The amazing invention that is the Premier League V, an event that rivals Betfair WSOP 2012 poker for excitement, continues to draw the attention of the poker world. 16 of the world’s greatest players have been divided into two groups of eight where they participate in a series of four 8-man sit n go’s. Each player accrues points dependant on their finishing positions, and the top four from each group go forward to the final table and a shot at the $500,000 first prize.

Group A consists of Phil Laak, Andy Frankenberger, Mathew Frankland, Sam Trickett, Tony G, Eugene Katchalov, Erik Seidel and Luke Schwartz. The group has a great blend of styles with the young aggressive players butting skulls with the older more passive players. Phil Laak won the first heat, and flew the flag high for the passive brigade, and Tony G has just continued that trend by winning the second heat.

When it comes to his vocal ability, there is no one as aggressive as Tony G. But when it comes to poker pugilism the owner of Pokernews has a patience and often-passive game. In Heat 1, it was Mathew Frankland who stood tall for the aggressive young approach, before being cut down by Laak, and this time that mantle fell to the Golden Boy of poker – Sam Trickett.

Trickett found himself threeway with Erik Seidel, Tony G and all of the momentum. Tony G was on monster tilt after losing a huge pot to Seidel when he called a Trickett shove with only a pair of deuces.  Trickett turned over [Ks] [Jh], the board ran out for well for Tony G, Trickett was expelled and the heads up encounter with Seidel was over in a few short hands.

When deciding to make a continuation bet there are many factors you need to consider. One of these factors concerns the texture of the flop and here are some examples.

Dry Flops With One High Card

This is a flop containing zero draws and only one high card. Examples are A72r, K52r or Q62r. These flops are great for c-betting because they hit your perceived range and miss the range of your opponent. As you are the raiser then your hand contains a wide variety of top pair type of hands on these boards, whereas your opponent’s range is primarily pocket pairs and suited connectors. Those making a Betfair Download should remember this.

Wet Boards

A wet board contains a lot of cards that combine to make a lot of possible draws. Examples are T89ss, 789ss or 567ss. This type of board hits your opponent’s perceived calling range and misses your raising range. So on these types of boards it is often better to just check back and avoid the c-bet. Trying to force a fold on this type of board means betting on further streets so it is a higher variance play and fans of Betfair should remember this.

Paired Flops

When the board contains a pair, you need to think about your range. Imagine if the flop is 662 for example then what range of hands are you trying to represent when you bet? The types of hands that you are representing are strong and so you would have to fire a second and maybe even a third barrel to get the opponent to fold. It is often better to check back the flop and then attempt a delayed c-bet on the turn, as this would make more sense for a hand like a small pocket pair going for a pot control line.

Recreational poker players desperately search for the answers to poker success. They see Jake Cody and Jason Mercier winning six-figure sums for fun and ask, “How do you do that?”

It is human nature to yearn for instant gratification and poker is no different. But trying to search for the successful rules of poker can cause you more harm than good. One great example is the rule concerning how to react to a raise from under the gun and fans of WSOP 2012 need to remember this.

If you asked an intelligent poker player to try their best to create a rule on how to deal with a raise from under the gun, it would be to understand that because of their position on the table, they have a very narrow range consisting of the very best value hands. So your rule would be to only play back at them with the very best of online poker hands.

Following this rule is not bad advice, and it will give you a solid construct, but you will be losing out on some value. Imagine a you have a player who has raised under the gun and you have a weak holding.  Before folding take a look at the percentage of times your opponent is raising from first position. If your opponent is raising over 18% of hands from that position then you can three-bet and achieve a profit. Your opponent will be using his position to sell an illusion that he is raising with a strong range. Your analysis of his percentages reveals the illusion, but he doesn’t know that. When you three-bet light your opponent is going to give you credit for a top hand and you will get a high frequency of folds.

How do you play against a passive fish?

The passive fish is going to call with one pair hands and worse, and they are going to raise with two-pair or better. When facing this type of opponent you should raise to isolate, and then when you hit the board hard, bet big! The fish will not be alarmed by your bet size and will pay you off because they have difficulty hand reading. You can usually get two hefty streets of value with top pair and even strong second pair hands.

When we are facing a raise from a passive fish we need to carefully evaluate our one pair hands and our draws. It is important to remember that it is not a question of whether or not they can bluff or value bet worse; instead it’s a question of whether they can do it at a frequency that we can profitably defend against. Those looking at the Betfair world series of poker should remember this.

When out of position they have the propensity to take the call/call/donk river line, and when playing in position they will bluff the river when we don’t fire that third barrel. Fans of online poker need to bear this in mind.

By the time the passive fish has found his way to the river he starts to sweat and the only way they feel they can win the pot is to just bet. When you identify a player as being a passive fish you call much lighter when you identify this line in their game.  Hands that would be an easy fold to a raise on the flop or turn will often be a call in this spot.

The squeeze play is the practice of three-betting after a pre flop raise and a cold call. This play is very effective because it looks extremely strong, while putting both of your opponents into difficult spots. Your squeeze is either going to come in from late position or the blinds so let’s have a look at both dynamics.

When you have an opportunity to squeeze from late position, you must understand that the initial raise would have come from early position. This means that for most players the initial raise consists of premium hands. With this in mind you should only be squeezing with hands that can stand a raise. The cold-caller has already given away a lot of useful information by cold-calling, but you do need to be careful as a lot of players will flat their entire range versus an under the gun open. So it is always advisable to veer away from bluffing in these spots despite having position in the hand if called. Those with a Betfair Free Poker Bonus should remember this.

A squeeze from the blinds can be introduced after a wide variety of different options. Once again you want to steer clear from squeezing against tight under the gun ranges, and instead keep your eyes peeled for a cutoff open/button cold call type of situation. The player raising from the cutoff has a much wider raising range and the button is very likely to fold, unless he has observed you to be squeeze happy and is setting a trap. Peoplw with a Betfair Promotion Code need to bear this in mind.

The squeeze play is a very effective way of winning uncontested dead money – just choose your spots wisely.

For the second time in a few months, the World Poker Tour (WPT) held an event in Venice, Italy. In December, WPT Venice was held at the Casino Di Venezia just a 2-mins drive from Marco Polo airport – an event won by an amateur Italian player Edoardo Alescio. This time the WPT had added the words Grand Prix to the event, and had moved the tables to the oldest casino in the world – the Casino Di Venezia in the heart of the canals.

The last time the WPT held an event in this great casino another Italian won the event. Alessio Isaia overcoming Szabolcs Mayer in a gruelling 8-hour battle to take home the first prize of $518,382. So would it be third time lucky for the Italians? Fans of GSOP 8 will have been watching on.

After four days of pulsating poker the field had whittled down from 155 players to the final six, in an event that was not only being streamed live on the Internet, but also recorded for television coverage. Of the six players left in the final there were four Italians, one Dane and a Russian. So the odds were on for that third successive Italian victory. Those with a Betfair promotion code will know this.

Andrea Dato was one of the names including amongst the four Italians. Dato had incredibly made back-to-back WPT Venice final tables, after finishing in fourth place in December. Dato proved to be one of the very best players in this tournament, but he fell short once more with a 3rd place finish.

The heads up battle fell to Rinat Bogdanov and Alessandro Longobardi and it lasted two hands. Bogdanov rivering a full house whilst Longobardi had hit top pair and the Italian stronghold had been broken.

“Oh sit down, oh sit down, sit down next to me,” sang Tim Booth of the legendary 1990s indie band James. Maybe Tim Booth was a poker shark!

The online game is suffering a little bit at the moment. Players are still likely to don the headphones and listen to Booth the Crooner but fewer and fewer of them are choosing to actually sit down and play a game. It is not uncommon to add yourself to a “play any table” list, find yourself on a list of four players without action. This will be because the other players have requested not to play shorthanded. Fans of Betfair may be frustrated by this.

In the brick and mortar card rooms you would not be able to stipulate whether or not you were going to sit down and play. Whether you liked it or not the table would be formed. You could vanish for the allotted maximum vanishing time, but after that period you would lose your seat.

So why is the online world any different? http://poker.betfair.com/en/

Somehow the online card rooms need to find a way of opening more tables and forcing players on waiting lists to play against each other. Not only does it create more action for the players who want it, but it also provides more revenue for the card rooms themselves. The changes could be introduced sensibly, for example, it wouldn’t be a good idea to force someone to play heads up (HU) but to force people to play with a minimum of four players should be acceptable to any competent player.

As Booth used to sing, “Sit down…down…down…down in sympathy.”

Poker is like every other game in the world, the more you play and the more you learn, the better you will become. If you jump into Doc Brown’s time machine and head back to the beginning of poker time you will realise that there was only one form of learning – the poker book.

The poker book has not just been responsible for improving ones game either. Poker can generate some great fictional and non-fictional stories and these stories pull fresh fish into the poker pool. Many people will make a Betfair download poker because of these works.

Take A. Alavarez’s The Biggest Game in Town as an example. Some of the greatest players in the game often cite his stories surrounding the characters and the game at the 1981 World Series of Poker (WSOP) as an inspiration.

When it comes to poker strategy David Sklansky and Doyle Brunson simply owned the early years of poker. Sklansky’s Hold’Em Poker and The Theory of Poker are still much sought after pieces of poker literature even for the new online generation. The Granddaddy of poker Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson’s Super System: A Course in Power Poker is probably the most famous of all the poker books.

Then the WSOP champion Dan Harrington took over the market with the release of his amazing Harrington on Hold’Em series, while Mike Caro told the world how to read everyone’s tells in his groundbreaking book Caro’s Book of Poker Tells. It can really help you to learn how to play poker.

These days online poker training sites and one-to-one tuition has become the new fad, but the dry, yellow stained pages of the classics will still be standing tall and proud on the shelves of most poker players little libraries.