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Poker Strategy Guide has recently come across this really cool new site that's recently been launched: Poker Buddies.
Poker players in the UK can sign up to organise live face to face games with other poker players in their area. The site also has a ton of other information about poker on it, and a really cool casino map functionality showing where all the UK's casinos are.
Anyway, check out Poker Buddies ... and now back to the guide ... That's right. It's the world's greatest game. I love it. 250 million American's love it. It's great. And this is why I decided to produce this site about Poker.
So what's so great about Poker, you may quite reasonably ask? Quite simply it's a game of many levels and, to use an old cliche, one which takes only minutes to learn, but a lifetime to master. Whether you play poker at home with your buddies, you play online or you play in live tournements with your sites on the glory of winning the world series in Vegas, you will be playing the same game as everyone else. However, you won't be playing it on the same level.
What are the different levels involved in Poker? Very simply, there's the level at which you simply learn how to play the game. Beyond this level more experienced players start to think about the odds involved in getting and making certain hands. Further than this good players will start to consider the odds implied by the amount of money in the pot versusu any of a number of different outcomes.
Perhaps the most interesting level of play, which is accessible to all players, including novices, is the psychological. Ultimately, this is what makes the difference at the highesst level of Poker. All the professional players understand the mechanics and odds involved in the game, but the truly brilliant ones will be the ones who know what cards their oponents have, or alternatively will be able to conceal what cards they have from their oponents. To an extent this level of play is also important in the Firday night home game, if you spot your buddy drinking his beer to avoid smiling and giving away that he's got a great hand you have an edge one him. Make the most of it!
When you next watch a Poker game on TV, study the way the Master players play their hands. The degree of control over their facial expressions is unbelievably impressive, not to mention all the work that you don't see, the odds calculations going on in their heads in the background. Believe me, these odds calculations aren't just "what are the odds of me getting a flush?". They're even more complicated than "I already have 4 hears in Hold 'em, and 4th and 5th street still to come, are the chances of making a flush more or less favourable than the odds offered to me by the contents of the pot and the bet that I now have to call?".
No, the odds calculations going on in the heads of the Masters will be far more complicated. These odds calculations will encompass all aspects of the game, from the odds of getting their hand on the basis of the cards showing and cards to come, to the pot odds to even the odds of you getting your hand.
So what does / will this site contain? As time goes by I will aim to fill it with useful tips for amateur players. Right through from the basics of what the hands are through to more complicated issues like pot odds and what the best strategies are for bluffing.
When you've finished reading this site you should know all there is to know. With luck it won't be long before you're banging your hands on your Friday night poker table and shouting "RAISE THOSE BAD BOYS" ... remember, if in doubt raise 'em to the roof!
The following lists the winners of the Poker World series during this millenium. If you're playing at a table with one of these guys, expect to lose it all!
2000 - Chris Ferguson
2001 - Carlos Mortensen
2002 - Robert Varkonyi
2003 - Chris Moneymaker
2004 - Greg Fossilman Raymer
2005 - Joe Hachem