As you may have noticed poker has become immensely popular over the last few years. This has gotten a lot more people interested in playing the game. Unfortunately not everybody has easy access to a place to play. This is why online poker has become so popular. We have actually now reached the point where a lot of people prefer to play online over live games. I am one of those people, for a variety of reasons I would rather play poker online.

The biggest reason that I prefer online poker over live poker is the convenience. Like most US poker players a trip to the casino can take quite awhile since it is located a fair distance outside of the city. While it is fun to make the trip from time to time to play live it just isn’t something that I can do all that often. Playing online allows me to play whenever I want. This is especially useful when I am short on time. I can log on and play for half an hour if I want to; playing live it would take me longer than that just to get to the casino.

Online poker also offers the significant advantage of always having a game going, there is never a slow night. Conversely even if it is busy I can always get into a game. Whenever I go to play live one of two things seems to happen, either there is nobody there or there are so many people that I have to wait for a seat to open up. Since online games don’t have space limitations they can always add another table if there are people waiting to play.

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Some may have other goals in mind but the best and most common goal when you enter a poker tournament is to WIN. Reaching the final table of the poker tournament is a good start. You will be in a good position to make things happen.

When you get to the final table, I am pretty sure you will need the following to “close that deal”:

Experience

Exposure to the game and to the different types of competitions is a big factor in winning a poker tournament. A lot of poker prepares you for the tough scenarios. Previous deep runs in some poker tournaments bring in a ton of knowledge on how you can dominate the final poker table.

Confidence

You need to believe in what you got in you. Confidence in ones poker skills may bring out your best strategies and decisions on the table. Chickening out on the final poker table will do you no good. Feel good and make no second guessing when you read everyone else’s game.

Killer Instincts

You need to know when to pull the trigger whenever you are playing poker. When you are on the advantage, you should know when to take the risk so you can knock someone out of their game.

Abuse in heads up and three handed play

It is a whole different ball game when you are playing heads up or a three handed poker compared to a whole gang of nine players. Let us say you only have two other opponents and you know you are the best player on the table, be aggressive and abuse the weaknesses of the other two players. Get rid of another player and make sure you have more chips going to the heads up play.

A rampant mistake committed by most poker players is that they observe each decision in a hand as a different entity. This has a detrimental effect on the game.

This is a precarious situation and most players get trapped in it. When players take decisions as the game shapes without thinking about the repercussion of each decision they then are in doldrums. Seasoned poker players know that each and every decision is important during the course of the game. So you should think before you act impulsively.

The concluding outcome of the hand depends on the decisions taken during the early stages of the game. Players should never resort to each decision as it comes because they end up losing large amount of money. Planning the entire move would help you play the hand in a better pattern. As stated earlier poker is a though provoking game. Impeccable planning would always help in playing a worthy hand. If you are planning a big flop you should stick to achieving the opponent’s money.

Your chances of winning are magnified if you carefully plan all your moves. Your planning should include the entire game plan and your present hand. Players end up winning the pot if they stick to detailed planning. Poker is a game of strategies. You should carefully aim your goal and then initiate your plan. Implementing your plan is the most important aspect of the game.

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I don’t feel as bad for Mike Matusow as I probably should, basically because at this time in his life that money would have just gone somewhere else. Freaking Tony G. being a d*ck afterwards too. Erik Seidel gets a good flop for his Aces, it’s a spot where most players that know Mike are in a fifty/fifty spot. Mike got unlucky. Mike goes broke yet again.

Like various other betting games, Bingo too is a game of fortune. In bingo the numbers are selected at random and the players match those numbers on a 5×5 matrix which are either electronically represented or are in printed form called as “cards”. The very foremost person who have all the matching digits on their cards to those digits which are randomly drawn or selected calls out the word “Bingo” and is declared as the winner of the bingo games.

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And I love it when my main man, Erick Lindgren, dishes out the pwnage to probably the most obnoxious player in poker: Tony Guoga.

Tony G. played so nitty and got so lucky in the rest of this Full Tilt Million Dollar cash game… I hate him.

So, we have patience and we have psychology. Now it is time to talk about perseverance, which sounds like a whole lot of hard work, but do not worry, it is definitely a different kind of perseverance than you have to exercise when you go to the gym or out for a run or something.

We are talking about perseverance of the mind. In poker, it ranks right up there with patience. You absolutely cannot give up on your perseverance. It is enormously, incredibly important that you always, always play the best game that you possibly can, no matter what. You should not give if you are on a losing streak. Even if you keep getting bad hands, you cannot give up on the game. You should not force yourself to play them — this is where you have to have the patience to wait for some better cards and the opportunity for better moves.

Patience is unquestionably important, as we saw last week. However, it is not the only essential “P rule” you need to follow in order to become a more successful player. Remember, we still have four more to cover before we all through!

Which brings us to the second P: psychology. Okay, okay, technically that could qualify as an S, but unlike our teachers in grade school, we are going by spelling here.

Now, the psychology aspect of poker can be a whole lot of fun, if you are at all into a bit of mind-freaking — so to speak; this is a PG blog … most of the time.

Anyhow. You probably think that poker is a card game that you play with people. Not so, my friends — it is a people game which just happens to include cards. As such, you have to think constantly and pay close attention to your opponents. What have they played? How do they play? Why are they making the bets they make? Getting inside your opponents’ heads is a key strategy for winning.

There are lots of strategies you can employ when you are playing poker, some of which are extremely easy to remember. Do you recall how, in grammar school, you were supposed to learn the three Rs? Reading, writing, and arithmetic — or ‘rithmetic, depending on how much your teacher paid attention to true alliteration. Anyway, the point is that, likewise, poker has five essential Ps which you can follow in order to play a much better game.

The first of these is patience, which is unquestionably important. Patience is required if you want to win; it is mandatory. You are not automatically going to get a good hand, and not every hand will be a good one. Realizing that and being willing to fold when you have a hopeless hand is a good way to ensure future victories. You have to wait for a good hand and always be sure to make the kind of moves and bets that will allow you to win.

Why do people play poker? Why, in particular, should you play poker? A lot of players who are new to the game seem to get worried that, if they actually allow themselves to play, they will either go bankrupt or developing a gambling problem. Such worries are understandable — smart, even — but they are not necessarily founded. If you keep things in perspective, there is nothing you need to worry about while playing.

You see, people play for a variety of reasons, not just for money. A lot of people play casually, for the social rewards. That is why so many groups of friends have weekly poker games where they can just hang out and have fun. The stakes are low but the good times are high.

Poker is an extremely entertaining game as well. It sure as heck beats watching television. If you are not too competitive, playing is a great way to entertain yourself and your friends.

Believe it or not, some people play poker to educate themselves. This may seem unlikely, but think about it for a second. Poker can help you hone your judgment skills, plus you learn a lot about both logic and strategy.