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December 15, 2005
As Strauss bet again, he realized he had made a mistake. His Pokerparty.com opponent, who did not hesitate as he reached for his chips, raised Strauss $5,000. Strauss realized his opponent had a big pair in the hole, and the logical move would have been to give up the bluff and release his hand. But Strauss called, which must have caused his opponent to question whether he, indeed, had the best hand. The fourth card was a deuce.
Ask most poker players to define bluffing and they'll tell you about betting a weak hand with the hope of driving other players out of the pot. After all, without bluffing, poker would be a boring game. Bets would be made, and the best hand would win. Always. To those who do not play poker, or who have only a nodding acquaintance with it, bluffing is where they focus most of their attention when they think about the game.
Phil - Let's Start Setting Up a System at the Pokerparty Tables
Seven-card stud is a game of patience. In practice, you will not play many of your hands once you've looked at them. In fact, even initial holdings which might appear to have potential, such as three cards to a straight or flush, should be tossed away if you notice too many of the cards you need are your opponents up cards. Straight and flush draws generally have more value against a large number of opponents.
Don't expect to find deuces wild, one-eyed jacks, or any of the games home Pokerparty players create when they want to stimulate enough action to help them get even from a night's losses in the last half hour before dawn. In the second part of this series we'll peek inside a cardroom and I'll show you how to get into a game. You'll see the type of players you can expect to find in a cardroom, and what to anticipate from their style of play.
You're always better off committing the small error of calling with a losing hand than the catastrophic error of folding a winner, especially at pokerparty. In the situation cited above, even if your opponent would bluff only one time in 10, you are far better off calling than folding. If you were to call 10 times, you'd lose $6 on nine occasions, for a loss of $54. On the 10th occasion, you'd win a $96 pot, for a net profit of $42.
Gordon Tom - Get a Grip Buddy
Suppose that you were dealt Q-J, flopped an open-end straight draw at poker party.com when 10-9-5 showed up on board, and made your hand when an 8 appeared on the turn. If you're really lucky, one of your opponents holds 7-6 or J-7 and has made a smaller straight. You'd love to see that, since he'd be drawing dead. If you try for a check-raise and your opponents all check behind you, you've cost yourself some money. Should you bet, hoping to get some more money into the pot?
If you are new to Pokerparty, have been playing indiscriminately, or have an any-two-cards-can-win philosophy, you may believe that these recommendations are too tight. They're not. In fact, they are somewhat loose. A hand such as Kc 2c, while playable, is a pretty sorry excuse for a Hold'em hand.
Because blinds represent a forced first bet, both of the blinds can raise (but only on the first round) once the betting has gone around the table and it is their turn to act again. Unlike stud, where position is determined by the cards showing on the board, the player with the dealer button acts last on every round of betting - with the exception of the first one.
