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Praz Bansi, a 32-year-old professional poker player from London, England, won $515,501 by claiming the title in the $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em championship (Event #5) at the World Series of Poker on Wednesday. The win was Bansi’s second career WSOP title. He also won a $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event in 2006 and finished third in last year’s WSOP Europe Main Event championship in London. He has been playing full time for about six years. Prior to playing online poker, Bansi worked as a personnel recruiter. Bansi now has more than $2.5 million in accumulated overall tournament winnings worldwide. He also crossed the million-dollar threshold in WSOP winnings with this victory. With his win, Bansi is now tied with two others as the only English players in history with multiple WSOP gold bracelets. The others are Chris Bjorin (2) and John-Paul Kelly (2). The runner up was Vincent “Vluff” Jacques, from Quebec. A 21-year-old student, Jacques collected $320,913. The final hand of the poker online tournament came when Bansi was dealt ace-jack, and Jacques had ace-eight. Bansi paired his jack to take the tournament title Bansi won his second bracelet on Wednesday. The third-place finisher was Calvin Kordus, from Anchorage, Alaska, while David Tuthill of St. Petersburg, Fla., was fourth. Tomer Berda, who is originally from Israel but now lives in Menlo Park, Calif., finished fifth. He previously owned a successful software development company before getting seriously involved in poker.

I used to have a lot of trouble when it came to playing against new poker players. A big part of my game is bluffing players off of their hands, and most newbies are so stoked to be playing that they’ll call you all the way to the river with middle pair. Normally, I wouldn’t complain, but I have a tendency to bet with poker hands of significantly lesser value than middle pair, and there are few things less fun than losing a good chunk of your stack against a guy who doesn’t know enough to fold to a big raise with nothing better than Ace-high.

The key to taking down a new player who won’t fold is the same as it is with any other player-just use his habits against him. If you’ve got a player who won’t fold to you, don’t waste time and chips by trying to bluff him off of a hand. Wait until you’ve got a hand worth playing and then use his eagerness to call bets to fatten the pot. And don’t worry about playing the nuts-since newbies have a tendency to overvalue their hands, you can usually cripple one with hands like two pair. Keep it in mind when you’re playing poker online. q 

Changing gears in a tournament Changing gears in a poker tournamnet takes a good amount of commitment-you need to be willing to put up a front all casino game, making your opponents believe you play one way, and then switching your poker style up in the middle of the game to catch them off guard. I learned this tactic playing sit ‘n go poker at home games for years, and it worked out well. I’d start each game making it obvious that I was playing with a specific style, and once everyone started to catch on, I’d switch up my game and catch everyone off guard. This works well when you’re sitting with the same players all game, but if you’re prone to establishing an image, then switching it up later on, remember that your opponents will fluctuate as the tournament wears on. When I first started playing bigger tournaments, this was a problem for me, because I wasn’t paying attention to who was at my table. I’d spend the first half of the tournament playing one way, but by the time I switched up my style, I’d be at a table full of different opponents and all my posturing would be for naught. If you’re about to change gears, make sure that you’ve worked your current table already. Changing gears doesn’t work unless your have had enough time to put you on a hand.

It is very popular now a days to host home poker tournaments instead of traditional cash games. The problem with setting up a poker tournament in a casual setting, however, is that you need to deal with the issue of winning. In a traditional poker tournament there is only one winner. A single lucky individual gets to take home all of the money that the players have used as their buy in. The problem with this traditional tournament set up is that it is not likely to foster friendly feelings among your poker buddies if most of them are sent home with empty wallets. One way to balance the set up of a poker tournament with the needs to be friendly is to divide the winnings among the top couple of places. That means that the first place winner, the second place winner, and the third place winner would all go home with a little something. Dividing the winnings will make sure that more people are happy playing in a poker tournament set up. The only thing that you need to remember is to agree on how the money will be divided among the top spots before you play. Trying to agree on that later is a surefire way to start an argument.

There’s a relatively famous saying in poker, “It’s hard to make a pair.” Truly, it more often than not when you see a flop with any two cards you are going to miss more often than you hit. Even when you do hit, a lot of the time it won’t be a big hand, and it can be difficult in some situations to tell whether your moderate hand is enough to win.

Considering all of this, it’s no surprise that flopping second pair doesn’t feel that special, even though a lot of the time it will be the best hand. Holding 7 8 and seeing a flop of 4 7 K come off doesn’t feel like a great holding, but there is some power in having flopped a pair at all. If you are in position, betting when checked to with second pair, unless you have great reason to believe you are being trapped, is smart. It is better to keep applying pressure even with your middling hands, until you are given signals that you are beat.

Playing out of position with second pair is a little different. It never feels too good to fire into a pot where you called a raise preflop and then flop the second pairthough your poker opponent, if he’s smart, is always going to fire a continuation bet. I like check calling out of position with second pair, and seeing how things develop. Remember that when you play online poker.

In poker, when the betting reaches a full showdown moment, whoever has the best hand wins. Sometimes it’s not readily apparent what the best hand will be – a raggy, unsuited, non-straightening board can be unpredictable.

In these situations, a player may be holding a showdown hand – one that might have value when the end is uncertain, for instance an Ace high or medium pair. Yet the hand is not strong enough to put out any bets. It’s the hand you hope will make it to the showdown unchallenged by a bet. The best equity for this hand is to get to the showdown as cheaply as possible

Failing to recognize an uncertain showdown hand is common mistake in online poker. Your hand might be more likely to win than lose, but still it’s definitely not the nuts. The goal is to make it to the showdown without adding many or any chips to the pot. Players throw money away on these hands because they mistake them for weak winners.

You must gauge the worth of your showdown hand on your own image and whoever you are up against. When you have a potential showdown hand, then you want to check in front or behind a bet if you think your opponent is determined to go to showdown too.

A showdown type hand is not the right spot to act aggressively. If you bet on the river with it and get called, most likely you are beat. It probably doesn’t offer any real fold equity from a stubborn opponent, so check it down. Remember this when you play poker online.

I was reading online poker articles the other day and I came across on that was particularly disturbing. It was from a well known poker online writer (whose name has been removed to protect the guilty) who was talking about what it is like to play in front of the cameras. Instead of thinking about how the cameras could make him nervous and affect his game, or how they could reveal his secret poker strategies to an unknown audience, he was worried about how a televised poker game could affect his future book sales. I was suitably appalled by his lack of focus and appallingly misplaced priorities.

If poker players across the world are starting to think so mercenarily when they play in front of the cameras, I hold that it is time to turn off the cameras. The point of poker games is to actually play poker. If all of the players are sitting around wondering about such silly things as their future book deals, then we will lose something of the game that we all know and love. Turn off the cameras people, and tune in to a real poker game where the cards and chips at the casino matter more than endorsement deals and publicity.

In any no limit hold em poker game preflop, there’s only one requirement when you are making a raise: it has to be as much or more than the bet before you. Standard raising logic asserts that most often it is best to raise 3x to 4x the bet before you if you are raising, thus establishing the possibility in your opponent to fold.

Not raising enough, on the other hand, creates odds for most any hand to call you and correct. Based on the amount in the pot, and the amount they have to pay, the odds that most any hand gets on any other hand make it okay to call raises when a poker opponent does not size them correctly.

And yet so often you see players making minraises, doubling the bet before them. Preflop, even, with big pairs, they will double the blind and be content to let every other player at the table come right on in, essentially building a bigger pot and give their poker opponents more incentive to try and outdraw them for the right price.

So, please, people, if you are going to raise, do it like you mean it! Doubling the bet is never going to do much of anything except get you outdrawn, or worse, reraised out of the pot.

Among the countless rituals inhabited by the regular online poker player, one of the most common is the use of small trinkets and toys or other items as ‘card protectors,’ objects used to keep their cards live in play. A pair of cards marked off with an object placed on top of them make it nearly impossible for the cards to be accidentally mucked or otherwise swept up by the dealer, ensuring that the player at all times has control over his hand.

The most common card protector is simply a chip from the poker online player’s stack. Placing a chip on top of the player’s hand requires no forethought and is easily applied in the midst of any live game.

More boisterous players might bring their own item to the felt. Objects like lucky dice, weird stones, picture holders with loved ones, poker related statues, and the like are all fairly common sights around any given poker table at the casino.

Players not using card protectors are encouraged to be very careful to not allow their hand to be swept away, as it is quite easy for a dealer to mistake your hand laid facedown on the felt as folded. Might as well bring along a protector, no?

With shopping districts close to the Hotels in Glasgow, you don’t have to think about accessibility. When you want to eat out, there are many eateries nearby that can cater to numerous tastes. Experiencing fun at nighttime is accessible as bars and nightclubs are just moments from these hotels. Choosing from a range of hotels, including budget hotels, business hotels and affluent hotels, you can handily book your reservations online.

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The centrally settled Hilton Glasgow Hotel is 8 miles from Glasgow Airport and merely moments away from Glasgows shopping districts. It is very reachable to Glasgow Science Centre and the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre.

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The airport is serviced by quite a number of exquisite hotels, some of them propose short term accommodation and extended parking packages. Record a long-term parking package which takes in an overnight check at one of our high-class hotels in Glasgow. From there, you’ll hold decent time to sleep and prepare for the succeeding day.

A sound illustration would be the Lomond Airport Hotel, which is placed in a section of Paisley. This hotel is very reachable to the airport. If you are just searching for moderate accommodations, then Dryesdale House or Paisly Guest House would be your best options.