May 19, 2012

Shock as Backstage is barred from Cheltenham Foxhunters

Gordon Elliott’s Backstage, the long-time ante-post favourite for the Cheltenham Foxhunters Chase on Gold Cup day, will not run in the coveted event having been found to be ineligible under the conditions of the three-and-a-quarter-mile event, writes Elliot Slater.

His absence from the contest has caused a wholesale reshuffle amongst all firms betting on the race and a number have revealed that they will refund all bets placed on Backstage who has earned more prizemoney than is allowed under the conditions of entry. The most exasperating aspect of this matter is that in revealing this news on February 23, Elliott admitted that he and Middleham Park Racing, the owners of the talented 10-year-old stayer, have known for some time that they would not be able to run but only now have chosen to pass the news on to the public. Fans of the Cheltenham Festival 2012 will have been disappointed by the news.

Connections of the gelded son of Passing Sale have now decided to go the conventional handicap route at Cheltenham and have given the recent six-time point-to-point winner the option of running in either the marathon Glenfarclas Cross Country Handicap Chase, or the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Handicap Chase, a contest the owners won last year with the ridiculously easy victor, Junior.

Richard Barber’s useful chaser Chapoturgeon has now advanced to the head of the list for the Foxhunters Chase and is generally a 6/1 market leader, whilst Backstage’s main aim this term remains a repeat assault on the John Smith’s Grand National at Aintree on April 14, in which he unseated rider at the 20th fence in the 2010 renewal when still in touch with the leaders, before running a respectable tenth last year behind Ballabriggs. Elliott’s capable stayer is a top priced 40/1 shot to gallop to glory at the showcase Liverpool meeting.

Meanwhile, the Cheltenham Gold Cup betting odds suggest the 2012 renewal of the race is set to be another classic.

Raising From The Blinds

The small and big blinds are the most difficult areas of the poker table to play from, because you are at a positional disadvantage throughout the hand. It is because of this quirk that you should pay particular attention to the situations that you choose to raise from.

Theoretically, you can only come in with a raise from the blinds if one or more opponent has limped into the pot before you. Good observational play will tell you which opponents are limp/folding a high percentage of the time, but these types of players are rare. Instead you will find a broader range of limp/calling types of players. So knowing you are going to be at a positional disadvantage throughout the hand, it is best to only raise with premium hands. Those looking at GSOP 8 should remember this.

When you raise from the blinds, after a series of limps, your range is going to be pinned down to premium hands. Anyone with a Betfair Promotion Code needs to bear this in mind.

So when you reach the post flop part of your game be very wary if your bets are subjected to a raise, especially if the raise comes from a tight aggressive regular or a rock. Here is a good example.

You are playing in a six max cash game and there have been two limpers in the pot before you raise from the big blind and everyone calls. You are holding ace-king and the flop comes down [Ah] [Td] [3c]. You bet and face a raise…what hands do you have beat, that can limp/call in that spot, and then raise?

Choosing an Opponent

Imagine how great your poker life could be if you could choose your opponent? Well this is what the very best regular’s do in the game, and it is what provides them with an added edge. We are not talking about heads up action here either. You can and should be sitting down at a six-max or full ring game even if there is one fish at the table.

One of the easiest ways to spot a fish is to purchase some table selection software. We are not going to recommend any here but a quick Google search will find you the right piece of kit for the right price. In the meantime let’s just give you some tips the good old-fashioned way. People looking at WSOP 2012 should bear this in mind.

First of all have a look at player tendencies. If you use a Heads Up Display (HUD) this task is much simpler because the stats are ready made for you. If not you are going to rely on your observational and note taking skills. Any player with a VPIP (voluntarily put in pot) of 35+ and a PFR (pre flop raise) of below 10 is a bad player and you should be trying to find a seat to their direct left. People searching for a Betfair Poker Freeroll need to remember this.

Another really good observational point is stack sizes. If you find a player with a stack size below 100bb then they are either a fish or a short stack professional and you will quickly notice the difference. The short stack will auto top up when stacked, and the fish will just sit out while their credit card goes through the rigmarole of trying to get more money.

So there you are, two great ways of choosing an opponent, so what are you waiting for…get searching!

Will anonymous poker tables take off?

After the trials and tribulations of Black Friday many people in the poker world were asking the question: is online poker dead? For a lot of people – especially those plying their trade in the USA – it was, but for the visionaries it was a case of out with the old and we can’t wait for the new. Since the beginning of time no sooner does one civilisation crumble than another picks up those broken pieces to build something bigger and better.

With the American market seemingly gearing up for the inevitable introduction of legalised intra-state online poker there is a new dawn on the horizon. So what can we do, if anything, to improve this great game that we all love? When trying to improve something a good starting point is to ask the players what their opinion is. People with a Betfair poker bonus should bear this in mind.

One common complaint these days is the imbalance between regulars and fish. Coaches and top players alike will advocate the importance of good table selection, but to sit on a list of 11 players all waiting for action on a single table is ridiculous. What if you are player number 11 on that table is the fish really going to be there when you get your seat? http://poker.betfair.com/en/download/

One way to prevent this type of thing happening would be to introduce anonymous tables. This means that when you took your seat there would be no screen names, and so it would take game action time to realise where the fish are. This brings in a whole new set of dynamics and would actually make for a really interested new game scenario. Will anonymous table action be the new rush poker – who knows – but it wouldn’t hurt to give it a go.

Mix up your post-flop betting

One of the biggest faults that recreational poker players have, when betting post flop, is making bet sizes according to the strength of their hand. This is best explained by showing you a couple of examples.

In the first example there is £10 in the pot and the recreational player is holding a pair of Jacks on a J62r board. In this situation the recreational player will get excited and bet £10. It the worse cases they even bet over the pot. This is a mistake people playing on Top Poker Sites UK must avoid.

In the second example there is £10 in the pot and the recreational player is holding ace-kings on a J62r board. In this situation the recreational player will bet £2 and immediately fold to any raise.

These examples are exacerbated, over time, because more experienced professionals will pick up on these patterns and be able to take advantage. In example one the pro will just fold and in example two the pro can bluff raise and take the pot down easily. Lots of people with Betfair Poker Bonus Codes will do this.

In order to disguise the strength of your hand, post-flop, you need to work from the foundation that all your bet sizes will be the same. You then deviate away from this strategy dependant on the player type you face. If you are playing against someone who simply cannot lay a hand down, then deploy the betting strategy in example one. If you are playing with someone who folds to everything except top pair or strong draws then deploy example two.

Don’t let rivals wind you up

Roberto Romanello is a former World Poker Tour (WPT) and European Poker Tour (EPT) champion, with lifetime career earnings of $2,400,000. Romanello is one of the games great readers of people and his mouth is used as a weapon to great effect.

Romanello’s WPT title came in 2011 at WPT Slovakia, and during that run towards the title, it was the Czech pro Marek Blasko who held the chip lead for a very long time. Blasko is a huge man and you could tell that he would be prepared to fight his corner and enter into a one to one machismo battle if needed. Romanello also saw this and needled Blasko incessantly until eventually the giant Czech player took the bait, and it resulted in him being eliminated from the competition. Fans of betfairpoker.com can learn lessons from this.

There are a lot of players like Romanello in the game of poker and it is what makes it such a fascinating pastime. If you want to learn how to play poker you are going to have to learn to deal with these types of players and avoid their bear traps. The best way to do this is to remove all of their power and it is quite simple to do. Imagine a player keeps telling you that your decisions are poor. Just keep affirming his words with a great big smile on your face. After a while your opponent will realise you are not taking the bait and he will try to offer it to someone else.

The Chatterbox

Did you know that during any given second, we consciously process only sixteen of the eleven million bits of information that our senses pass onto our brains? This means that our sub-conscious is brimming with information that we are not even aware of or are we?

How is it that you remember the lyrics of a song, word for word, despite not hearing it for ten years?

Human beings have much more knowledge than we are aware of and in poker we can take advantage of this. So poker players ditch your hearts, diamonds and clubs because it is spades we need as we dig into the sub-conscious mind. Fans of Online Poker at betfair should remember this.

If you are going to take advantage of the sub-conscious mind then be aware of its existence, clear your mind so you are more receptive to it and then finally when your body tells you what to do…act on it.

But how does your body tell you what to do?

Do you often find yourself having conversations with yourself in your mind? Don’t worry you are not ready for the funny farm just yet! Everyone has them and we like to call ours our Chatterbox. Your Chatterbox likes to talk and to tell you what to do, but you fight with him and make your own decisions. This is known as going against your better judgment. http://poker.betfair.com/en/

Chatterboxes draw their information from the non-verbal clues and behaviours that they notice during the game. It is these pieces of vital information that often slip into the sub-conscious. So if you want to improve your poker game then become friendly with your Chatterbox. Be aware he is there so that you can listen to him when he has something important to tell you! But most importantly act on his advice!

Poker tips – Don’t Let The Actions Of Others Sway You

Players act with differing speeds when it comes to the action at the poker table. Players like Sam Trickett and Alex Wice play extremely fast, Mike “Timex” McDonald is famed for taking exactly the same time between motions and then there are some players who take an eternity to make a decision.

We are sure you will find your own pace but it is important to take a moment to pause in between actions and consider your options. Sam Trickett and Alex Wice may move like lightning but they are experienced and have been playing poker for a long time – plus they are very good at it!

When pausing to take your time in between actions a new dynamic will present itself and one you will have to manage well if you are going to be a successful poker player. When you take your time other players at the table become impatient and they will let you know it. Some players will yawn, pull a frowny face or more directly just tell you to hurry the hell up.

Everyone will be staring at you, waiting for you to make your move and you will start to feel a little nervous and edgy. It is this nervousness and edginess that you need to battle. If you let it get to you then you will not pause for thought and your action will be hurried and less optimal as a result. Obviously if you are on a poker website  then you don’t feel that direct pressure. However, it is good to practise with poker promotions online before stepping into the real world casino, where your opponents will be watching your every move.

So when taking your time try to get into the zone. Shut out everyone around you and just focus on the most important thing – your action.

Another rule in poker – always have a System

Poker is a game of situations, and for every situation there will be a correct way to act.  You learn these correct ways to act through a variety of different forums. Some of these forums include playing experience, talking poker with other poker players, reading books and getting coaching.

These situations occur repeatedly in Texas holdem poker and it is because of the repetitive nature of the events that it makes sense to create your own system for playing the game. Have you ever heard the term playing on autopilot? Players who operate in this manner do so because they have a system.

The system has been created and refined for so long that it becomes second nature to them, unlike a beginner who has only just began playing their poker download and therefore have to think about their every move that little but more. Having a system that allows people to play on autopilot also frees up brain capacity. Freeing up brain capacity when playing poker is vital because it allows you to think about the more complicated problems (especially when multi-tabling online) for example.

The last reason having a poker system is very important is for continuous improvement. If you have a system then you have rules and part of your system should be reviewing your game. Having a specific set of rules allows you to dissect them during review. Rules that are losing you money can be changed and new ones created. When you introduce new rules, because you have specifically done this, you can then measure the success or failure of these rules and this is known as continuous improvement.

Lastly right your system down on a piece of paper. Transferring the rules and processes from your mind and onto paper will really help you improve your game by getting to know your system more intimately.

Hyper-Aggression in Poker

There are many different ways to approach the game of poker and one of the reasons why it offers such an alluring pull. The world that surrounds poker is often a violent place where aggression rules. Throughout time, our world leaders managed to get to their respective lofts of power by going about their business in an aggressive manner.

In poker strategy  there is an aggressive approach, but there is also a hyper-aggressive approach. We are not talking about simply betting your hand strong when you have the nuts. Instead we are talking about continually raising and re-raising in order to exert your dominance over an opponent. Hyper-aggressive opponents come in two different forms.

There are those that do it without any rhyme or reason and have no strategic thought whatsoever. These types of players are often found at the lower level of the game where their bankroll fluctuates wilder than a Ghostbusters sensor in Salem’s Lot.

The second type of hyper-aggressive player is the smart hyper-aggressive player. These players understand that by acting in the way that they do, they are forcing you to either play their game or get run over, giving them the best poker bonus  – extra and unlikely winnings. Nobody likes getting run over and the human psyche will force you to try and play their game and guess what happens…yes you get run over!

By forcing you to play the hyper-aggressive game your opponent is forcing you to come outside of your comfort zone and this is how you will make mistakes. People earn money through the mistakes of others and this is why the hyper-aggress