by: Tom McBroom
Blackjack Basic Strategy, played perfectly in a game with favorable rules, will reduce the edge against you to about one half of one percent, the best odds of any game in the casino.

Pair on the board: Four of a kind is again the nut hand, unless you have one of that rank in your hand. Then you once again need to determine the highest full house. In this situation, if the pair uses the highest card on the board then the nut full house is three of that card with a pair of the next highest card. If the pair does not use the highest card, then the nut full house is three of the highest card plus the pair on the board. An example would be QQJ53, where you hold KQ. The nuts here would be QQQJJ. Conversely, if the board was JT552, and you held 56, the nuts would be JJJ55.

One of the first skills you must learn in Texas Holdem poker is the ability to read the cards on the board and figure out the best possible hand, known as “the nuts”. To players who have been at it a while, this is something done automatically and constantly, but to new players it is often overlooked or done incorrectly. It’s a basic skill that all players need to know, and it’s easy once you know how. For the purposes of this discussion we will assume you know the ranking of poker hands from royal flush on down. If you don’t, then go learn because you won’t get far without it!

The most common opponent you are likely to face at an online poker table is the loose opponent. Most complaints you will hear from most experienced players involve loose players. They are the source of most “bad beats” and can cause frustration for even the most talented of sharks. The only way to beat these loose players is to made adjustments to your game. Here are a few things you can do to adjust your game for a loose opponent.

Brad Daugherty’s 10 Tips to Improve your Tournament Play

1. Want to improve your end game? Want to build your level of experience in playing final tables? Want to learn how to 'close the deal' and win an event? Play a single table satellite! And when you do, pretend you are at the final table of the World Championship. Remember, every chip is precious. Playing single-table tournaments is great practice for the end game of multi-table tournaments. The strategies are very similar; with the biggest difference being single-table tournaments usually take less than an hour to play, where the multi-table tournaments take over 4 hours to play.

Note: 10 Tips To Improve Your Game by
Brad Daugherty
8/18/2004