Poker has been a popular game in the land based casinos for a very long time. Now, that popularity has made its way onto the Internet and online poker sites have grown by leaps and bounds. In the beginning a player didn’t have a whole lot of choices when it came to where they played online poker. They were somewhat limited due to the fact that there weren’t all that many online poker sites for them to choose from. Things have changed a lot in the online poker industry and now there are even online poker sites which cater to player’s located in different parts of the world. UK poker players will quickly learn that there are many excellent online poker sites for them to choose from.

UK Poker Sites

The first thing a player in the UK will want to do when they are trying to find great poker sites for UK players to play on is to make sure they weigh out the pros and cons of the different poker sites. They want to choose one that gives them those important elements that they want to be offered. Some of the more popular UK poker sites out there include William Hill Poker, Bet365 Poker, Everest Poker, Full Tilt Poker, and Poker Stars. Each one of these online poker sites have proven that they have what it takes to deserve to be in the category of top ten poker sites.

With millions of dollars up for grabs, and thousands of players all fiercely competing to walk away with the cash and a prestigious bracelet, the WSOP (World Series of Poker) tournament isn’t to be missed.

Ever since the 2018 event kicked off there’s been games of Hold ‘em, Omaha and every variation of poker under the sun. But, if you’re the kind of player who just likes to spend time playing poker online and haven’t been following every game, you might feel you’ve missed out on the big events.

Conveniently, we’ve been keeping an eye on things for you  and have some highlights of the events which we think are particularly interesting.

1. Doyle Brunson’s Last Game

The ten-time bracelet winner Doyle Brunson stepped up to the felt probably for the last time, due to his wife Lucille’s recent ill health, and the fact . It seems he’s looking to wind up his innings at the World Series.

Unfortunately, the legend didn’t end on a massively high note as he went out on the final table of the 2-7 lowball championship and finished in sixth place. His son, Todd, also played and showed the apple didn’t fall far from the tree with his own solid performance.

Will Brunson play again? Only time will tell…

So you’ve got a casino bonus for Texas Hold’em and think you need a bit of a primer on what the odds and probabilities are so you can try to maximise your advantage play.

Well, you’re in luck as we’ve found a handy guide to some of the more important numbers and probabilities to bear in mind when you’re sitting down at the table.

First and foremost, the odds of being dealt any one hand is about 0.45%. Which might sound like it’s unlikely, but this is for specific combinations (i.e. Ace of Spades and King of Spades), if all you want is cards of a certain rank the odds are significantly higher and the odds of you getting them goes up too.

Any experienced poker player knows that getting reads on opponents is very important. What separates a truly expert player from a non-thinking ABC player is the ability to alter his game in response to tendencies identified in opponents’ play. In cash games or even in sit n gos, you may be able to observe your opponents over hundreds or thousands of hands in order to get a good idea of their styles of play.

But in MTTs, you will be seated randomly with players you have never played against before, and you will be moved to new tables regularly. Since you won’t be able to build much of a history with most of your opponents, it’s very important to be able to get quick reads on their play, which you can begin to use almost immediately. Listed below are a few things to look for that can give you a solid understanding of your opponents’ level of play in a very short amount of time.

Preflop Raise Sizing

In the early stages of a tournament, there are plenty of good reasons to open for 3bb or even 4bb, but as the tournament progresses and stack sizes dwindle, there is almost never a good reason to open that large. By the time players have about 40bb stacks or smaller, most good players are making open-raises to 2 – 2.5 bb. If a player is regularly opening for a larger amount at that point in the tourney, he is almost certainly a player who is unfamiliar with tournament poker. He may be a good cash game player who doesn’t know much about proper tournament play, but on the other hand, he may be a complete fish. Either way, you can count on him to make big errors in his opening, three-betting, and calling three-bets strategies. Such a player is probably playing the same strategy that he was playing when the stacks were large.

Three-bet Sizing

Three-bet sizing can tell you many of the same things about a player that open-raise sizing tells you. In the beginning of tournaments, it’s common to three-bet to three times the size of the initial raise or even larger. But when stacks are smaller, many sophisticated players make their three-bets only 2.5 times the size of the raise or even less. Due to stack sizes and the commitment threshold, making such a small three-bet achieves the same purposes as a larger three-bet would while risking fewer chips. Players who are three-betting too large risk committing themselves to calling any four-bet. You can deduce that a player who continues making these oversized three-bets is not adjusting his strategy as the tournament goes on.

In contrast to most other types of games, poker is largely a game of strategy where you’re pitting your skills against those of the other players on your table. If you intend to do well then it is important that you hone certain skills so that you’re able to gain every advantage and come up on top the next time you play.

On the whole, there are four key skills that every poker player requires to win and they are:

Observation

Every good poker strategy relies on your ability to observe everything about your opponents. Not only should you be watching their reactions, but you should also be paying attention to their playing style and what they do when confronted with different situations. If you’re playing in a ‘live’ situation (or a poker room with a webcam) then the number of things that needs to be observed is even greater.

Recall

After you observe how players react and their style, you need to be able to remember and recall that information when it is needed. Although this may sound simple it is actually pretty difficult especially considering there are so many things to remember and on top of all that you’ll also have to be thinking about how you’re playing the game too.

Calculating odds

No matter how you slice and dice it, poker is a game where you need to be fully aware of the odds at all time. The faster you’re able to calculate the right odds for your hands, the more time you’ll have to think about what sort of strategy you want to use – and also observe the other players too.

Psychological analysis

Everything that you learn by observing players needs to be analyzed – which is where psychology comes into play. More often than not what people refer to as ‘tells’ are really psychological reactions that players have – and you probably have some of your own too. Being able to analyze players and how they respond and react when put in different situations is key.

Make no mistake it is impossible to master all these areas overnight and it will take time for you to train yourself in each of these skills. As a starting point you could make a conscious effort to observe your opponents the next time they play and try to notice any ‘trends’ in terms of how they play certain hands, or when they are in certain positions.

At the same time you should also learn how to calculate the odds involved in your hands. It helps if you play more, and you may want to try out the online poker at Paddy Power to get a few more games under your belt and some real practice calculating odds. Just remember to take your time and don’t rush it. The more you play and try to develop your skills, the more you’ll start to see incremental improvements that slowly but surely add up.