Vincent’s Poker Blog

Holding rag aces or an ace-rag simply means you were given an Ace and another card that is lower than 10. You can call A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7, A8, and A9 rag races. In short, ace-rag is an Ace coming with a low kicker.

Now how do you play an ace-rag hand? It will be a very common mistake for inexperienced to get very confident with their hand because of the ace that they are holding. Most of the time this gets them into trouble.

One good rule for rag aces is to consider to fold them always since they will rarely win big for you. More often than not, you will end up losing money because you will be out kicked.

If you want to consider playing the ace and the low kicker, wait for a top pair on the flop. Watch out though for another opponent who raises before the flop because most likely they out kick your cards – and you’re on your way out of the casino broke.

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Whether you are an amateur or a professional player of Razz poker, you must have experienced that the game of razz poker is very different from the other variants of poker. This article houses some of the most crucial tips which can help you make large fortunes on your table. The game of Razz poker requires a combination of luck and skill. Some of the skills to excel in this game are mentioned below.

One should be patient and calculative from the beginning itself. In the game of Razz poker it is very easy to make out after the deal if your hand is a winner or not. When dealing two cards are dealt face downwards and one card is open to all the co players. If the open card is nine or a face card a player will probably fold while if the opened card is between an ace to five the game is worth playing.

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This is a great play most advanced players use on a regular basis against players who C-bet close to any board after they’ve raised — but we also know NOT to make this play in a check-call way out of position. Gavin Smith doesn’t stress this enough imo, so make sure you call in position, knowing that you’ll have the information of the player acting BEFORE you on the turn. This is VITAL.

Aah beautiful position

3 Players go to the flop, all hitting the board hard…

Eli Elezra pushes the turn in a strange play — Patrik Antonius close to HAVING to call, pushing the pot so high that Phil Ivey has no choice but to call either…

Cash game poker at its best.

I’m a huge fan of this champagne — and the only reason I am is because this Armand De Brignac bottle has the beautiful Ace of Spades on it!

GOTTA LOVE A POKER ADDICT!

Poker is fun, both in a live casino environment and in the Online casino, but make sure to always just play what you can afford -- otherwise addiction is just around the corner!

I’ve decided to enter the next European Poker Tour event to hit the calendar. Why? Well, I got extremely lucky, and I’ve decided it’s time for my first big tournament.

How did I get lucky? Well, I was playing a 5/10 live game (No Limit Texas Hold’em), when the game started to die. My $1000 starting stack grew to about $7000, and we ended up 3-handed. Two guys both had about $3k, when I picked up KK UTG. I raised it, and saw a re-raise and another re-raise ahead of me. I kind of knew one of them had Aces, thought about it, but decided to push none the less. I can’t fold KK pre-flop in a cash game. I just can’t. To my surprise, both players called and when the cards were flipped over, I kind of got it. Both players had pocket Aces.

The flop came J4T, not looking good. The turn was way better, an off-suit Q, giving me a straight draw, giving me an extra two outs (now I didn’t want a King, I wanted a 9).

Well, you guessed it. I hit the nine on the river, scooping the $9k+ pot.

Sick beat, but hey, I can’t fold KK pre-flop in a cash game.

I’m investing part of that money into a try-out-buy-in for the EPT, and hope to do as good as Belgian semi-pro Jonathan Abdellatif, who cashed in his first EPT (this year’s Deauville). Fingers crossed!

It's vital to pick the right online casino for you before you start your gaming career. Read up in this article about what makes a good, and what makes a bad online casino.

We were playing the seven duece game at private game in The Netherlands a couple weeks ago (blinds €5/€10 NLH) and the extra €10 from every player was really making a huge difference (lol, it’s so about the ‘macho’ness of the 72 isn’t it)… Anyway, I picked up 72 utg and decided to play it. I raised it up to €50 pre-flop and got two callers behind me.

The flop came:

752 rainbow.

Good flop for me and I decided to bet right out (€110) as I probably would most of the time with AA or KK in that spot. The first guy behind me folded and then I got raised to €250. I made the call and turned a seven to fill up. I checked to show weakness and the guy behind me quickly moved all-in for his last €600. I made the call and chuckled when he turned over two fives…

The guy obviously didn’t like it (and neither would I in that spot) but I dragged the pot and took an extra €80 on the side.

Awesome!

I’ve been playing under par for over a couple weeks and I’ve decided to give poker a rest for a couple of weeks while working on a big project at work. I’m still up for 2008 but my online poker (full tilt this time) results are way below standards and in the VERY soft live games I play in in the local casino I’m only a slight winner too…

No biggie though, time to suck it in and get my game back together…

Will be back in a couple weeks!

I haven’t had a Royal Flush in quite a long time so when one of our readers sends me a pic of their royal flush I feel like sharing it with the audience here on my poker blog. This one comes from Party Poker, Pot Limit Omaha Hi, low stakes.

If someone else has royals to share — send me!!!

Hi everyone! Played quite a lot of poker this weekend, and ended up with two reasonably big poker wins in tournaments this weekend.

The first one was a pretty easy 45-player sit ‘n go on Full Tilt Poker. Can’t believe how easy this was. I was a card-wreck. Picked up KK in the first hand, doubled up against a guy holding QJ (hit the Q on the flop) — picked up AA a couple hands later, took another big chunk of chips as I made a set of aces against his A9. Cruised on, never really got into trouble. Went heads-up with an 8-to-1 lead. Good stuff.

Second one was a 180-player SnG. Was carddead throughout the first 60 minutes, and actually only played like 3 hands in the first hour — but ended up doubling up twice with only 25 players to go. Got on the final table in 7th chip position, picked up 9T of hearts to make me a nut straight (against lower straight) — and got a lucky break when my KK beat AA. Once I won that hand, I pretty much sailed to victory.

Decided to take a break for a few days, kind of tired.