We all make mistakes. I make a ton of them.

So it’s the river and I’ve been pushing my crappy hand into a massive fish throughout the hand. Finally on the river, I hit a good hand and then I check. I check? I check. I’ve got top and middle pair on a mildly scary board, and I’m against a fish. The fish bets, and I call. I call!?! This would have been a perfect opportunity to raise. But I call. I blame it on the fact that I was playing three tables. That’s the ticket! He also has two pairs but mine are stronger.

Reading hands isn’t easy, and when you’re wrong it can cost you big time.

When someone goes crazy on a flushy board with an ace it can be really easy to put them on a pair or a flush draw. It’s kind of hard to pot them on a straight draw. The turn action pushed me even further into the made hand on the flop camp. That meant that my set was good. Luckily for me the flush and four-straight came in on the river, causing me to second guess my turn evaluation. I lost to a turned straight.

Yeah, no one wants to hear about bad beats, but I found another one that I wanted to share. Who knew that quad queens was the hand of the week? Maybe there is such a thing as karma?

Everyone always finds the one in a million hand.

You always here about these amazing set-ups. AA vs. KK vs. QQ, which I’ve seen. Or any other of a number of chance occurences. Of course, any specific hand is a chance occuring, so most aren’t that interesting. This hand falls exactly into that category of intellectually curious but not that interesting overall.

JJ vs. JJ vs. 98 vs. 98, with a board of T7x. Overheard after the hand: “Imagine the action if a Jack fell on the turn!”

In poker, there is no better game structure than heads-up if you like action.

I hopped on a pokerstars $5./1 heads up table this morning just for giggles. I have never intentionally played heads up with anyone. Action. You bet you get action, if you like it slow play full ring, do not venture at the heads-up tables unless you really master poker to some extent.

I watched the table for about 5 minutes, and this guy was molesting some fish that would not raise – ever. I saw him raise once on the river. By then, villain had filled a runner runner str8. This seemed like a great table to join so I waited, but it did not take long for this guy to leave.

I took the fishes’ seat. I played for about 15 minutes. How is this game beatable? I was up $1.80. Villain was down $8. That leaves $6 for the rake. 15 cents per hand adds up. I like playing 200 hands an hour, and love that 85s is a raising hand, but seriously, how can you beat the rake?

Indeed the rake can be enormous when you play heads-up compared to other formats, as almost each time you play a hand, some rake will be taken and it really adds up fast. The short answer to remedy the rake is to move up in limits or get a nice bonus. That, or make sushi out of your opponents. Party Poker has a really bad rake structure. I can’t recall what it is, but i remember some people bellyaching about it. PokerStars, UB, and some other rooms have some forgiving rake structures (relatively speaking) for heads up. The heads-up tables at Cryptos actually have a faster rake structure than the 6-max or full ring tables. Shocking that they take so much rake but there are always players battling in heads-up matches.

Rake or not, you can still make money playing heads-up, and it is a great format to really master poker.

For a poker player like Joel Surnow, who wrote for some of the 1980’s most popular TV shows including St. Elsewhere, Miami Vice, and Falcon Crest, inspiration tends to come from all kinds of places.

Naturally, the idea for 24, the smash Fox hit he created with fellow Falcon Crest scribe Robert Cochran, came to him in the bathroom. “Like most poker players, I think about numbers. Just sort of in daydream style,” says Surnow. “A normal TV season is 22 episodes. So I was thinking, what if you jump it up to 24? 24 hours in a day, what if you did the entire season in one day? It was as simple as that.”

Around the same time that buzz was circulating around Hollywood about the return of Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer in 24, there was another craze slowly starting to take over Southern California block by block. It was Texas Hold ‘em, and a seasoned player like Surnow wasn’t about to let the popular game pass him by.

So he started playing with a motley crew of local characters. Before long, the cast of entrepreneurs, actors, producers, and poker players made up one of the biggest home games in the city. It wasn’t long before the world had gone Hold ‘em crazy. “It was almost before the World Poker Tour’s Travel Channel show came on. Which is kind of crazy,” Surnow remembers. “Hold ‘em was in the air. It was about to take over the country by storm. So we just started getting more and more guys interested in Hold ‘em poker hands once the Travel Channel thing came on.”

Since then, the weekly game has seen several iterations as well as appearances from millionaire venture capitalists, actors like Lou Diamond Phillips and Sean Astin (both of whom have appeared on 24), players like Kenna James and Annie Duke, producers like Jim Wilson (Dances with Wolves, The Bodyguard), and record producers like Paul Brown (Al Jarreau, George Benson).

The group even includes a wheelchair-bound Vietnam vet affectionately known as “Sarge.” It’s all straight out of an HBO original series. “It’s classic. Guys giving each other shit and no holds barred,” says Surnow. “Everyone’s a character.”.

With the success of 24, the resources at Surnow’s disposal overwhelmingly pointed towards putting together the ultimate home game. Before long, he was using the lot where 24 was shot to host games, enlisting the show’s catering for the event and even paying his crew overtime to put the games together.

He never received a confirmation from Fox Television to make the lot games kosher, but then again, he never really asked them for permission in the first place. “I have so much resources at my fingertips here in production. So we would lay out every Wednesday night and it became the greatest game. Within three months, it was bigger than U.S. Steel,” says Surnow, who laments how the popular home game eventually became too big, even for him. “The problem was it ceased to have the home game feel. It was just too many people in there. Everybody wanted to get into this game. We decided after about six months of that to take a step back.”

With a simpler home game established in Hollywood and no longer having to worry about phantom players inviting themselves over to empty everyone’s pockets, Surnow and his buddies were content to focus on important things. Like poker with Sarge and the boys, for example.

With one of the most competitive home games in Hollywood, the league has even managed to tabulate a points system online. At the end of the year, the top ten players in these standings compete in the ultimate home tournament, the winner being awarded a commemorative trophy shaped out of a toilet bowl. It’s all just a little more guy stuff, really. It’s the reason Surnow joined this home game in the first place.

Even if the emphasis is and always will be on the game of poker, it wouldn’t really be a Hollywood home game without the odd player throwing out television and film pitches mid-hand. For Joel Surnow, it’s just an extension of his everyday life (he gets pitched shows almost daily).

Always a player first, he’s more likely to pay attention to the table than random movie pitches. “It’s funny. It’s usually not me pitching ideas to people at the game. It’s guys pitching ideas to me. Guys at the game who all come from different walks of life and they all have stories. Some are better than others,” says Surnow. “I haven’t actually acted on anything, but you hear some really crazy stuff at poker games, especially as it gets late. Everybody feels like they have a story to tell.”

There are various techniques to make a great bluff and it does rely on a wide range of influences and factors. The complementary move is to know how to entice your opponents to make a bluff to get hold of his chips. Both moves are deceiving and potentially powerful.

The trick is to know the best situations victory is possible with this kind of bluff inducing move. It is also important to have a good idea of who the poker players are, who are able to fall in such a trap.

One first scenario where you wish to be bluffed is when you have a fantastic hand. In this situation, several paths are possible for you. First, you can check from the flop to the river if you feel that your foe is prone to react to perceived weakness. You will content yourself with simply calling each of his bets. He will sometimes assume that you have a drawing hand if the board includes draws.

Secondly, you can make a min-raise, thus allowing him the room for a 4-bet. If your stacks are deep enough, performing the min raise will in some situations push him to send all of his remaining chips on the felt.

The opponents style is the most important aspect to consider. It is obvious that to induce an opponent to bluff, it is preferable for you than he is aggressive enough and able to go far enough with his continuation bets. To perform this move, you have to select your target carefully and to know who you are dealing with. Theoretically, the more your opponent is aggressive and a bluffer, the easier it will be to get your hand on all his chips.

Conversely, a very tight or very observant player will often stop betting after getting called the first time. You must therefore in this case find a different way to get all his chips in your own stack.

Inducing your opponent to bluff is hard in general and you must fully master this skill. Note that you should not float too often, as it will cost you in the long-run.

Inducing a bluff and prevailing in a major pot is one of the most enjoyable feeling you will ever get in poker. So learn this method for future fun playing poker. The pride will be all yours.

There are two commonly known types of Texas Holdem software, which can be found and downloaded in the Internet.

The first type is casino clients, which are used for establishing secure connection between your computer and casino. Such type of software is usually supplemented with a nice design and good sound and graphic features, making the games enjoyable to play.

The other commonly known as Texas Hold’em software are various hand, stakes, pre-flops calculators and similar software, which can facilitate the gambler’s leisure and improve his skills. We advice to take in consideration and pay special attention when choosing such software being used when playing at an online casino. It means that you must check the software’s consistency, licensing and guarantees, find out whether the software is produced by a reliable manufacturer and is certified by the leading gambling companies.

Remember that using a software which is not certified is dangerous. This can violate some gambling laws, your privacy and result in money loss. It is strongly recommended to learn all software’s features (you must feel comfortable during the game) and reliability of course (you must be sure that the software you use is fair).

It’s rather easy to find out if software is good. Research it on the Internet and take in consideration the following software tips:

- Reliable software is designed well
- Good software has good sound and other appearance features
- It usually contains a row of features apart of standard usability
- If the software being delivered is in CD format
- it has to contain a manual guide, manufacturer information, license and several way of contacting support.
- If the software is delivered via download
- it has to have an online manual, manufacturer and developer requisites, legal notes and several ways of contacting support.
- It’s easy to check the manufacturers reliability by finding the manufacturer in the internet.

Popular manufacturer site has to be a brand name known in the majority of casinos.Texas Holdem software modules usually contain the playing section, message section, tips and chat section and some features unique to each casino’s software. Each software module contains the balance section where you can buy chips using your credit card. This section should be described properly, as follows.

Many credit card companies have stopped processing gambling transactions, because of stealing credit cars and a big percentage of charge backs. But you can still can gamble online using some credit cards which are still processed through online gambling houses. Find out what credit cards are processed by the casino you are interested in.

If they have no credit card list, contact their support. You will be definitely told about all ways to by their chips. The banks, which don’t allow gambling transactions, are CitiBank, WellsFargo, Bank of America and the majority of other leading European and American banks. However, there are much better ways to buy your chips using digital wallet systems, instead of looking for a processed credit card. Such systems are PayPal, PrePaid ATM, FirePay, NETeller, E-Passporte, E-gold for America, Western Europe and Australia, Webmoney, Yandex Money, E-Passporte, E-gold for xUSSR and Eastern Europe countries.

Internet Currency Notes of each of these digital banks can be used in thousands of online merchants including online casinos, wagering and sports betting houses. Opening an account in any of these systems is free and you shouldn’t go anywhere to open an account – all information is quickly processed right from your computer and you can immediately send a transaction from your credit card to the digital wallet. Having a certain amount of digital money you can begin gambling in any casino accepting your digital money.

The advantages of using digital wallets are obvious. First it gives you the highest security level, you never enter your real credit card number, so you are protected from thieves. Second most digital banks do not hold any of your private information, so you can freely surf the Internet and buy what you want without any risk of being detected. Third you will never receive a credit card report, so neither your family, nor your friends or boss will know what sites have you visited and what online products have you bought.

Analyzing software type are special programs and calculators which are used to count your chances to get some poker hand, predict your hand, tell whether your pocket cards and the flop can make a strong hand, count your bankroll, etc. Many software manufacturers are developing their own systems and technologies, so there is a wide variety of software of this kind. Professional players prefer to do all these calculations in their mind, but such Texas Hold’em software can be really useful for beginners.

PokerNews.com. along with majority shareholder and world-renowned poker player Tony G, have officially called out CardPlayer magazine over its apparent theft of their chip counts and live updates during the World Series of Poker.

With rumors already circulating around both the online and live poker community that CardPlayer was deliberately stealing the live chip counts and updates from PokerNews.com, the drama worsened even more when PokerNews Limited’s majority shareholder – Tony G. – wrote an official statement in his blog regarding the ordeal. In an excerpt taken straight from his blog, Tony G. doesn’t hold back his displeasure for the situation:

“We are having our best year ever and right now we should be enjoying the finest moment of our life as a company. We are at the WSOP and are supposed to have an agreement with Bluff to be the exclusive provider of updates and chip counts. But unfortunately over the last few days, we have been pirated and simply stolen from by many of our competitors – including Cardplayer. Cardplayer is hiding behind a legal fence that they were standing on top of just this time last year– kicking anyone who dared try to climb it in the teeth. ”

His statement also directly implicates CardPlayer as using PokerNews’s updates and copy/pasting them onto their own site. Not only that, but CardPlayer is refusing to give any credit to PokerNews for the work being done by its staff of over 40+ employees who do both the official chip counts and live media updates at the Rio!

Now what makes this story ever more intriguing is that CardPlayer just last year accused Bluff Magazine of doing the same thing — and just as Bluff did last year, CardPlayer is now clearly hiding behind a legal loophole that doesn’t exactly stipulate what kind of coverage it can and can’t use from other media outlets.

A spokesperson for PokerNews has stated his distaste for what CardPlayer is doing. Now it looks as if PokerNews might have some sort of leg to stand on if they did indeed pursued some sort of legal action against CardPlayer. It was clearly stated months ago that PokerNews had earned the exclusive rights to do both the official chip counts and live updates. In fact, PokerNews is the only media outlet allowed in the Rio poker room to cover the event.

It has been roughly 24 hours now since this story broke, and there has yet to be any statement issued by Jeff Shulman, who with his brother, own and operate CardPlayer. With the poker community already looking down at CP, I think it would be very interesting to see what the response will be.

Let’s hope that CardPlayer will step up and do the right thing eventually. If CardPlayer wanted the updates so bad, then they should have done a better job at negotiating a deal with Harrah’s and the WSOP. PokerNews paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to be the official provider of WSOP updates, and its only fair that CardPlayer respect that from a business standpoint.