Strategy

When you raise pre-flop in a game of No-Limit Hold 'em and are called, you're faced with a decision when the flop hits the board. Should you put out a continuation bet on the flop or should you check and let the turn come off for free? Of course, there are a variety of factors that will effect any decision in a hand of poker, but if I was the one who raised pre-flop, I'll put out a continuation bet on the flop a large proportion of the time.

Players get excited when they flop two pair because they know they're in a great position to take down a pot. But often, two pair is not nearly as powerful as it seems. This is especially true when holding bottom two pair or top and bottom pair. These hands may look dominant on the flop, but they're usually quite vulnerable.

The importance of being able to identify regulars, analyse their behaviour, and think about what kind of edge (if any) you have of them should be obvious to any poker player. One of the problems you will see over and over again when people make these sort of calculations is that they tend to analyse players in a vacuum. 

Rush Poker* is an innovative new form of poker offered by Full Tilt Poker that allows players to see up to four times as many hands as they would see in a normal game.

Have you ever seen those nature shows where scientists drag a fake seal behind a boat so they can provoke sharks to attack? The form of the helpless seal is irresistible to sharks, and they attack nearly every time.

New players who want to be good students of the game often ask me for advice. In response, I often tell them about emotional stability, which I touched on in my last tip. The next point I'd like to make is that they need to be careful when assessing their own play. That's because there are a couple of common mistakes new players make that lead them to draw faulty conclusions about the strength of their play.