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.

I’ve had the best poker night EVER yesterday — not quite because I won a lot of cash (I ended up about $200 in the game, enough to cover about 20BB on my usual levels hehe), but because of the 3-Card Omaha poker variant we played. I’m converted, it beats Texas Hold’em with a pineapple (pun intended).

Anyway, pretty much a table full of people playing 3-card omaha for the first time resulted in loose play, and a lot of people seeing flops. I decided early on that I would focus on playing hands with Omaha-value — raising big with pocket pairs too, though. What really seemed to work were the pocket pair + suited connector hands… One killer was when my friend picked up KKQ with KQ suited. He flopped a set of kings, but ended up winning with the nut straight. Lovely!

Anyway, 3-card omaha is a great poker game. Remember: if you don’t use two hole cards, you’re playing pineapple, and it’s a lot less of an action-game.

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.

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….

Awww — just got home after being knocked out of my first live tournament of ‘08. Was playing aggressively throughout the first 3 hours, accumulated quite a good chip amount, got crushed when my aces were cracked by a set (got to hate those hehe), and finally went out when my pre-flop all in worth only 15BB got called down by the chip leader with A8.

No escape — flop was 4-8-10, so it’s not like my money wasn’t going in anyway. Eight on the turn pretty much ended it for me — but I had fun…

Finished in the money, buy-in+30%… Better than my stock is doing…

More of an example of poor poker table etiquette, actually. I was at the table yesterday playing the €10/€20 game – a limit pretty high for no-limit games in Central Europe. Anyway, the game was pretty decent, and there were a couple of €2500+ pots every hour. Good action.

At one point, a pot comes to a showdown, about €1200 in the pot. First player doesn’t show his pair of eights, but announces it. The other guy showed a king to make his pair of kings – and throws the other card in the center of the table. It’s turned face down. All of a sudden, player one turns over his eight, and declares the pot his: “he can’t muck half his hand, once he does that, the pot is mine!”.

The whole table was like: “you’re joking, right?”. But – he wasn’t. Casino manager came in – decided player one was right. Dude took the pot – the other guy lost about 500 in the hand.
I mean – wtf? Is that poker etiquette in most casinos? :s

I’m NOT going to turn this into my own little persional poker blog on which I complain about the bad beats I encounter while playing online poker and live poker in the casinos in the neighborhood — but this one was so sick I just can’t get over it.

Second hand of the night — everyone has their initial buy-in of about $1000 in front of them, and I pick up a couple of aces on the button. I have a raise in front of me, and one caller (under the gun raised 3BB — call middle position) — so I decided to re-raise about 8BB. The initial raiser made an instafold — middle position re-raised me the minimum. The pot was about $250 at that point, so I decided to go for the pot with the rest of my chips.

When the other side of the table started doubting — i put him on a middle pair — nines, tens — a hand I would probably fold if I were him — but playable none the less…

After about two minutes, the guy says: “nah, you don’t have it” — and he calls. I instashow my aces, and he says: “well, I”m on the draw” — and show me Q9 O/S.

Flop comes — A93 rainbow. Great — i’m well-ahead now. The turn makes my full house — another nine. My opponent is dead to the case nine. The river brings… A FRIGGING 9.

YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME. Opponent starts making noise and yells about how great he is — he just KNEW it… Awesome, dude! Anyway — I don’t mind aces being cracked — I do when it’s by a freaking one-outer on the river…

Oh well….

Chances are when playing in a tournament you won’t be dealt many or any premium hands especially when you need them. The chance of being dealt a AA is 220:1, the same for any pocket pair, so for the top five or six starting hands you are looking at odds of 29:1 which are not exactly favorable.

Firstly watch your opponents. Learn to look for those players who will fold at the first sign you might be holding a better hand. If these players call your bluff you may have to give up the ghost.

Limit your bluffs to when there is not much other action. Use your position on the button or small blind to steal the blinds. If it is check/folded round to you this is an opportunity not to miss.

Use your stack to bluff with. Push around smaller stacks by making big raises. Don’t go in with a bluff too often as it will be a little like the boy who cried wolf. At the table your reputation is everything and you want a reputation for playing solid hands to be able to get away with bluffing.

Don’t always make a full bluff. When you bluff sometimes it is wise to have at least a mediocre hand to back you up. Especially if it can turn into a monster. Remember from time to time those two high cards will be enough to take the pot.