me to answer. Anything about no-limit cash games, situations, or poker in general I'd be glad to (try) to answer your questions!

And yes - I did make the "wall of shame" for that website that lists online poker players results! I had a terrible ferbruary/early march where I probably lost close to 40K. The 25-50nl game has brutal swings. If anyone has been watching lately though, things have definitely picked up as I actually had two amazing sessions a week or two ago where i made well over what i lost in the previous month or so in 48 hours. Unreal! Poker is so weird sometimes.

Anyway, throw some questions my way. I'd be glad to help!

Taylor

Party Poker Bonus Codes

Here are a few lesser known Party Poker bonus codes:

$100 Igmpay Bonus: This bonus is a 20% deposit bonus up to $100. It is open to all accounts, old or new. The bonus code can be used one time for each Party Skin (Party, Empire, Intertops, Multi, Pokernow except eurobet).

Igmpay is Party’s version of neteller. Like neteller you register a bank account with Igmpay and they withdraw and deposit directly from your bank account. If you play on the party network I would suggest setting this up. It is free to sign up and usually takes 3 to 4 business days to verify your account. Igmpay will make two small deposits to your bank account to verify that it is valid. You will need to keep track of these numbers because you will need them to re-verify your account at each skin. You can use the same bank account for each skin.

Once you have your account verified you are going to want to make a $500 deposit and enter the code “IGMPAY”. Then send an email to support stating you made a deposit with Igmpay and would like your 20% bonus. They should put it in your account within an hour or so. You will have to play 5 raked hands for every dollar of bonus (Intertops X 7). Some of the smaller skins like Intertops and Multi might be reluctant to give you this bonus. Just keep sending emails till you find a CSR that will credit you with the bonus. I would send a new email each time I was turned down. Do not attach the old reply with the denial. I think it took me 4 emails before I received the bonus from Intertops. Here are the email addresses to support for each site. If you would like more info on signing up for each skin read this post.

Party: info@partypoker.com
Empire: info@empirepoker.com
Intertops: info@intertopspoker.com
PokerNow: Info@pokernow.com
Multi: info@multipoker.com


$100 Compbonus: This is a deposit bonus open to accounts exclusively on party poker. It does not work at the other skins. This code is valid for both old and new accounts. The bonus is 20% up to $100 Type the code “COMPBONUS” when making your deposit. You will need to make a $500 deposit to get the full bonus. This code is not a published code. It is party’s code for support when they screw something up. If you do not get this bonus automatically credit to your account then you may have unknowingly already used the code. Unfortunately since this isn’t a code you are supposed to know about you can not email support to complain that you were not credited with the bonus. If the bonus does not appear in your account after you deposit you are one of the unlucky few. This code should work for about 90% of accounts.

Empire Reload for April

Empire is currently offering a 25% reload bonus up to $150. Just deposit between Wed. April 6, 2005 at 00:00 EST and Sunday April 10, at 23:59 EST. Enter Bonus Code "EPmania" with out the quotes when depositing. You will need to make a $600 deposit to get the full bonus. For every dollar in bonus you will have to play 7 raked hands. To clear the full bonus you will have to play 1050 raked hands. You will have 7 days from the time of your deposit to play the required hands. For some people this is a lot of hands to play in a week. Playing full ring limit holdem I average roughly 35-40 raked hands an hour per table. Playing 3 tables at a time I usually clear a bonus like this in 10 hours.

You can combine this reload bonus with the new player sign up bonus. They are currently offering new players a 20% bonus up to $100.Click Here to get this Bonus. You will need to make a $500 deposit to get the full bonus. You will have to play 5 raked hands for every bonus dollar. To clear the full bonus you would need to play 500 raked hands. If you already have an account on the party network and are having problems signing up for an empire account read this post.

If you are considering playing both bonuses I would suggest not doing the deposits on the same day. I would make the initial deposit for the new player bonus then try to clear that one before the reload bonus expires then making the second deposit for the reload bonus. That way you won’t have to play 1550 hands in 7 days. If you are a new player you will have to claim the new player bonus before the deposit bonus. Any hands played will go to the sign up bonus until it is cleared and then hands after that will count toward the reload bonus.

Lil' Dean Goes Down

I've talked about how my brother, Drew, is a pretty good poker player. Pretty good meaning he's taken me out of the biggest tourament in the world, The World Series of Pikes, in which I finished an impressive third. Last week my brother called me with a horrible bad beat story during a qualifying tournament online when I was throwing down a few drinks. He was in 11th place with 19 people to go and gets KK in the big blind. Blinds were at 1000/2000 so Drew made it 4000 to go. He had about 45,000 in chips. Under the gun, who had limped, called immediatly. Everyone else folded. Flop came 8 9 3 rainbow. Drew went all in. In one millisecond, UTG called with 10 7 suited. As you can probably guess...yeah, 6 on the river. Tonight my brother calls me again. Same type of tournament, I'm still drinking. He's the short stack at his table with 4,000. Blinds at 300/600. Drew gets AA in the big blind. Three callers so Drew pushes all-in. Table leader calles with 9 6 suited. Flop comes 676. Drew now has to buy a new computer, or at least that's what I think cause he was throwing stuff all over his room. Let me say this: to win a tournament, you have to get lucky. You have to win with your draws, win with your big hands, win on the river and swim like a shark. So keep your head up little brother, you'll be at the Series this year. Of course, you'll probably be watching me win it. Ship it!

The Party Skins

Well I just finished playing off Party’s March reload bonus. 1400 raked hands is a lot of hands. It took me about 15 hours of playing 3 tables of .50/1 limit holdem to clear the $200 bonus. Now that this out of the way it is time to find the next juicy bonus. I think I am headed over to Intertops Poker a new Party skin I just found. Don’t know what I am talking about? I will try to explain.

The party network is actually a network of 5 poker sites all playing on the same servers. Each site is called a party skin. The party skins are Party, Empire, Intertops, PokerNow, and Eurobet. If you are playing on Party you might be sitting at a table with someone playing on Empire or any of the other party skins. The software for each site is almost exactly identical. The only difference is the look of the table. Each site offers their own bonuses and other promotions. Each bonus code is specific to a particular site. If you enjoy playing on party poker then you have no excuse for not having accounts at all 5 sites.

Party has designed their software to make it difficult for players to create accounts at multiple sites. They do not state that you cannot have accounts at all sites. They just don’t make it easy for you to do so. Once you have user accounts set up on each of the skins you will not have problems. You have 2 options when creating a new account on a party skin.

Option 1: For most this will be the easiest option. First find a computer that has never had a Party skin previously installed on it. This should not be very hard to do. Any PC with an Internet connection should work. Once you have found a clean computer follow one of the links below and download the skin you want to create a new account on. Install the software and set up a new account. You will have to create a new username because your old name is already taken by yourself. You are going to want to use all the same information as you did for the previous accounts. (I.E. same Name, Address, Neteller, etc). I wouldn’t use fake information because sometimes party will make you verify the information you have provided. Every once in a while party will call and ask you why you are setting up a new account. Just give them some BS answer. “ I like the freerolls offered at such and such.” They will say OK and leave you alone. I have never gotten one of these calls. Once you have setup your new account you are done with this computer. You can now head back to your main computer and play on the new site as much as you want. Just download and install the software on you main computer and login with you new account information.

Option 2: This option is for those that are comfortable messing with the windows registry. I would only use this option as a last resort. Any time you mess with the windows registry you are taking a chance of messing up your computer. First you need to disconnect from the Internet. If you have dial up make sure you are not connected. If you use broadband or access the Internet through a network unplug the network cable from the back of your computer. To make sure you are disconnect from the Internet try and visit a web page. If you can’t pull up a web page then you are not connected to the Internet. If you can still pull up web pages then you are still connected. Once you are disconnected from the Internet you will have to uninstall all of the Party skins Installed on your computer. You may want to back your notes and hand histories before uninstalling. Once you have deleted all the Party skins. Go to start then run and type in regedit. I would suggest backing up your registry before making any changes. Go to hhkey local machine then software then calculator. You are going to want to delete this entry. Save your registry and restart your computer.

If you are using windows xp do the following otherwise skip to the next paragraph. Xp users are going to want to create a new user account on your computer. Go to control panel then User accounts then create new user. Make them an administrator. Now log off and switch to the new user you created.

Connect to the Internet and follow one of the links below to install the new party skin. Make sure to reconnect any connections that were unplugged. Install the software and set up the new account just as you would have in option 1. Once you have set up your new account you can go back and reinstall the other skins you just deleted. You will have to follow one of these steps for each new skin you want to create an account on.

This is the order that I would sign up for the different skins. If your bankroll is not large enough to get the max bonus then I would suggest waiting till it is. Some of these bonuses are one time deals and you don’t want to leave money on the table. Just because you make a large deposit at a site does not mean that you have to play with all that money. Make the big deposit then wait 24 to 48 hours and cash out the majority of your initial deposit. The money can be back in your bank account within under a week.

Empire: Empire is the largest skin after Party. They are currently offering new players a 20% bonus up to $100. Click Here to get this Bonus. You will need to make a $500 deposit to get the full bonus. You will have to play 5 raked hands for every bonus dollar. To clear the full bonus you would need to play 500 raked hands. I would start with empire because they are one of the few skins that offer monthly reloads like Party. Cash outs from Empire are very quick. The average cash out to neteller takes 3 hours.

Intertops: is the next skin I would sign up for. Folow This Link and use bonus code "HAPPY2005" to get the bonus. You will need to make a $500 deposit to get the full bonus. You will have to play 5 raked hands for every bonus dollar. To clear the full bonus you would need to play 500 raked hands. Intertops occasionally offers reload bonuses but not monthly like party or empire. To cash out at intertops you first have to transfer your money from the poker room to the sports book. Once you have transferred your money login to the sports book and transfer your money to neteller. Transfers are slow and takes 4 to 5 days for the money to hit your neteller account. Remember your poker screen name and your sports book login name are different.

Poker Now: They are currently offering new players a 20% bonus up to $100. Click Here for the bonus.You will need to make a $500 deposit to get the full bonus. You will have to play 10 raked hands for every bonus dollar. To clear the full bonus you would need to play 1000 raked hands. This is not as good as the other sites but still doable.

Eurobet:. They are currently offering new players 25% up to $50. . Folow This Link and use bonus code "LOY25" to get the bonus.You will need to make a $200 deposit to receive the full bonus. You will have to play 5 raked hands for every dollar in bonus. You will have to play 250 hands to clear the full $50. You will have to transfer money from the sports book to your poker account and vis versa for withdrawals. Make you sure to write down any sign up information you are given. I have yet to receive a confirmation email from Eurobet even though I have deposited, played off the bonus and cashed out.

So this should get you another $350 not including any reloads these sites will be offering in the future.

Check your Party Account.

Party offered certain players special bonus offers today. Login to you party account to see if you are one of the lucky bastards that got one of these bonuses. If are one of these lucky fucks then the bonus will appear in a pop up saying you get a bonus or it will appear under your bonus account. I apparently wasn’t cool enough to be blessed with one of these account specific bonuses. I mean I sell out this site and put up Party affiliate codes and you guys can’t even throw me a bone. What are you going to do next, take away my birthday? Hey my parents died when I was ten why don’t you write me an email reminding me of that! Thanks for nothing party.

Ok, now that that is off my chest. There appear to be 2 different bonuses party has decided to give to people other than myself. It seems if your account was empty then you had a better chance of picking up one of these bonuses. So I would suggest not keeping any money in your party account unless you are actively clearing a bonus. I would keep the money in Neteller or another skin/ site. (You like that party? I just told everyone to cash out their party accounts. Maybe next time you will think before you pass me over on a special bonus.) The first bonus is called MAR05RELEASE. This is a 15% bonus upto $100. You would have to deposit $666 to get the full bonus. If you did get this bonus you are going to hell for sure. The other is called MAR05CASHOUT2. This is $50 bonus for 500 raked hands. I am not sure if you can get both of these bonuses but if you did then I have a little secret to tell you. You are adopted and your parents don’t love you.

P.S. Anyone who posts in the comment section about how great it is to get these bonuses will be ridiculed off the internet. So don’t even think about it.

UB Reload Extended

If you thought you missed the reload bonus at Ultimate Bet then you were sadly mistaken. Ultimate Bet has extended its current reload offer until Wed. March 23, 2005 11pm ET. For further details see the post below entitled Help Out the OL Bank Roll.

Party Reload for March

Well I was hoping to have a little more time between post, but I had to let you guys know about the latest offer from Party. Party is the largest site on the Net and has more players at any given time than any other online poker site. Being the largest allows them to throw more money around than the smaller sites. I would say at least half of my bonus money comes from Party and the different Party Skins. Some people hate party and just refuse to play there. I used to be one of those players. I don’t particularly like the software and the players there are so fishy that they can put some of the most horrendous beats on you. That being said party is a gold mine. If you can avoid the tilt factor on the suckouts then you will soon fall in love with this site. After you clear a few of their bonuses you will soon forget about the less than stellar software and become immune to tilt on the suckouts.(Ok the suckouts are still going to be a bitch but they sting less and less each time) If you haven’t signed up for Party then I suggest you do so right now.

Party is currently offering a 20% sign up bonus up to $100 for new players. Just click here , Download the software and make your first deposit. You will need to make a deposit of $500 to get the full $100 bonus. You earn the bonus by playing raked hands. For every 5 raked hands you receive $1 in bonus. A raked hand is any hand you were dealt cards and party took a percentage of the pot. Not all hands are raked but most are. To check how many hands you have played go to cashier then click bonus account and it will show you exactly how many hands you have counted toward the bonus. To get the full bonus you will have to play 500 raked hands. The bonus expires if it isn’t cleared in 30 days. The bonus will be released all at one time once the raked hand requirements have been met. If you don’t play 500 hands in a month then I suggest depositing less than the full amount so that you can get some bonus. It takes me roughly 5 hours playing 3 tables of .5/$1 to clear a bonus like this one. So roughly 15 hours of single table play should clear the bonus.

Already have a Party account? They are currently offering a 20% reload bonus up to $200. Just deposit between now and Wed. March 23, 2005 at 23:59 EST. Enter Bonus Code "BONUSMAR" with out the quotes when depositing. You will need to make a $1,000 deposit to get the full bonus. For every dollar in bonus you will have to play 7 raked hands. To clear the full bonus you will have to play 1400 hands. You will have 7 days from the time of your deposit to play the required hands. For some people this is a lot of hands to play in a week. Playing full ring limit holdem I average roughly 40-45 raked hands an hour per table. Playing 3 tables at a time I usually clear a bonus like this in 15 hours. $13 an hour is pretty hard to beat when playing .50/$1.

You can combine this reload bonus with the new player sign up bonus. You will have to make 2 separate deposits to get both bonuses. Any cashouts prior to the reload bonus will void the bonus so you can’t pull your money out then put it back in just to get the bonus. If you are considering playing both bonuses I would suggest not doing the deposits on the same day. I would make the initial deposit for the new player bonus then try to clear it before the reload bonus expires and then make the second deposit for the reload bonus. That way you won’t have to play 1900 hands in 7 days. If you are a new player you will have to claim the new player bonus before the deposit bonus. Any hands played will go to the sign up bonus until it is cleared and then hands after that will count toward the reload bonus.

Well that should keep you busy for a little while. Two post and you have already picked up an extra $625. If you were fast enough to pick up the reload bonus at UB and don’t have enough funds in Neteller to do the Party reload I would suggest withdrawing your funds out of UB to Neteller and then depositing into Party. Cashouts from UB to Neteller usually take 2 to 3 hours. The bonus from UB never expires and it will be there once you are done with the Party Reload. Besides the Party reload clears at a much faster rate than the bonus at UB. I have a few other bonus codes for Party that not a lot of people know about but I will save those for a later post.

The One The Only

Well I probably should have introduced myself before making my first post but I wanted to make sure that some of you were able to pick up the reload bonus offered by UB before it expired. Now that we have that out of the way I’ll give you a little background information on myself and how I hope to contribute to this BLOG.

My name is Chris and I have been playing poker for about 2 -3 years now. Matt, Lloyd and I all went to Southwestern University together. We all started playing poker about the same time, right around the time the first season of the WPT started airing. Matt and Lloyd seem to have progressed a little faster than I have but I can still hold my own at the table. I have never met Taylor but he is the resident badass at UB so hopefully I can learn a thing or two from him. Most of my post won’t be about strategy and will be more of a heads up about the hottest bonuses and promotional offers from the different poker sites.

I have been bonus hopping (I called it whoring in my first post but obviously that was too much for some of you railbirds to handle so I will call it bonus hopping from here on out) for about 2 months now and have setup a rather good system to take full advantage of all this free money poker sites are giving away just to play at their site. In the first two months I made $1400 in bonuses alone. I now know how to get even more bang for my buck and will most likely earn $1,000 this month and don’t see that slowing down anytime soon. When I am clearing a bonus I like to play 3 tables of full ring .50/$1 limit holdem or 2 tables of $1/2 depending on the site and the bonus. Multi-tabling does effect your BB/hour/ table rate but clearing the bonus at a faster rate more than makes up for the 1 or 2 bets lost due to multi-table play. I will say this if you are new to multi table play then start slow and work your way up. Don’t just jump in and start playing 4 tables at once, it can get a little hectic at times and takes a little time getting used to.

I usually play 2 to 3 hours of poker a day. The income I generate from bonuses is about triple what I make from players at the table. Unless you are playing $2/ $4 or higher you will probably be able to make more from bonus hopping than you will from table profit. This doesn’t mean if you are playing the higher limits that you can’t collect the bonuses, it just means the higher the limits you play the less the total income these bonuses represent. .50/$1 may seem like low limits to some but I just made the switch to limit holdem and am taking my time making sure I am a winning player at a certain limit before moving up. Prior to this I played 10 person $20 SNGs exclusively but made the switch to limit because I saw the kind of money I could be making by switching over. I plan to move up limits as soon as I am satisfied that I have mastered the limit I am playing. The eventual plan is to be playing 2 to 3 tables of $2/$4 or $3/$6. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

I’d like to take this moment to give a shout out to Little Kiki and Lee Dawg in A-town. With out them none of this would be possible. OK that last part was a lie. On a side note my birthday is Thursday and my favorite beer is Fat Tire. HINT HINT HINT.

What to do When Things go Wrong

Many times during the normal course of a poker players career, things aren't going that well. This is inevitable. It can be the result of bad beats, bad cards, or other factors in life causing you to not play your best game. I wanted to talk today about what to focus on when you are going through a time like this. I feel it is very important to consider these things as sometimes to be a winning player its more important to minimize your losses than to just try to maximize your wins.

The first thing to focus on is pretty obvious, but it still should be mentioned. Tighten up the cards you are playing. When I am playing poorly, it is usuall a result of a combination of two things. Usually I am playing too loose, and also not catching any flops with these cards. Because of this, my table image suffers as I am in a ton of pots and am not showing down great cards. The only way to remedy this situation is to start showing down some big hands. However, since my table image is not good, I will not be able to pick up many pots unless I have a good hand. This takes away a lot of the value of playing these cards because I have to hit my hand in order to win a pot. Because of these reasons, playing tighter is necessary when things aren't going well at the table. Once you start winning a few hands, you can start to loosen up again. I would recommend throwing away any hands except for pairs, AK, AQ and maybe something like JTs.

You should also focus on playing in position more. This is something you should always do, but you should focus on it more when you are having a bad stretch of cards. Don't be afraid to fold a hand like AQ or AJ even if its unraised to you and you are in middle position. If you have a loose image, someone is liable to call from the button with anything and try to 'take the pot away' from you. However, if you have this hand on the button or cutoff, you should still be agressive with it.

Finally, I think it is important to take some time away from the game. Lloyd mentioned this the other day, and I agree with it. If you are having a terrible session, just quit for the day. I've talked about this before but I think some people lose sight of it. If you find yourself unwilling or unable to quit, it's probably a sign you have a gambling problem and poker probably isn't the best thing for you to be doing. Next time you are having a terrible session, make yourself stop before you really want to. If you can't stop, you should seriously consider if you have might have a gambling problem.

Help out the OL Bank Roll

If you are just starting out, building your bankroll is going to be key in becoming a successful poker player. I will be giving you a few tips on establishing a solid bankroll through bonus whoring. If you already have an established bankroll then I will explain how to pick up an extra $500 to $1,000 a month just for doing what you are already doing, Playing winning poker. If you are currently playing at a poker site and not receiving some kind of bonus from the site then you are just throwing money away. If you aren’t interested in becoming a bonus whore then you don’t have to read my posts and can read the other great posts on this blog, otherwise let the whoring begin.

The first thing you will need is a Neteller account. I assume most of you have one of these already but if you don’t just go to www.neteller.com and sign up. It takes about a week to get your bank account verified but it is pretty painless and is the best way to move money between poker sites. Once you have your Neteller account set up you are ready to start bonus whoring. I would suggest putting at least $1,000 into your Neteller account. I like to have at least $3,000 floating between poker sites and Neteller at any given time. I know some of you don’t have or don’t want to invest this much in your bankroll at this time. If you can’t put $1,000 in I would suggest putting as much money as you can possibly spare into your account at this time. The more money you have in your bankroll the more money you will receive in bonuses. Don’t worry though, if you follow these posts your bankroll will explode with free money and by the end of the first or second month you should have a very healthy bankroll.

The first site I will discus is Ultimate Bet. This is by far my favorite site. Everyone that posts here plays almost exclusively on UB. The software is the fastest I have seen of any site and I have accounts at over 20 sites. If you haven’t signed up at UB yet this is the perfect time to do it. They are currently offering new members a 40% sign up bonus up to $200. If you want this offer just click here or on the banner to the left. Download the software make a deposit and you are all set. You will need to make a deposit of $500 to get the full $200 bonus. Yeah we get a few bucks for you signing up but you get $200 plus a great post later on how we blew through all the money we made from the site in Vegas on Hookers and Blow. Seems like a fair trade to me.

To clear the bonus you have to earn Ultimate Points by playing in cash ring games. For every 10 UB points you earn you clear $1 in bonus cash. At this time points earned in tournaments or SNGs don’t count toward the bonus. The best part about this bonus is it never expires and you receive the bonus money you earned as soon as you leave the table. You don’t have to wait around a week or a month to get your bonus. You get it in small increments every time you play. The higher the limits you play the faster the bonus clears. Another trick is to be one of the first people to sit at a table. UB will give you double points if you start up a new table. This means you clear the bonus twice as fast. The official rules for the bonus can be found at the site.

Already have an account at UB? They are currently offering a 25% reload up to $125. (The site says up to $100 but as erci pointed out it is actually up to $125) Just deposit between now and 11PM ET Thursday March 23th.(this was extended from March 17th recently) You will need to make a deposit of $500 to get the max bonus. You can do both the sign up bonus and the reload bonus. You will have to make 2 separate deposits but you can do them back to back. You will not be able to make 1 deposit and then cash out and make the 2nd deposit. The first cashout will void the reload bonus. If you don’t have the funds in you Neteller account but do have the funds in your bank account then you can do an instant Neteller transfer and UB will pick up the charges at no cost to you. Just be sure you do this through the UB software.

Once a bonus from UB hits your account it never expires. You can work through this bonus as fast or a slow as you like. Don’t want to play at UB right now? Just wait 48 hours from your last deposit and cash your money out. Neteller cashouts usually take around 3 hours tops. Your bonus money will stay in your account until you come back.

This is the first of many sites I will explain how to whore out. I will periodically be posting the best sign up and reload bonus so check back often. If you follow these posts then you will easily add an additional $500 to $1000 a month just by simply hopping from site to site picking up bonuses. Hell this is only your first site and you have already picked up $325 bucks. See how simple this stuff is.

New Poster

A lot of our posts have referenced bankroll management and in fact have stressed the importance of it. Tonight, a new poster will give a different take on the subject than Taylor, Lloyd, or I. He actually generates most of his income from bonuses. He will show that even if you are a break-even player how to make money online. Chris Power is a good poker player that I've known for five years. He graduated Southwestern University with Lloyd and I and is a regular drinking buddy of mine in Houston. I expect, no I demand you give him shit in the comments section.

Alive/Sorry

Yes, I'm alive. I apologize i havent been able to post because it is the week of midterms at U of I and for some reason I really care about them. I have three exams Monday, which is why I am sitting here saturday night studying. Expect me to start posting Tuesday or Wednesday, when I wake up from my sleep after the hell that will be Monday.

Aruba, Jamaica....ok well just Aruba

Over the Christmas break I went to Aruba with my brother and my folks for a vacation. Was the fact that there were three casinos with texas hold'em mearly a coincidence? I don't think so. Aruba was sweet. I won one small tournament and made about $1500 even though I only played 3 or 4 days. My dad won a tournament also but the real star of the trip was my little brother, Drew (not that little - 22), who won 2 tournaments and finished 3rd and 4th in two others. He only played in 6 total tournaments also. He's turning into quite a player and won't let me forget it. Of course we had a deal before two of his big tournaments so I made a lot of money off of him. Thanks bro. Let's just say that most of the players in Aruba are terrible. "I had KJ - I had to go for it right?" I heard that phrase or one like it over 100 times. Anyways, sorry for not posting that much. It's been a rough week as I've been sick and Lloyd has been out of town. We think that Taylor is still alive but it hasn't been confirmed.

It was down in ole Virginny

I traveled to the always exciting Georgetown, TX this weekend to hang out with some fellow alumnus of Southwestern University. It was 'Founder's Weekend' for our fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha (Pike), which was founded on March 1st a long time ago. While I admit, poker was not the main reason I drove 6 hours roundtrip, there was a poker tournament that I intended on winning. I first played hold'em because of the fraternity and we take the game very seriously. The tournament during Founder's Weekend and the one at the University's Homecoming are kind of a big deal in our fraternity. Admittedly, the Founder's tournament isn't as big as the Homecoming tournament but there is still a lot of pride at stake. I have never won a big Pike tournament and to my knowledge neither has Lloyd which is a fact that has not escaped the members of the fraternity. And, I'm sorry to say the losing streak continued for me. Lloyd was in South Carolina so it was up to me to take home the trophy and I came in 10th out of 16. Oh well, there's always next year. There were only 16 players at 2 tables and the prevailing thought was to hurry the tournament up so we would have more time to drin......hang out. We started with 1000 chips and blinds of 10 and 20. The blinds went up every 10 minutes so you had to catch some cards. My disaster hand was when I raised with AK of diamonds and got 2 callers. The board came 3 4 8 with two diamonds. There was about 350 in the pot and I had 1000 chips left but I only bet 250 and got one caller. The turn was the 3 of clubs and it went check-check. The river didn't help and we checked it down. I lost to 55. I played it terribly and it cost me. The blinds killed me as I didn't catch any cards. I ended up moving all-in with A9o and getting called by AK. See ya. My brother, who got 2nd out of 35 last time, is a very good player and got knocked out before me. That was about the only saving grace. Congrats to Josh Nowak who won after making a deal. Also, congrats to James Lundquist who was the defending champ and took 2nd place.

Poker Tracker

For those of you who don't know much about this software, I'd like to give a little recommendation on one of the best ways to improve your game. Poker Tracker is a program you can purchase that will keep track of all of the stats you can imagine at the poker table. I'd like to start by saying that I have no financial interest in this program whatsoever, I just love the program and think it is a great tool for anyone looking to improve their poker game.

Why use poker tracker you ask? I'll tell you why I like it so much. Poker Tracker uses hand history information to keep track of every player at the table's stats. You can figure out your hourly rate, BB/100, how often you saw the flop, how often you raised, how much each of the 169 possible hands has won/lost you, and much much more. You can also keep track of who the big winners and losers are, which is important when you are playing with the same players everyday (this happens at the higher stakes games more often than the lower stakes games). You can also use it to figure out what type of game best suits you. I have found that I have the best BB/100 in NL games where there are between 2-5 players. I still am a winning player at the full tables, but not by nearly as much. I have made a decided effort to improve my ring game play (full table) because of poker tracker, and I feel I am becoming a better player because of it. Next, it works great with UB with the hand history grabber program that you can download with it. This program grabs every hand history that you tell it to, just by running the program as well as opening the hand history box. All you have to do is import these hand histories, and you can see all of your stats.

I seriously recommend you check out pokertracker, at www.pokertracker.com. You can download a free trial version, and it will let you store up to 1000 hands for free. After that I think the software costs about 50 bucks. If you are playing .5-1nl, or 3-6 limit or above, buying this software is a no brainer in my opinion. The stats you see about your game, and your opponents will win you back your investment in a few weeks, tops.

Should you fold the best possible hand?

The title of this post is slightly misleading and I'll get to that but stick with me. There are times in hold'em when it is correct to fold the best possible hand at the time. In Omaha there are plenty of possiblities where you can have the best possible hand after the flop and still be an underdog but it's fairly rare in hold'em for this to occur. One example I have comes from a hand I played a couple of months ago on PokerStars. I was playing in the $5/$10 no-limit game when I decided to limp in from the cut-off with A4 of hearts. 4 of us took the flop which came K J T with two hearts. This was a pretty big flop for me. I had 9 outs for the nut flush (maybe the J and T were hearts making a straight-flush possible I don't remember) and 3 queens for the nuts straight (not double-counting the Q of hearts). It was unlikely but not impossible that an ace may get the trick done for me also. I called a $25 bet from the big blind which put about $90 in the pot. My opponent and I both had begun the hand with about $1000. The turn brought an offsuit queen which gave me the nut straight and the nut flush draw. In other words, I was free-rolling my flush if I was up against another ace. My opponent bet out $70 at me and at this point I couldn't wait to get as much money as possible into the pot. I was praying that my opponent had an ace also. How much should I bet here? I didn't know much about my opponent but I hoped that he wouldn't fold an ace so I moved all in for about $895 more. Technically, my opponent can fold an ace here. It's a very close call though. If my opponent somehow knew I had an ace and a flush drawa than it is definitly the correct fold. You see, my opponent will lose the hand about 20% of the time and split the pot the other 80%. He will never win the whole pot. His expected value is therefore approximately 40%. The calculation is (20%*0 (you lose) + 80*.5 (you get half). He's being asked, though, to put $895 into what will be a $2020 pot. $895/$2020 is 44.3%. He should have an expected value of at least 44.3% if he's going to risk putting $895 into only a $2020 pot. The obvious argument against folding is that you can't be sure your opponent does have a flush draw here. Possibly your opponent has only the ace of hearts. Or, your opponent doesn't have a heart at all but doesn't think beyond the fact that he has 'the nuts!'. Oh yeah, in the actual hand my opponent called in a nanosecond. The river was the harmless 3c. I was a little confused but not at all disapointed when my opponent showed trip tens and I got the whole pot. Ship it!

Mailbag!

This post is a little update on what you, the readers, have been saying. We have gotten many e-mails from you and I’m going to share some of them right here in my post. Without further ado I bring you our first mailbag.

hey guys, i want to thank you guys for maintaining your blog, the "your game" posts have really helped me fix some leaks headsup. it seems you concentrate your posts on ring games and headsup, do you think you could write about some strategy in small tourneys and sngs? thanks again, drew

Drew, I’m happy we could help you with your leaks. I hope your high school English teacher doesn’t read your e-mail though. It may kill her. Mix in the shift bar every once in a while. Oh yeah, definitely expect future posts on strategy in tournaments and sit-n-go’s.

Guys, I read your site and really enjoy it. I also publish a strategy blog focused on NLHE cash games and I am going to link to your site. if you like what you read at mine, please do the same. http://bettingforvalue.blogspot.com Tyler

Only because you asked nicely. Throw in some more posts though so that we don't boot you.

Hi guys,

Found your site via DoubleAs. I have to say, it’s the best Poker blog I have read (up there with The Poker Chronicles) and by far the most useful. I have read your advice on heads up play over and over and then I put it to the test last night. Now Im a winning player and a healthy one at that, but I am amazed at how I have won at all in the past after reading what you wrote. The bit about playing with the button seems to have somehow escaped me over the last 9 months. It is the greatest single bit of advice I have ever been given.

I hit 10/20 last night (above my usual stakes) and launched into heads up with a known good player who sits there waiting for his prey. An hour later, I was $400 up and he actually said ‘well played’. No-one who was worth anything has ever said that to me before and I was buzzing. I have NEVER been so aggressive. Thanks guys. You have improved my game no end and I will never miss another post.

Flintoff,
Pokerchamps player
England.

Flintoff, I’m glad we could help you. Hopefully you can continue your newfound success. I’ll e-mail you our physical address where you can send us 25% of all winnings. I think that’s the least you could do.

Fellas -Great info in your posts, I really appreciate it. One suggestion I have, as I am reading the 'player type' and other posts, you frequently refrerence previous posts. It would be very helpful to hyperlink them back, so readers can quickly jump back and get a refresher on that info. Keep up the great work. Thanks, Andy

Thanks genius. Now Lloyd links every other word of his posts. Do me a favor and never e-mail us again. Just kidding. Thanks for the support.

Matt,
I am looking for a relative named Matt Dean. Just wondered if it was you. Can't find out much about you on the internet. If you are the correct Matt...your relatives would live in Arkansas. Either way, will ya let me know? Thanks,Val

Val, that’s not me. Sorry. You wouldn’t happen to be 20-27 years old, single, and attractive would you? Remember, we aren’t related!

There were some negative e-mails too but I found those people and let’s just say they won’t be bothering us anymore. I was sorely disappointed with the fact that not one of you sent us pictures of attractive females. How are we supposed to churn out good poker advice if we aren’t inspired? Keep e-mailing us and we’ll try to do a mailbag like this once every couple weeks. We linked some other poker blogs this week also for you to check out.