Regarding Poker

I want to mention two great online poker tools that can help your game in more ways than one.

The first one is a website called thepokerdb. This website is a free tool that lets you search any known poker player’s tournament results from PokerStars, FullTilt Poker, UltimatePoker, PartyPoker, and Bodog. Although it is limited to only showing you the winnings of any given player and not the losses, it still gives you enough information on the looked up player to get an idea of their overall tournament performance.

The information given is the type of tournament they entered, how much they spent on the buy in, their results, the amount of entrants and other useful stats.

Use this tool to look up players when you are in a tournament and use it to see your own online poker tournament stats.

Click here to visit thepokerdb.com.

The other online tool I want to share with you is called Sharkscope. This tool covers: PokerStars, FullTilt, CryptoLogic, Ongame, Pacific Poker and Poker.com networks. Support for Party Poker is in Beta test.

Sharkscope allows five free database searches a day, and if you need more than that, then you can buy additional searches.

Sharkscope is similar to thepokerdb.com, but is specifically for sit and go tournament results. When you do a player search in their database it will give you their wins and losses. Sharkscope will also provide charts and graphs, which gives you detailed stats on any sit and go player.

Click here to go to Sharkscope.

Try these tools out, search your player name to see what your stats are and use them when you need more information on the players at your table.

You can refer to these online poker resource tools under Pages > Poker Resources in the right sidebar for future access.

Arm yourself with knowledge!

I only started to play RAZZ a couple months back when PokerStars added it to their list of poker games. Before that I played a lot of Stud High Low Eight or Better and really enjoy that game.

I figured I would try RAZZ because it is similar to Stud Hi/Lo, but with no qualifier and no high hand. When I play Stud Hi/Lo I almost always play the low end, so I figured I would try out some of PokerStars’ $10 + $1 multi-table RAZZ tournaments.

I did quite well, I made the money about 60% of the tournaments I entered and came in first and second in two of them. When I came in first there were 240 entries and when I finished second there were 160 entries.

Although I was very pleased in finishing second it didn’t compare to finishing first. My goal at that time was to win a RAZZ tournament outright.

In RAZZ tournaments I play very tight/aggressive and stayed true to my strategy when I won that RAZZ tournament.

In that particular RAZZ tournament where I finished first, I would only play the game as if there were an eight low qualifier.

RAZZ can be a VERY frustrating game, and if you are not discipline and patient then this game is not for you. Even when you are dealt the best starting hand and two other players are in the pot, you can expect to win maybe 30% of the time, and even heads-up it’s a 50/50 chance to win a pot even when dealt the best starting hand. RAZZ is a drawing game, and in this game it sometimes feels as though the other players are always out drawing you.

This is where patience and discipline come in. You have to know when to give up your hand and wait for the next. When I do win a pot it is usually a big pot, because when I am in a pot, I like to ram and jam when I think I have the best hand.

I see so many RAZZ players (newbies) play to get lucky. They get dealt three babies and then a brick, and another brick, and yet they will call many bets hoping for runner, runner. Although they will most certainly lose more pots then they win it gets very frustrating when they do hit their cards and beat you. This is RAZZ.

You can also expect to be dealt A23, and then be dealt KKQQ! Again, this is RAZZ!

So you must be able to fold your hand when you are the dog. If I am dealt A23, and I’m dealt a brick on fourth street I will not pay for another card if my opponent is showing something decent.

Here are my tips for playing in a RAZZ tournament:

• Be patient and discipline. Wait for your winning hands, they will come. Don’t give yourself excuses to play in a loosing pot!
• Know when to fold your hand, even when it started off so beautifully! You have to fold on fifth street if you catch bad and your opponent(s) looks good.
• Try to isolate the pot/hand to one opponent if you can. You will need to raise to try and get the other players to fold and you’ll need to bet on the following betting rounds.
• Play RAZZ as if there is an eight low qualifier. Of course there are exceptions, such as position or if you are playing someone who bluffs a lot or playing with a player who’s new to RAZZ.
• Make notes on the players at the table. This is VERY important. I make notes on player’s starting hands, if they bluff, if they are weak RAZZ players, if they are good players, etc. These notes WILL help you make tough decisions and are even more helpful later in the tournament.
• Turn ‘chat’ off. Why let other players put you on tilt by chatting garbage to you. Besides, you have more to focus on then watching the chat window.
• Never slow play and give your opponents free cards that might end up beating you. Slow play only if you get the wheel (A2345) by 5th or 6th street.
• Never give up, no matter how low in chips you get. When I won a Razz tournament I was second to last place after two hours of play, and then slowly climbed to victory. Remember the old adage, ‘a chip and a chair’.
• Keep track of the up cards after they are dealt. Start looking from the Bring in and then look clockwise. Sometimes you have to look quickly as some players will fold their hands quickly. You want to make note of all the up cards that are eight and less that would help your hand. The less you have to remember the better it is for your hand. Usually if I have to remember more than four or five cards then it’s not a good sign. If the count is one, or none, then it looks promising to improve your hand.
• Only sign up and play in a RAZZ tournament when you are totally 100% focused and committed to winning the tournament.
• Don’t play garbage starting hands. By this I mean, no pair and baby, no small babies and a face card. Try to have your starting hands eight or less.

I hope these RAZZ tournament tips help you as much as they helped me. I will be writing more about RAZZ and get into the details of playing this crazy, frustrating, and fun game.

Be sure to fold your hand when you hit bricks!

I want to go over the online poker games that are available at PokerStars, FullTilt Poker and Absolute Poker.

More and more online poker rooms are adding more poker games to their online poker rooms. There is more to online poker than Texas Hold’ em, and exploring these other games will help improve your poker skills and make you an overall better poker player. You may even find a game that you like better and find more profitable than Texas Holdem!

When I first started playing online poker I was pretty much like everyone else and played Texas Hold’ em exclusively. There was a time when I became bored of this game as I played it all the time. So I then tried different versions of Texas Holdem, Limit and Pot Limit Hold’em. That diversity lasted for a while, but I was still finding myself bored and ready for something new.

I explored the different games available to me and did some research via reading poker books and poker articles on the Net.

Once I was fairly confident that I wouldn’t be a Donkey playing these games I sat down and tried them.

To my surprise I was re-energized with playing poker again and found several new poker games that I absolutely love playing and some of them I even found to be profitable.

The poker games that I tried where Seven Card Stud High, Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo, Razz, Five Card Draw, HORSE, Limit 7-2 Triple Draw Lowball, and Omaha Hi/Lo.

Since expanding my poker game selection I found that playing Texas Hold’ em became more interesting and fun. I found my old passion of the game alive again by taking a break from it and trying something new. Taking a break from the usual poker games will make you appreciate your old favorites.

I highly recommend every poker player to expand their game choices as it will only make you an overall better poker player and it will also keep poker interesting. You may even find a game that you excel at and find one that is your new favorite.

Here are the poker games available at PokerStars, FullTilt Poker, and Absolute Poker:

PokerStars:

Texas Hold’ em No-Limit
Texas Holdem Limit
Texas Hold ‘em Pot-Limit
Omaha High
Omaha High Low
Seven Card Stud High
Seven Card Stud High Low
Razz
HORSE (Limit Holdem, Omaha Hi/Lo, Razz, Stud High, Stud High Low)
HOSE (Limit Holdem, Omaha Hi/Lo, Stud High, Stud High Low)
2-7 Triple Draw Lowball Limit
2-7 Triple Draw Lowball No-Limit
2-7 Triple Draw Lowball Pot Limit
Five Card Draw Limit
Five Card Draw No Limit
Five Card Draw Pot Limit

Checkout PokerStars today and try these other games out. If you are signing up for a new PokerStars account be sure to use Bonus Code: “First2007” for your free deposit bonus cash bonus. Click here to go to PokerStars and to get your free poker cash.

FullTilt Poker:

Texas Hold’ em No-Limit
Texas Holdem Limit
Texas Hold ‘em Pot-Limit
Omaha Hi
Omaha Hi Lo
Razz
7 Card Stud High
7 card Stud High Low
HORSE (Limit Holdem, Omaha Hi/Lo, Razz, Stud High, Stud High Low)
HOSE (Limit Holdem, Omaha Hi/Lo, Stud High, Stud High Low)
HA (Texas Hold’em & Omaha)

Click here to visit FullTilt Poker. Use this link and get a 100% deposit bonus match.

Absolute Poker:

Texas Hold’ em
Omaha Hi
Omaha Hi Lo 8 or Better
7 Card Stud High
7 card Stud High Low 8 or Better
RAZZ

Click here to visit Absolute Poker. Use this link and get a 100% deposit bonus match.

So get out there and try something new, you’ll become a better poker player in doing so!