Free Poker

Loose Players And Tight Players In Texas Holdem Poker

admin — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 01:44:46 +0000

Loose play in Texas Holdem Poker is sometimes like yawning: Contagious to observers.

A definition of loose or tight play in Texas Holdem is like two men trying to tell what they think a beautiful lady looks like. Namely, the explanation is in the eye of the beholder. A general rule would be: A tight player starts the hand with a high pair or with an AK. A loose player would start the hand with low cards or unsuited K3. The tight player raises when he feels he has the best of it. The loose player may raise on the come more than he should; he may call too much on inside straights or full house draws. He plays too many hands that depend on luck to win and not according to what he currently holds.

Both types of players can hurt you, but the tight player is probably easier to play against. It is usually the tight player you can identify from the Flop and the betting. The loose player is not easy to read as he may hold anything at any time. It is his unpredictable play that makes him more dangerous in many hands. He may not fold when bet against, like the tight player would. The loose player may play for the miracle draw — and when he gets it, he puts a bad beat on you. The tight player will only raise when he thinks he has a sure thing. This gives you an advantage as you can get out of the hand or at least not re-raise.

Loose players have a small edge in that when they raise, you don’t know if they have a hand or are just trying to win by betting. Since their starting hand can be any two cards, an odd flop may fit their hand very well. This makes playing a big pair against them a more risky proposition than it would be with any tight player. Loose players are great pot builders, since they are likely to call bets more freely.

Pot-building players make large pots possible, and may even cause some tight players to loosen up so they can try to catch some of these larger pots. This kind of loose game is great if your hands are holding up, but terrible if they are not. A loose game can get very expensive if you’re constantly coming in second best at the end. In the scheme of things most players would rather play in a loose game, as the pot sizes will offset some weird plays and bad beats. Solid play is still the name of the game in a loosely played Holdem game.

Players who talk a lot while playing sometimes have a very easy tell to read. They may get very quiet when they have a good hand. People who chew gum stop chewing when their hand is better than average. Chip handling and eye contact are other tells that some players are guilty of when playing a good hand. Study of the players at the table can pick up these clues to the power of their hand. This is very good information to act upon or at least play against. Knowing when a player is strong or weak is the kind of information that can make you money.

Reading your opponents is a winning strategy for players who wish to improve. This knowledge will let you know when to run a bluff or when to push the hand and raise every chance you’re given. Aggressive play is rewarded in Holdem.

Scared play is much easier to play against — and beat. Play hard, not weak, and play with your brain. The best hand does not always rake in the pot.~~

Live Poker vs. Online Poker

admin — Wed, 19 May 2010 00:28:51 +0000

Online poker players like to make fun of live poker players. Live poker players like to make fun of online poker players. So which one is right? The online players of course! Live poker is, without a doubt, infinitely easier than online poker. Where online poker can take hundreds of thousands of hands before any profitability is seen, live poker is like printing money. Maybe you think I’m joking, maybe you think I’m exaggerating, but I am not. Years ago, online poker was just as easy as live poker. Maybe not quite as easy, but it was not a challenge to make tons of money. Today, however, online poker is the definition of a challenge. Few players actually make money, despite what many think, and dedication is a pre requisite for success. So why do people still play online poker if live poker is that much easier? There are many reasons, though some make more sense than others.

Online Poker

Online poker remains popular primarily due to its convenience. You don’t have to drive to a casino, get on a long waiting list, buy chips, and go find a table when you play on the internet. Once you log on, you are pretty much ready to go. Anyone with a shred of common sense can see why online poker is favored by so many. Because of its convenience, however, many players have gotten much better at the game. Poker used to have a steep learning curve that took a long time to grasp, because playing in a casino or in live games was not a speedy process. With online poker, players are able to get many more hands in per hour, can play multiple tables at a time, and have access to all kinds of tools that will make them better players. Online poker is still a viable option for poker, be it for casual or advanced players, but the games are certainly much tougher than most people would expect.

Live Poker

Live poker was popular before online poker, and it remains popular after online poker. Nothing can replace a game where players actually get to sit and converse with their opponents. This is something that the online poker experience is void of, though some players don’t mind. The skill sets are a bit different when you play live. You can’t steal as many pots in lower limit games, if only because no one ever folds. Continuation bets are often times a waste of money, and live players generally hate folding. If you can value bet, you should be able to crush live games. You won’t get nearly as many hands in per hour as you would playing online, but the dramatic drop in skill level typically more than compensates for this. Live poker can get boring for some people, especially after long sessions. There are some people who just prefer to be left alone and play by themselves, this is who online poker is great for. Online success does not always translate to live success, so tread carefully if you are a first time live poker player.

Go for the Flush!

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:59:14 +0000

The flush – five cards of the same suit is an extraordinarily good hand in Texas Hold’em. Only quads (four of a kind), a full house (a set of one card plus a pair of another) or a straight flush (five consecutive cards of the same suit) can defeat a flush. Most of the time in high stakes no limit holdem the pot is won with hands of one or two pair, so if you can assemble a flush you have a good chance of taking the pot. A flush draw, sometimes also called a ‘four flush’ means that you have four of the five cards you need for a flush. It is possible to come up with a four flush even if your hole cards are of different suits but it’s not very likely. With unsuited hole cards the odds are only slightly more than 2% of flopping a four flush. Take a look at the following example; With only one club in your two hole cards you have flopped a flush draw. But even though you have flopped the four flush with unsuited cards it is not a very strong position because the Eight of Clubs is not a particularly high card. Any other player having a Club between Nine and King would beat your flush, and that’s assuming you even get the flush. Now look at a different flop where you have again flopped the four flush with unsuited hole cards but in this example you have the Ace of Clubs in your hand. This is an excellent position to be in because if another Club comes up on the turn or the river you will have the ‘nut flush’, that is, a flush that no other player can beat. Not only that, if another player has the King of Clubs, that player will have a pretty high level of confidence that they have the nut flush. They will know that they can be beat by the Ace of Clubs but there’s a good chance that they will bet (wrongly) that nobody else has the Ace of Clubs and throw a lot of money into the pot which you can then collect. Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves however since we have already determined that the odds of flopping three cards of the same suit as one of our hole cards is not that great. Instead, let’s look at a more common occurrence where you have suited hole cards. As we mention in another of our articles there is about a 24% chance of being dealt hole cards of the same suit. Here you see that you are holding the King of Clubs which is a very good card when looking for a flush draw that can’t be beat. It cannot however be used with the other hole card, the Eight of Clubs to form a straight and therefore the possibilities of improving your hand on the flop are somewhat limited. For this reason the King-Eight of Clubs are not hole cards that deserve a very large pre-flop bet, but if you can see the flop without spending a lot of money on these hole cards, then by all means go for it and see if you come up with the four flush. In contrast to having unsuited hole cards, the odds of flopping a four flush with suited hole cards jumps to almost 11%. Those are not outstanding odds, hence our warning about heavy betting before the flop. But if you do get the four flush you are in an excellent position. Let’s go to the flop and see what happens. This is the outcome you were hoping for. With the Six and Three of Clubs on the table the 11% chance of flopping a four flush with your suited hole cards has come true, and now the greatest hurdle has been overcome. From here on the odds are very much in your favor and you should bet accordingly. At this point your chances of getting another Club are nearly 35% – that means that better than one out of every three times in this situation you will make your flush. Those are terrific odds. What if the turn comes and looks like this? Now you need to think a little bit. First of all, there is a straight draw sitting on the table. Any other player holding a Five in his hole cards will have a straight already. A Five doesn’t sound like the kind of card that somebody would be betting too heavily on, but it’s possible that someone might have had a pair of Fives and been looking for either a set or a straight on the turn. Of course on the other hand, you now have a straight draw in addition to your flush draw since a Five on the river would give you an Eight-High straight that could be beaten only if another player had Nine-Eight or Ace-Eight as his hole cards. The most important thing to consider here though is your flush draw. Even though you missed a Club on the turn you still have a chance for a Club on the river, and your odds are about 20%. So for every five times you go to the river looking for a club you will get it once. Those are not terrific odds but they are not bad either. If it doesn’t cost you too much compared to the amount of money in the pot (read our article on calculating pot odds) then you should probably bet on your flush draw. Remember however that saying your chances are 20% is the same as saying that the odds are 4 to 1 against you. Consider that carefully when betting the river for a flush draw. Final note – in our example we were dealt a King of Clubs but you may elect to chase a flush even if neither of your hole cards is very high. If you do, just be very aware that you can be beaten by a higher flush, and pay close attention to the betting patterns of the other players especially watching what they do when the suited cards that you are looking for come out on the flop, turn and river. If you had a Nine-Eight of Clubs as your hole cards instead of King-Eight, and another player went all-in when a Club came on the river, you would have to strongly consider the possibility that they had a flush higher than your own.

Best Starting Hands in Texas Holdem, Part Two

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:58:20 +0000

Best Starting Hands, or No-foldem Holdem In our discussion, we use the term No-foldem as a way to describe an imaginary game of Texas Holdem. No-foldem means exactly what you would expect. It refers to a game in which nobody folds their hand – every player continues to bet through to the showdown at which time all players turn over their cards. It should be apparent to you that the result of this exercise is a true reading of the strength of any particular set of hole cards, completely undiluted by other factors such as one player bluffing or going all-in which could cause another player to drop out even though that other player might have had the best hand if he had played through to the end. We want to make sure that you realize how limited the scope of this information is compared to the whole strategy of Texas Holdem and how much more you need to think about than simple odds of starting hands. Having thus prepared you, here are the 20 best starting hands in Texas Holdem based on the percentage of times these hands will win. Note that the percentage is given as a range – the low percentage refers to the probability that these hole cards will win when you face nine opponents, and the high percentage represents the probability of a win against only one opponent. Here’s the previously displayed table showing the top five hands; What you can see from this chart is something that you may have already known; that the best starting hand in Holdem Poker purely from a percentage basis is a pair of Aces. This is followed by a pair of Kings, then a pair of Queens. In games with a lower number of players the next best hole cards are a pair of Jacks or Tens, while in games with a greater number of opponents suited overcards are ranked higher than pairs in some instances. The data is based on a project done at Dartmouth College by Post-doctoral Research Fellow Apu Kapadia who ran over 4 billion simulated hands on the computer in order to get these percentages! Here is a table showing the next five hands ranked Six through Ten; Once again you can see that when playing ‘heads-up’ the pairs of Nines, Eights and Sevens will win most often while in games with more opponents the higher suited cards like AK and AQ have the advantage. Now for the 11th through 15th ranked hands; There are similarities as the number of players changes but even overcards with suited Tens are now a high percentage hand. The 16th through 20th ranked hands look like this; Note that this exercise simply provides information which may help you to decide how to play any given set of hole cards in Texas Holdem before the flop. Once the flop is dealt a whole new set of odds come into play based on the percentages of drawing a better hand with the turn and the river cards. As always, your position at the table relative to the blinds will be a major factor when betting pre-flop, as will the amount of the blinds and the size of any bets that have been placed prior to your own. Read more in our series of Texas Holdem articles for other detailed discussions about betting before the flop.

Best Starting Hands in Texas Holdem, Part One

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:57:11 +0000

Have you been wondering what the best starting hands are in Texas Holdem? If you are like most people who are just beginning to play Holdem Poker you will probably start by looking for advice on how to play Holdem from the very beginning – that is, how you should be betting based on the starting hand or ‘hole cards’ that you have been dealt. This is a good question to be asking, but the answer is likely to be far more complicated than you think because of the number of factors that go into making such decisions. The first and most critical thing to know when evaluating starting hands is how many opponents you are playing against. This piece of information is so crucial that you cannot even begin to calculate your odds of winning without it. If you are playing heads-up, that is, against only a single opponent your odds of winning with certain hole cards are nearly triple what they would be if playing against nine other people. If you take nothing else from this article then learn this important lesson. Taking into account the number of people you are playing against is absolutely vital when determining your odds of winning with any given set of hole cards. To see the proof of this, take a look at this table showing the five best pairs of hole cards for Texas Holdem; Notice that although the number of players in the hand is a key piece of any odds analysis, you can quickly get a sense of the relative value of a particular hand, that is to say how well that hand will perform compared to all other hands. At the same time we caution you not to take such information out of context and to definitely study all the other facets of pre-flop play, many of which we present in separate articles. When you ask what the best starting hands are in Texas Holdem, you are asking a very specific and limited question since so many other considerations come into play. Yet despite the narrow focus of the question, the identification of the best starting hands is indeed something that’s very important to do, and understanding why such hands are considered valuable is is no less important. In order to determine the best starting hands, we will go through an exercise in Part Two that one can refer to as No-foldem Holdem. No-foldem is a term that others have used in several different ways, and at least some people use it to describe a Texas Holdem game in which no fewer than four people stay in long enough to see the flop.

What are ‘Outs’ in Texas Holdem?

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 20:39:57 +0000

In Holdem poker, ‘Outs’ refers to the number of cards remaining in the deck that could improve your hand in various ways. Whenever we calculate the number of outs we do so by looking only at the cards that are visible. After the flop has been laid down there are usually five cards visible – your two hole cards and the three flop cards on the table. Let’s take a look at an example where you only have one ‘out’, but for the purpose of the example we will say that both you and your opponent have gone ‘all-in’ and so both of you have shown your cards. Now there are seven cards visible. You have 4h5h and your opponent has a pair of Aces. This is what the table looks like; All-in After the Flop Your opponent already has flopped a full house, so you must get either a higher full house, four of a kind or a straight flush to beat him. How many cards are there left in the deck that could give you the winning hand in this situation? Since there is no card or pair of cards that could give you a higher full house, and a straight flush is no longer possible, the only way you can beat your opponents full house is with quads, or four of a kind. And the only possible quads you could get would be four 4′s. Since three of the 4′s are already visible, only one card – the 4 of Spades – could give you the opportunity to win the game. In this situation then, we say that you only have only one ‘out’, that ‘out’ being the 4 of Spades. Let’s continue the example and say that you did get your 4 of Spades on the turn. Now the table looks like this; You now have quad 4′s to your opponent’s full house, and the only way that he could beat you would be to get quad Aces. Since three Aces are already showing, your opponent would now have only one ‘out’. Only the Ace of Hearts could give him quad Aces to beat your quad 4′s. That’s an extreme example however. In actual play you would very rarely see a situation where you had only one ‘out’. Normally with any given hole cards there are a few different types of hands you could try to assemble, so you have several ‘outs’. Here is an example that you would be more likely to encounter in a real game of Holdem; Here you can see that you have quite a few ‘outs’ to improve your hand. First of all you have four hearts so one more heart would give you a flush. Also, a Ten would give you an Ace high Straight. There are 13 hearts in the deck, but 4 of them are already showing, so only 9 hearts remain in the deck. All 4 Tens are still in the deck, however one of them is the Ten of hearts and is therefore is already counted among the 9 hearts. So actually only the other 3 Tens can be counted as ‘outs’. The 9 remaining hearts plus the 3 Tens equals 12 cards remaining that could help you to get either a straight or a flush. We say then that you have 12 ‘outs’. You probably can see that there are actually even more ‘outs’ available that we didn’t mention. For example, a King or a Nine would give you a pair, and thus those are also valid ‘outs’. The reason we didn’t mention them however is that a pair of Kings or Nines is not a very strong hand in this situation since an opponent with even one Ace in his hole cards could beat a pair of Kings, and any opponent would only need a single Ace, a Queen or a Jack in his hole cards to beat a pair of Nines. Knowing how many ‘outs’ you have is extremely important because the odds of getting a winning hand change depending on how many ‘outs’ you have. It’s important that you read other articles in this series to see what the odds are of getting different numbers and types of ‘outs’, and that you take those odds into account when betting on your Texas Holdem cards.

Free Poker News

admin — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:04:20 +0000

FPN Here is the latest Poker News. The articles come from over 50 popular poker news sources, so check back often for updates. The News Categories are “Poker” and “Texas Holdem”.

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Tutorial: How to Bet on the Superbowl

admin — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 06:06:19 +0000

BODOG SIGNUP PROCEDURE

From the main page: bodoglife.com click ‘OPEN AN ACCOUNT’ or click ‘Join’ from the row of options in the upper right corner of the page that appear in blue letters against a black background. This will take you to the ‘Open your Bodog Account’ page.

‘Open your Bodog Account’

Complete the signup form by typing information into the blank information blocks. The information blocks marked with a star (*) must be filled in, but any blocks that do not have a star can either be completed or left blank. Make absolutely sure that your email address is typed in correctly because later when you make deposits to your account they will send you important messages at the email address you give them.

Important Note; Make sure and double check that all required information has been filled in and that it is in the correct format; Either “Mr.” or “Mrs.” must be selected. Your date of birth should be filled in making sure the last block containing the year has 4 digits (1975 in our example). Next to your “Primary Phone” information don’t forget to pick one of the options from the “day/eve?” drop down menu to indicate what time of day is best to reach you. You must pick “daytime”, “evening”, “mobile” or “anytime”. The password you choose must be at least 5 characters long. If any of this information is missing or even if it’s filled in but does not exactly follow the instructions you will get a rejection screen saying that you must fill in that information before you can continue. But then when you fill in

that missing information and click “Open My Account” again you will often find that your password or your Mother’s maiden name was erased from the screen and you have to retype that information and resubmit the form AGAIN. And there might be a programming glitch or something with Bodog’s fill-in form because sometimes even when it looks like you have re-entered all the information completely and correctly it STILL rejects you and tells you to fill in the form again. Eventually it will accept your application, but the rejections and retyping are a real pain, so just make sure everything is typed correctly the first time!

The bottom portion of the page has a check box that allows you to receive special offers from Bodog. Just put a check mark next to the items you want to receive (or uncheck everything if you don’t want to receive anything from Bodog in the future). In our example we put a check mark next to “Bodog Rewards and Specials” because we like to get emails from Bodog about special bonuses and perks that they give to signed up members and that may only be offered for a short time.

When you have completed the entire signup form properly, click once on the dark blue button that says

“Open My Account” in white letters.

‘Thanks for Registering with Bodog’

After you have clicked the ‘Open My Account’ button at the bottom of the signup form, the ‘Thanks for Registering with Bodog’ page will appear. When the page comes up it will tell you that your account is ready and it will give you an Account Number. The Account Number is 3593023 in our example. Now would be a good time to check your email and make sure that Bodog has sent you a message confirming your account details.

When you are ready to make a deposit to your account, click on the dark blue button that says “ Secure deposit with 10% bonus >>” in white letters (Note – a 10% deposit bonus was available when we signed up. We expect that it will be available for you as well but you must confirm this when you sign up).

‘Currency’

After you have clicked the ‘Secure deposit with 10% bonus >>’ button at the bottom of the ‘Thanks for Registering’ page, the ‘Currency’ page will appear. Select the currency from the drop down menu that is appropriate to your country, and also put a check mark in the box next to the phrase “I understand that once selected my currency can only be changed by customer service.” After you have selected a currency and checked the box, click the light gray button that says “Set My Currency” in black letters.

‘Sign in to your Bodog account’

After you have clicked the ‘Set My Currency’ button on the currency form, the ‘Sign in to your Bodog account’ page will appear. Fill in the account number that you saw on the ‘Thanks for Registering with Bodog’ page, and fill in the same password that you used when you competed the signup form. After you have filled in the information, click on the dark blue button that says “Sign in” in white letters.

‘Welcome’

After you have clicked the ‘Sign in’ button on the sign in form, the ‘Welcome’ page will appear. This page has numerous options, but the first thing you will want to do is make a deposit to your Bodog account so you can begin wagering.

From the list of options in blue letters against a white background on the left side of the page, click on the second option from the top titled ‘Deposit’.

‘Credit Card’

When the ‘Deposits’ page comes up it will show you 4 different ways that you can deposit money into your account to start wagering with. The page will automatically come up with the “Credit Card” option open (you can see the “Credit Card” title box highlighted in dark blue background with white letters), but the menu on the left side of the page will contain 3 other choices of payment methods that you can make. As you click on each method of payment, the same highlighting using dark blue background and white lettering will be displayed for the option that you have clicked on. At the time we signed up, Bodog was offering a 10% bonus on all deposits. So if we deposit $100 for wagering Bodog will actually put $110 in our account.

Please be sure that you want to wager with the money you deposit. You may be charged a fee if you deposit money into your Bodog account and then withdraw it without placing any bets first. This fee would be limited to the actual costs of processing the transactions, but we are not sure exactly what that cost would be.

In other sections of this tutorial you will see details on all 4 methods of depositing funds into your Bodog account. In order to give you an example of what the entire transaction looks like we did make a deposit of $20 into our Bodog account, and the method we selected was a deposit from our credit card. We are not 100% certain, but the “Thank you” page we were shown after we made our deposit looked pretty generic so we would expect that whichever method of payment you choose for your deposit, you would see the same confirmation page.

If you have a Credit Card and you want to use it to deposit funds into your Bodog account then this is the screen you would use. You first must agree with the terms and conditions listed on this page by clicking on the dark blue button at the bottom right of the page that says “I agree” in white letters. This will take you to the second Credit Card Deposit Page.

Credit Card page Part 2

At the second Credit Card Deposit page you must fill in the following information;

Deposit amount – Fill in the amount of money you want to deposit at Bodog. You have to deposit at least $20 to start. In our example we have decided to deposit $20.

Card Type – Select your card type either Visa or Mastercard. In our example we have selected Visa.

Card Number – Fill in your 16 digit credit card number. In our example we used the fake card number 1111222233334444

Expiry Date – Fill in the expiration date of your credit card. In our example we made up an expiration date of August, 2008. The number before the month (08 in our example) just tells you the number of the month you have chosen.

Credit Card Verification Number – Fill in the 3 digit number found on the back of your credit card. In our example we use the fake verification number 888.

When you are sure all the information is correct and you want to make the deposit, click on the dark blue button at the bottom right of the page that says “Make Deposit” in white letters.

Credit Card page Part 3

After you click “Make Deposit” on the second Credit Card Deposit page, you will be shown (if your credit card transaction is accepted) this “Thank you” page which confirms that your deposit was successful and that you are now ready to wager on Bodog. You can see the deposit amount of $20, and the 10% bonus of $2 that we received for joining Bodog and making a deposit.

BODOG WAGERING PROCEDURE

Bodog Main page

When you open Explorer or Firefox or whichever browser you use, and type in “www.bodoglife.com” this is the main page that comes up. Keep in mind that this is the main page that appeared when we visited the site, but big sportsbooks like Bodog are constantly refreshing their material so you may see something different. To sign in, click ‘Sign In’ from the row of options in the upper right corner of the page that appear in blue letters against a black background. This will re-open the main page, but will make your account information available. Note that if you are proceeding directly from making a deposit, you will already be signed in and will not need to go through the sign in page.

Bodog Sign In

We are signing in using our email address and password. Remember to use the same email address you used when you first filled out the “Open your Bodog account” page.
After signing in, the Main page appears again. We clicked on the picture with the green background that says “SPORTS” in big white letters because we will be placing a bet on the sportsbook section of the Bodog site.

Bodog Sportsbook

This is the page we were sent to when we clicked “SPORTS” on the main page – it’s the cover page for the Bodog sportsbook. The Betting Lines for Football are displayed in the upper left corner. You can see that the available options for NFL betting are “NFL Super Bowl”, “Super Bowl Player Props” and “Super Bowl Team Props” since they are shown in blue letters. The “NFL Exhibition” and “CFL” are shown with light gray letters meaning they are not available, and nothing happens if you click on them.

Bodog Sportsbook Super Bowl Team Props

If you click on the words “Super Bowl Team Props” on the sportsbook page this is the screen that appears. This is actually an abbreviated page. The number of team props is huge and we just cut the page down to make it more viewable.

The team props allow you to bet on various things that may or may not happen in the Super Bowl. You can even bet on who will receive the ball first, and that’s nothing more than a coin toss by the referee just before the game! We prefer to bet on the actual Super Bowl game however, so we will go back to the sportsbook page to reach the NFL games betting section.

Bodog Sportsbook NFL Super Bowl Bets

If you click on the words “NFL Super Bowl” under the Football betting lines on the sportsbook page this is the screen that appears – now we are finally at the place that the whole signup procedure has been leading to! These are the betting lines for this week’s NFL Super Bowl game. If you look at the chart you will see that the table shows in blue letters (from left to right) the team, the point spread, the moneyline, the total and the score. You can see that Bodog gives you the option to bet the money line but does not give you the option to bet on the score of the Super Bowl. We don’t usually want to bet on the exact final score of football games so even though we may not have the option to bet on the score it doesn’t bother us too much. The money line is a different matter though. Sometimes we really like to bet the moneyline because all we have to do is decide which team we think is going to win the game – no messing around with winning by a certain number of points. And today we are doubly lucky because the team we want to bet on is the underdog AND the moneyline is also available. You will notice that the page or ‘tab’ we are looking at right now says “Games” in black letters on a white tab but that next to this tab, in white letters on a black tab are “First halves”, “Halftimes” and “Quarter Lines”. As you might guess, clicking on these tabs shows you betting lines that allow you to place bets on what the score will be at halftime, which team will win any particular half of the game and which team will win any particular quarter. For now though we are going to concentrate on the bets that apply to the entire game.

Bodog Sportsbook NFL Bets Detail

Before we place a bet, lets take a look at the features called Point spread, Moneyline and Total (also called over/under or O/U), and explain what the terms mean.

Point Spread – In most football games, one team is the favorite to win while the other team is more likely to lose and is the underdog. The point spread is a number that tells you how many more points the favorite is expected to score than the underdog. The favorite will have a number next to their name with a minus sign in front of it while the underdog will have a number next to their name with a plus sign. In this example we look at the New York Giants and New England Patriots. The Giants have a (+11) point spread meaning that they are expected to lose by 11 points. Now you can bet on the Giants if you want to and if the Giants lose by less than 11 points (or if they actually win) you win your bet. You can see that New England has a (-11) point spread. That means that if you bet on New England and they win by more than 11 points you win your bet. If New England wins by exactly 11 points then the result is a “push” – that means that you do not win any money but you do not lose any money either. Now in the case of the Super Bowl the point spread actually has some additional numbers. The Giants (+11) point spread is followed by a (-105) and the Patriots (-11) point spread is followed by a (-115). Now unless otherwise stated, when you bet using the point spread you would have to risk $110 in order to win $100. But in this case because there is a moneyline attached to the point spread you would have to bet $105 in order to win $100 if you bet on the Giants plus 11 points, and you would have to bet $115 to win $100 if you bet on the Patriots minus 11 points.

Moneyline – The standard moneyline for pro football is (-110); that means that you would need to bet $110 in order to win $100. However in many cases a moneyline which is different from the standard is used. If you look at the Super Bowl you see that the moneyline on the Giants is (+330). What this means is that if you wanted to bet that the Giants will win the game you would only need to bet $100 in order to win $330. Now take a look at the Patriots moneyline which is (-460). If you wanted to bet that the Patriots will win the game you would have to bet $460 for the chance to win only $100. So a “plus” sign in front of the moneyline number means that you would bet $100 to win that number of dollars. But a “minus” sign in front of the moneyline number means that you would have to bet that number of dollars just to win $100.

Total – This refers to the total number of points scored in the game. You would take the number of points scored by one team and add that number to the number of points scored by their opponent. The sum of those two numbers is what is known as the “Total”. Bodog will provide a number that represents their idea of what the Total will be for any given contest. This week, Bodog believes that the total number of points scored in the Super Bowl will be 54.5 points. Note that Bodog lists the “Over” as (-110)o and the “Under” as (-110)u, and you would bet either the “Over” or the “Under”. If you wanted to place a bet on this aspect of the game you would first decide if you thought the Total would be more than 54.5 points or less than 54.5. For example, if you think that the Giants will score 24 points and the Patriots will score 38 points (a “Total” of 62 points) then you would bet the “Over” of (-110)o, meaning that you are betting that the points total will be ‘over’ what Bodog thinks it will be. On the other hand, if you think for example that the Giants will score 13 points and the Patriots will score 28 points (a “Total” of 41 points) then you would bet the “Under” of (-110)u, meaning that you are betting that the points total will be ‘under’ what Bodog thinks it will be. Once again, because the moneyline attached to both the Over and the Under is (-110), you would be betting $110 for the chance to win $100.

Bodog Sportsbook NFL Placing the Bet

You can see that we have put a check mark in the box next to the New York Giants in the “Moneyline” column. As explained before “moneyline” means that we are simply betting that New York will win the game, and we don’t need to worry about how many points are scored by either team. The “+330″ in the moneyline means that we would need to risk $100 to win $330, or in other words if we win we will get our money back plus we will be paid 330% of the amount we bet.

You can also see that when we place the check mark in that box, the button at the top of the chart that says “Single Bet” turns bright blue. That is the button we need to click in order to move to the next step.

Bodog Sportsbook NFL Enter Stake

After you click on the “Single Bet” button, a page is brought up which is used for telling Bodog the exact amount of money you want to bet. There are three steps listed in a long bar across the top of the

form and you can see that the first step, called “Enter Stake” is highlighted and is a brighter blue color than the remaining two steps. In the table titled “Risk Details” you will fill in the dollar amount of your bet in the window next to the word “Risk”. The minimum amount we would have been allowed to place on this wager is $1, and when the screen first appeared there was a “1″ in the “Risk” window and “3.30″ in the “to win” window. In our example, we have entered “20″ in the “Risk” window, meaning that we want to bet $20. When we do that, the number “66.00″ automatically appears in the “to win” window. Remember that when you risk $20 to win $66, you really are winning $66 because the payout for a winning bet will be $86 – $66 winnings plus the $20 you originally paid to place the bet.

When you have decided on the amount of your bet and entered it into the “Risk” window, click the dark blue button in the lower right corner of the form that says “Review My Bet” in white letters.

Bodog Sportsbook NFL Review Bet

Now we are at the “Review Bet” screen. You can see that in addition to the “Enter Stake” section of the

header bar, step 2 called “Review Bet” is now also highlighted a brighter blue color. This screen is just an extra measure of protection to make sure that Bodog has clearly understood what game you are betting on, what type of bet you are placing and how much money you want to risk. The details of the event and the type of bet are shown in the left hand portion of the form called “Confirm Single Bet Details”, and the amount of money you are betting is shown on the right hand side of the form under “Confirm Risk Details”. You should review all the information on the forms. In our example we confirm that the information is correct. As shown under “Confirm Single Bet Details” we want to bet

on the New York Giants, and we want to bet the moneyline which is +330. As we have discussed, this +330 bet means that for every dollar we risk we will win $3.30 if the Giants win the game. And under “Confirm Risk Details” it does show correctly that we have decided to risk $20 for a chance to win $66.

If you want to change any of this information or cancel the bet completely, now is the last chance you have to do that, and you would click the dark blue button at the bottom of the form that says “Modify My Stake” in white letters, or click the dark blue button at the bottom left that says “Cancel” in white letters if you want to cancel the bet entirely. But if you are sure that all the information is correct and you do want to place the bet, then click on the dark blue button at the bottom right that says “Place My Bet”, but… remember that when you click this button you have spent money on a bet and the money will be deducted from your account at that instant.

Bodog Sportsbook NFL Bet Placed

Okay, almost finished. Now that you have clicked the “Place My Bet” button a screen comes up in which the third step in the header bar across the top of the form is highlighted. Step number 3 is called

“Bet Placed” and in contrast to the other two steps, this one is highlighted a bright green. On the form below it says that you have successfully placed your bet, and it gives you a reference number that is unique to the single bet that you have just placed. Down below it also lists the bet details again along with the amount of money that you risked.

You can click the blue text that says “Print wager information” if you want to print a paper copy of the transaction on a printer that is connected to your computer. Even if you don’t print it or save it however your information will still be saved on Bodog. If you sign in from the main page (as we described in another section) and click ‘Manage Account’ in the upper left corner of the main page, a screen will come up with all your account information.

Bodog Sportsbook NFL Manage Account

Here is the screen with all your account information that tells you how much money you have left in your account. Since we started out with $22 (a $20 deposit plus a $2 bonus) and we placed a $20 bet, we now have $2 left in our account.

Notice that in the menu on the left side of the form there are a list of options in blue letters, and one of them is “Open Bets”. If you click on this it will show you all the bets you have made that are on games which have not been played yet.

Bodog Sportsbook NFL Open Bets

Here is the “Open Bets” screen. As you can see, all the details of our bet are kept on file here by Bodog.

When you are finished doing everything you want to do at Bodog we recommend that you always sign out and not just close Explorer or Firefox, or whichever browser you are using. You would

click the words “Sign Out” at the upper right of the screen in light blue letters on a dark gray background.

Bodog Sportsbook NFL Sign Out

After you have clicked “Sign Out” you should see a screen something like this confirming that you have logged off of the Bodog site.

If you share a computer with other people and you want to make sure and keep the details of your betting as private as possible you may want to click on the link that

says “clear your browser cache” and follow the directions that are given. This will erase any record of the bets and money transfers you have made at Bodog.

End of Tutorial

Well, that’s the end of our tutorial! Check back with us in the near future since we plan to expand the tutorial to give detailed step by step instructions on different kinds of bets and how to place multiple bets on Bodog. Take Care!

Prediction: Who will Win the 2009 Superbowl?

admin — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 04:13:42 +0000

2009 Super Bowl XLIII Matchup

Bet Now!!

Believe It Now. That is the tagline for Super Bowl XLIII, which kicks off at 6:28p.m. EST on February 1, 2009 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay,Florida between the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Believe that although the Cardinals have been dubbed as one of the worst teams in post-season history, they made it to the Super Bowl and deserve to be in the most watched U.S. television broadcast of the year.While the Cardinals closed the regular season with just two wins in its final six games and allowed at least 35 points in each of these losses, they turned it up during the playoffs with 11 take aways in only three games. In addition, Arizona actually forced one more regular season turnover than Pittsburgh’s historically strong defense. The Arizona Cardinals are only the second team with only nine regular season wins to ever reach the Super Bowl. The Cardinals have never even come close to playing in the Super Bowl and are considered the underdog in their first appearance.On the flipside, the Pittsburgh Steelers could be the first franchise to ever win six Super Bowl titles and are the seven point favorite in Super Bowl XLIII. Only three seasons ago, the Steelers won their fifth Super Bowl. 20 players from that championship team are on the current squad, including Ben Roethlesberger. The Cardinals have only five players with Super Bowl experience but of those five players, quarterback Kurt Warner is a former Super Bowl MVP and two time Super Bowl quarterback. The belief that anything can happen in Super Bowl XLIII is a reality after analyzing some of the strengths and weaknesses of both teams. The Pittsburgh Steelers do not give up big offensive plays and they have the league’s second best run defense. If the Steelers can establish their running defense, the Cardinals’ ability to make big plays in the air will be severely limited. When they make a concerted effort, the Steelers move the ball on the ground effectively. Pittsburgh does not need to dominate play on the ground, they simply have to run well enough to provide balance to their defensive game. One of the biggest advantages that the Pittsburgh Steelers have over the Arizona Cardinals is the edge in the coaching staff. Although both Mike Tomlin and Ken Whisenhunt are both second year coaches, Pittsburgh’s coaching staff is superior with Dick LeBeau on their side. Le Beau’s defense coaching genius is generally too much for any opposing offense. Lucky for Arizona that they are equipped with some inside information. The Cardinals’ coach, Ken Whisenhunt and assistant coach/offensive line coach, Russ Grimm came to Arizona from Pittsburgh. As a result, both coaches are aware of a number of individual strengths and weaknesses of many of the Pittsburgh Steelers. In addition, Cardinals’ wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald already has a post-season record of 419 receiving yards and that is prior to playing in the Super Bowl. Fitzgerald’s ability to gain yards after making the catch despite taking big shots is what sets him apart. The question is, can Fitzgerald compensate for all of the potential injured players that may affect Arizona’a chance to win the Super Bowl? Cardinals’ running back, J.J. Arrington was sidelined with a knee injury on January 22, 2009 as Arizona practiced for the first time since winning the NFC. Also, linebacker, Travis LaBoy (biceps), defensive end Antonio Smith (knee) and punter Ben Graham (left groin) were all limited in practice as well. The only injury that the Pittsburgh Steelers may have to contend with is the Steelers’ career receiving leader, Hines Ward, who sprained a medical collateral ligament while making a catch in the first quarter of the AFC championship game against the Baltimore Ravens. However, Ward says that he will play in the Super Bowl and not to worry about his knee, it will be fine. Hines Ward has played in every Steelers game from 2001-2004 and has only missed six games in the last four seasons, none of the missed games being this season. Based on Ward’s track record, you can believe that he will not miss a moment to shine again in Super Bowl XLIII. Who has the edge in Super Bowl XLIII? That remains to be seen. Motivation is not the issue. Both the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers want to win the Super Bowl. Both teams will be at their emotional best. Believe It Now.

LAST YEARS SUPERBOWL PREDICTION

2008 Super Bowl XLII Matchup

Bet Now!!

Want to know who will win the 2008 Superbowl? Read on! In an improbable matchup, the Giants who had to claw their way into the postseason with a wild card berth will meet the unbeaten Patriots in the Super Bowl next weekend. With a perfect 16-0 regular season record and a pair of playoff victories to boot the New England Patriots are the golden boys of the NFL this year with the only 18-0 record in NFL history. But they know full well that without bringing home the Vince Lombardi trophy their amazing season will be nothing more than a curiosity. Even though they have won more games than the 1972 Dolphins who went 17-0 including a victory in the league championship game against the Redskins, an 18-1 season for New England would still amount to little more than a footnote to Miami’s historic undefeated performance. The Giants meanwhile are as close as you could get to being the Cinderella team in this years Super Bowl. Only a Washington victory at Seattle and Green Bay and then a win over their divisional rivals the Giants would have been a more impressive comeback than the Giants have posted. Having missed the last chance of the season to ruin the Patriots winning streak and keep them from an unbeaten regular season in Week 17, the Giants now have another crack at the Patriots and are the last obstacle to a perfect New England season from start to finish. New York comes in to this matchup with a barrel full of confidence. They have 10 consecutive road victories including three in the playoffs. Dismissing criticisms about the lack of competent opponents in the Giants schedule, two of those three postseason wins were against the number one and number two seeds in the NFC.It’s difficult to draw conclusions based on rankings in the post season, but there certainly seem to be some developments worth mentioning. The first and most important is that the Giants defense has been standing tall in the playoffs. Ranked 7th overall during the regular season they have maintained the same level of play in their quest for the conference title, and even performed a bit better. They shaved about 15 yards per game off the amount of real estate they were allowing, but even more importantly they have allowed their last three opponents only 17 points a game on average. That’s nearly 5 points per game less than they were allowing in the regular season, and a figure that would have been good enough for top honors in the NFL through sixteen games. For their part, New England has given up some but not too much of the mystique that kept most of the league in awe of them for the first two thirds of the season. At that time, when playing the Patriots you had to assume that Brady was going to take the ball down the field and continue to score on every single drive. You had to take every opportunity to get your shots in against them because to do anything less was to roll out a red carpet to the end zone. With the first near defeat in Baltimore, the Patriots seemingly invulnerable mantle began to crack. Over the last five games of the season it became increasingly clear that pressure on Brady could change the game dramatically.For now, the sense is that the Patriots are not a superhuman team, just a very versatile one with a lot of depth who, to coin an overused cliché, always find a way to win. It’s an accomplishment that’s owed to the coaching staff as well as the players. Brady threw three interceptions in the conference championship against the Chargers but New England’s offensive coordinators changed their tune after halftime by concentrating on dominating the line of scrimmage and running the ball. Like Cowboys Marion Barber, Pats running back Laurence Maroney has had the bad luck (if you want to call it that) of being on a team that throws first and runs only when the passing game gets interrupted. Had Maroney played for a team like Kansas City he would probably have been in hot pursuit of a rushing title. Nevertheless, Maroney has gotten his chance in the playoffs, rushing for 244 yards in two games on 47 carries. That’s more chances to run the rock than he has had any two games he has played all of the regular season.For the Giants to have any shot at a world championship it all starts in the trenches. The Giants must rush the passer better and pressure Brady, but more importantly get some sacks on him as well. New York’s defense, who led the NFL in sacks this year by a wide margin managed to drop Brady for a loss only once in the season finale. Giants DE Michael Strahan is the only one on the New York defense who has played in a Super Bowl before, and he’s the one who will need to lead the front seven in the attack against the Patriots pocket. He’ll have a lot of help from fellow defensive ends Osi Umenyiora who led the Giants with 13 sacks, and Justin Tuck who recorded 10 sacks of his own.All told the Giants powerful defensive line is probably better equipped than any other team in the NFL to stop the Patriots. They have the ability to pressure Brady in the pocket and they can shut down Maroney on the ground. The Chargers couldn’t stop Maroney and held New England to 21 points. The Giants ought to be able to control New England on the ground, but that advantage will probably be lessened by their lack of speed in the secondary. They can certainly put two defenders on Patriots wide receiver Randy Moss but need a safety with a lot of quickness which the Giants don’t have. If New York can hit Moss at the line they can control him, but the Pats are starting to move Moss around to avoid having him blocked at the beginning of his routes.As always, the real unknown in the game is which Eli Manning will show up – the confident field general who didn’t turn the ball over once in the playoffs, or the wet behind the ears kid who is still learning what to do with the ball when all his receivers are covered. My guess is that Manning will play a relatively mistake free game. Whether he can score touchdowns from the red zone remains to be seen but he’s done it before against the Patriots and there’s no reason to believe he can’t do it again. The spread was about 12 points last I looked in favor of the Patriots. If I had to bet the money line there’s no way I would take New York in this game, at least not with any serious cash. But with the defensive tools the Giants have and with the lackluster performance Brady is coming off against San Diego I don’t see New England covering the point spread on this one. Recommendation – bet the Giants +12.

Don’t Play Every Hand

admin — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 03:48:19 +0000

One of the things that’s often noticeable about a Texas Hold’em table where people are playing for free is that many of the players you see there will be playing every single hand. Free poker is available in a variety of places, and usually even the online poker rooms that host real-money holdem games have tables where you can refill your chips at no cost and practice playing poker before you actually risk your hard earned money in a game. And why shouldn’t they play every hand, you may ask? There’s nothing to lose moneywise, and it’s good experience to see how often you wind up with the best hand depending on what your hole cards were. Right? Well, not exactly. For reasons which you can probably read about in a number of places the 7-2 offsuit is statistically the worst hand in holdem poker for games with 5 to 10 players, winning somewhere in the neighborhood of 10% of the time. Just because you bet heavily before the flop on a hand where your hole cards are 7-2 offsuit and you then get a 7-7-2 on the flop to give you a full house doesn’t mean that it was the right thing to do. The thing to remember if you want to be a consistently good poker player over a long period of time (and probably even if you just want to have better luck in the short term) is that the outcome of any particular hand shouldn’t determine the way you play holdem over the long haul. Unless you are clairvoyant and have the ability to know everyone else’s hole cards plus the flop, turn and river cards, the way to be most successful at Texas Holdem is to know what the likelihood is that your hand will eventually turn out to be the winner, and to bet, check or fold based on that knowledge. Now, does that mean that nobody should ever bet with 7-2 offsuit? Of course not. Even the lowly 7-2 offsuit will beat a pair of Aces about 12% of the time when there are 5 players at the table. But if you are just beginning to play Hold’em poker you probably won’t be able to readily identify the situations where it would be to your advantage to play such a hand. Until you have gained more experience your best course of action is to play the odds, and that means calling a bet on hands that have a high percentage of winning, and raising a bet only on hands that have an extremely high percentage of winning. Click here to see a list of these hands. What you will quickly notice if you follow this advice is that you will almost certainly be folding the majority of the hands you are dealt, because on average the number of times you are dealt a high percentage hand is far less than the number of times you will be dealt a low percentage hand. Next time you are sitting at the poker table, either real or online, watch and make note of the people who fold most of their hands before the flop when they are not sitting in the big blind or the small blind. The chances are great that when these people bet aggressively or go all-in, they are doing so with a very good hand. So the lesson is, that in order to have the best chances of success in holdem poker you will generally need to be very patient and generally play with the very best cards, which means that you will usually be folding before the flop. Even at a free poker table this strategy will serve you better because it will allow you to see the outcome of hands that you will eventually be playing at a real money table. Seeing how many times a low percentage hand turns out to be a winner at a free table does you no good, because if you are smart those are not the hands that you will be playing when you sit down at a real money table. Notice also that we say you should generally play only with the best cards – it should be obvious to you that this is just a rule of thumb. If you were only to bet when you had the very best cards, then other players at the table would catch on to this rather quickly and would pull out before you had a chance to get their chips. For this reason it’s a good idea to bluff at least occasionally when playing texas holdem so they can’t figure out for sure whether you really have a better hand than they do. Use good judgment in these bluffing situations however, and read further here about the strategy of bluffing. Article Summary;

In the long run, you will be more successful playing only high value hands.

Lower value hands may win occasionally but they are not the way to bet.

If you are playing a proper conservative game you will fold most of the time.

Bluff sometimes so your opponents can’t assume you only bet on the best hands.