Vincent’s Poker Blog

Red Kings Poker is an Ongame NetWork Affiliate. It has the benefits of a share customer base and even though it is pretty new in terms of online sites (2006 start-up) it’s customer base is large and is growing thanks largely to its aggressive marketing and excellent promotions.

Red Kings Poker has a number of special promotions. Its signature promotion is the pocket kings promotion (because of the name, get it?). If you are dealt red kings in a cash game you are given $10, have those kings beaten and they’ll give you $50. Currently you can get a 200% sign up bonus up to $1200 which is no small change.

Red Kings Poker offer Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, Seven-Card Stud, Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo and Five-Card Draw in all the usual variations. It has plenty of tournaments and SnGs and has enough players at all levels to suit everyone. And it has the usual Casino games. The only problem with RedKings is the lobby, which can make it difficult to find the game you want.

The software is stable and for the most part reliable and is available as both a download and no-download client. It is always better to download, but the Java client works and can let you play away from your main PC with ease. The Red Kings Poker software is one of the best choices for Mac users, who can play the no-download version without any special installs. The software also works with most additional software that poker players might want to utilize, poker tracker and the like I am not a great fan of Red Kings software but that is just an aesthetic thing for me, the functionality is great and they now even offer mobile phone gaming.

NB Red Kings is not US friendly.

Seems like I’ve been focussing on suckouts on this blog way too much — sorry about that — but I’m going to try one more time, the last time for February, I PROMISE!

Anyway, 24$ 6-seater S&G, Full Tilt Poker, No Limit Hold’em — I get dealt KK in the very first hand. I raise 4BB, one call, SB Villain re-raises minimum, I shove in half my stack — he calls. Flop AJ4 rainbow. SB shoves, I fold. Villian shows A9.Blergh.

I’m now the short stack. Hand #8 and I pick up QQ. I’m under the gun after the blinds, and shove right away. One caller in the BB, shows JJ. The turn brings the jack. Tourney finished.

Played two hands.

Oh the beautiful game of poker, especially with me on tilt.

If you play a lot of online heads-up sit & go tournaments, you’re in this kind of position quite a lot of the time. You’ve developed a reasonable chip lead over your opponent, even though the blinds are still at level one or two. You’ll be faced withj one of two kinds of opponent:

1. The aggressive type – he pushes in a lot in this spot, one-double-up away from the chip lead.

2. The cautious one, understanding that his tiournament life is at stake at this point.

The first type is the easiest to play, and the most dangerous one. After some time, you will stop putting this kind of player on a hand, resulting in mediocre calls because you’re sick of the the steals. Don’t fall for it! His steals are worthless with the blinds at these levels. Be patient. Don’t raise too much, see flops, wait for top pair/two pair, let him push into you. Your 2-to-1 chip lead will dwindle, but you’ll have a good chance of taking him out if you have the patience to wait.

An example of his not to play: You: 2105 chips – opponent 895 chips. Blinds are 5-10 chips. Opponent has pushed 8 times in the last 10 hands. You pick up A4os on the button, and your opponent shoves again. You call. He flips over 77.

You fell for it. A4os is not a calling hand for THAT many chips. You are looking for a reasonable two overs to a pair, or two higher live cards i.e. A9 vs K7. Don’t worry about him holding 74os and you folding A4. Be patient, picking your spot more carfully will allow you for a much better chance when you do decide to call him down.

How to play: lay down the A4os. Lay down the K8’s. Wait for A10  AK – AA  22.
Good luck!

Okay, I asked for it right here didn’t I?

Went out in fifth place taking home a good amount of cash, but still feel kinda stupid, as going out was……… with QQ. Was second shortstack, got called by A5os by the big stack on the BB — and he made the ace high flush (I had the Q flush too).

Oh well, can’t complain someone calling with A5os when you’ve got the queens, aye.

I feel invincible. Just sucked out badly in a $50 buy-in freeze-out, and am now in first chip position with about 50 people left from 290 starters…

Fingers crossed — when Kings crack Aces, you’re ready to take down a tournament, right?

WAZZAAAAAA!!

This is funny stuff. You would probably think the TT has a much better shot against TWO kk’s, but that’s not really the case — it’s still about 4/1. Why? Because it probably needs a T to improve…

Well, when that T hits the flop, you do have a pretty good shot at winning the hand — like this one….

Bodog Poker is a sportsbook and casino that has been operating since 1995, with the poker room opening in 2004. The poker site is popular and hasn’t been too affected by Bodog’s courtroom troubles with the domain name. The eccentric founder Calvin Ayre is currently taking auditions for his reality show Sharks and Fools where he is offering $1000 000 contract to play as a poker pro for a year. Watching the audition videos are worth a visit to the site alone.

The bonuses and promotions offered by Bodog Poker are excellent. Bodog Poker offers an instant initial deposit bonus of 10% with a maximum of $1000. They have both WPT and WSOP Qualifier tournaments and Sit and Go’s. Bodog Poker runs a weekly $100000 guaranteed tournament on Sundays.

The games offered are all variations of Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, Seven-Card Stud, Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo and Five-Card Stud. You can also use their sportsbook and casino which has an excellent reputation. There is ring game action for most limits and although it hasn’t the largest flow of player traffic, the tournaments can give you good action also. The competition at Bodog is like fishing in a pond. Even an average player could make money here.

The updated software is fast, offers nice graphics and is actually my favorite site to play on. It also offers some particularly innovative functions, such as a three-in-one mode where three tables can be viewed and played in the same window. The software is stable and updates usually load well.