Straight Draws in Texas Hold’em...

Of all the draws you can have in Texas Hold’em, straight draws are possibly the most difficult to play.  That’s because you have two different types of them in inside and open-ended straight draws.  Open-ended straight draws are obviously the most favorable to play since they give a person 8 outs while inside draws only offer 4 outs.  Since these two draws differ greatly from each other, it can be very difficult to decide what to do in each instance.  Here is a look at what to do when you have each draw.

Open-Ended Straight Draw

As mentioned before, open-ended straight draws definitely give you the better shot at hitting your hand by the river.  So you should almost always be drawing for a straight when you have this kind of hand since your pot odds will be correct.  However, you should watch out for a couple of things before you fully commit to your open-ended draw.

One of these things is when there is a pair on the board and other players are betting heavily; this means there is the potential for a full house on the board.  Another thing to beware of is when you’re only using one of your hole cards to make the straight because it’s likely someone else will be drawing for a higher straight.

Inside Straight Draw  

With an inside straight, your odds are cut in half so you will rarely call just based on this hand.  However, it makes sense to draw for the inside straight if you’ve got additional value in your hand such as overcards, a flush, etc.  You can also draw in this instance if there were several limpers before you since your pot odds will increase significantly.

Playing Pocket Aces in Different Poker G...

Since many people consider Texas Hold’em to be the only form of poker out there these days, they often look at pocket aces as the holy grail of poker.  But the truth is that pocket aces aren’t always so valuable once you get them outside of Hold’em.  With that in mind, here is a look at how pocket aces play out in different variations of poker.

Texas Hold’em

As mentioned before, pocket aces are the best possible hole cards you can get in Texas Hold’em.  There is no stronger card combination you can be dealt before the flop!  Whenever you get pocket aces in Texas Hold’em, you should be trying to get as much money in the pot as possible.   

Omaha

When you move from Texas Hold’em to Omaha, the power of pocket aces diminishes somewhat.  That’s because players receive 4 hole cards in this poker game and, because of this, there are more opportunities for straights, flushes, and sets.  Still, pocket aces are valuable in Omaha as they can help players form powerful straights and flushes.

Razz

Since the point of Razz is to form the worst hand possible, pocket aces won’t help your cause much.  If you happen to receive pocket aces in Razz then your best bet for winning is to do a naked bluff.  But this move is quite risky so you’re definitely better off just folding.

Seven Card Stud

Pocket aces are very valuable in Seven Card Stud because pairs and two pairs often win hands in this game.  If you are able to get another pair through your upcards, in addition to pocket aces, then you will probably be in command of the hand!

A Closer Look at Omaha Outs...

“Outs” in poker are pretty easy to understand since they are simply the amount of cards left in the deck that can give you a made hand.  Calculating them is pretty easy too since you only really need to look at which card values or suits will give you that hand - i.e. if you are behind in a hand while holding two kings, and none are on the board then you would have two outs left. 

However, Omaha outs are a little tougher to speculate on since everyone has four hole cards instead of two.  Here is a look at different Omaha outs and how to calculate them.

Normal Outs

As explained before, outs are simply the cards that will give you a hand which is highly likely to win.  So if you have two suited card and there are two suited cards on the board, then you would have 9 outs left since there are 13 cards of every suit.

Anti-Outs

Unfortunately, there are some outs in poker which will help your opponents more than they will help you.  These are called anti-outs since they only appear to be an out for you.  A good example of this is if you had two jacks and needed one more for a set, it could actually help an opponent make a flush (if it’s of a certain suit).  So this is really an anti-out.

True Outs

After you’ve tallied up your regular outs and anti-outs, it is time to figure out your true outs.  The good news is that figuring out true outs is really easy since you only need to subtract anti-outs from your regular outs.  So, in the previous example, if you subtracted one jack of a certain suit then you would be left with one true out.

Tom Dwan loses Million Dollar Challenge...

People have made a big deal about Tom Dwan in recent weeks due to him being signed by Full Tilt Poker, and his latest Million Dollar Challenge.  Already know for his online challenges, Dwan has taken his act to London for a set of live challenges that will add up to a million dollars when everything is said and done.  The first part of the London challenge had Dwan taking on Marcello Marigliano.

Both players bought into the contest for $250,000, and the rules were that nobody left until either 500 hands had been played or one of the players was broke.  But we didn’t have to worry about the going broke part since this was largely a back and forth matchup.  On paper, Tom Dwan was the more aggressive player since he raised on the button 84% of the time and won 55% of the hands.

However, it was Marigliano who won the heads-up contest after ending up with $272,500 compared to Dwan’s $227.500.   In the aftermath of his big win, Marigliano summed up his feelings by saying, “In the end, I won a small amount, but I’m happy though as I won with bluffs.  He raised a lot pre-flop and you have to play tight, but I made some good moves, and I’m happy I proved I can play with Tom.”

The victory for Marcello is surprising since he isn’t nearly as well known as Dwan is.  However, he definitely did prove that he is capable of playing with Dwan - and even beating him!  With the Marigliano matchup now behind him, Dwan is now on to play llari Sahamies.  After he plays Sahamies, Dwan will face Sammy “Any Two” George in the final part of the challenge.

Another Man wins a Ladies Only Poker Tou...

Many women in the poker community were outraged after Abraham Korotki took down a ladies-only poker tournament in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  After the event, Korotki had little to say in his defense besides that he wanted to find somewhere to practice for future poker tourneys.  But Korotki did more than practice in September as he was able to win the tournament and the money that went along with it. 

It hasn’t even been more than a few months now since Korotki’s win that we’re seeing another man win a female poker tourney.  This time it is Greg Sessler who was able to defeat 95 other players at a WSOP Circuit Event en route to his “big victory”.

Sessler entered a $340 “Lake Tahoe Ladies Championship” tourney, and was able to walk away with the win as well as $9,900 after everything was said and done.  And plenty was said during the tourney too since other men decided to enter this supposedly women’s-only event.  The crowd started cheering every time a male player was eliminated from the tournament - little did they know though that a man would be the one to win it.

After taking down the women’s championship in Lake Tahoe, Sessler commented afterwards by saying that he only wanted to find a place to play poker during his day off.  Conveniently, it just happened to be a ladies-only event that he decided to use as his place to play poker.

The WSOP wanted to clear themselves of the mess created by the win and issued a statement saying, “The WSOP isn’t a political organization and can’t be expected to get involved in debates about sexism, discrimination, or other polarizing issues which may be applicable to poker tournaments.”