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Diamonds are a girl’s best friend!

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Most players entering a tournament will know the marginal hands which they want to go all-in. Let us say you have an Ace-King and you are reading an opponent to have a low pair. You know at this point that you have a 50/50 chance of grabbing the pot. The 50/50 chance might be good enough for you to push your chips forward in a scenario like this. This can be okay for cash games when you are in full control of you game and when you have good management of your bankroll.

In a tournament though it is another situation. You need to reconsider the pros and cons of what your decision will be. A win might double up your stack and keeps you glued to your seat. A loss will spell the end of the tournament for you.

What we are leading to here is to advice that you need to play the premium hands when you are in tournament. Losing a big chunk of your stack early in the tourney can spell disaster if you are hoping to get to the final table or get to the top prize. You need to evaluate the potentials of your gains or losses when making a decision. This is crucial in a poker tournament.

Take care of your chips since tournaments are games where the last man standing is hailed victor.

When you make a raise, you want to make sure that you do not say things like ‘I call your bet and raise you $X.”, this is actually considered your final action and if you want to do anymore … you can not usually.  You want to say that you want to call and raise, then state the amount that you want to raise.

When you do not follow some of these simple rules, it can really annoy a lot of the other players and that is not usually what you want to do.

Poker is a game of skill – many people don’t realize that.  It is actually a game that you might want to brush up your skills on and it is certainly a game that you will want to do some research and really think about the game before you dive right in.  Bluffing is definitely something that you are going to have to do in this particular game – for that is what the game is all about.

Did you know that there is a such thing as semi-bluffing though?  Most people don’t realize this but you can actually semi-bluff and usually get away with it … which is a good thing.  Semi-bluffing works fantastic in no-limit games and it is a great tool to have in your back pocket.

For more tips and tricks – stay tuned, I can promise next week is going to be awesome!

Two pairs is just that — you may have two fives and two jacks between your hand and the community cards. The hand is an incredibly common one. If another player also has two pairs, the player with the highest or biggest pair wins.

One pair is, naturally, extremely common as well, and unless it involves a pair of aces, it is really not worth playing.

High cards mark the lowest hand in Texas Hold ‘Em. It occurs when there are no poker combinations in your hand except for the highest card you have. Again, it is typically not worth it to play this hand.

That being said, let’s take a look at what are considered middle hands and low hands, beginning with the flushes. They are considered medium hands in poker. When the pot is split in a game, you can get a large percentage of the pot with a flush — sometimes. It depends on the high cards you have. Naturally, a straight flush is going to do better than an unconnected flush, and a royal flush will be at the top.

Straights occur when you have five cards that are connected, of course. They need to be successive. You can have straight flushes as well, and straight royal flushes. Straights are actually quite common.

Players get two cards dealt face down; the third card is dealt face up, and whoever has the highest one bets first. A betting round follows each newly dealt card, until each player has seven. Naturally, the highest poker hand will win.

However. If any player receives a queen during play, then the player who goes after him or her is in luck. Whatever card is dealt next to that player, it is wild. This counts for face up cards and face down cards. Sadly, however, if another queen is dealt during the next round, the previous wild card is considered null and void.

A little complicated, to be sure, but this game nonetheless has the potential to be great fun — and very frustrating, I would imagine! It may not be Go Broke Poker, but it will likely make you go crazy!