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I read a quote once that said ‘Poker is a hard way to make an easy living’. I feel there is a lot of truth in this, and never has this been more the case than in the past few years. Professional poker players have always relied on small edges and margins to turn a profit at the game. There is not some secret that only professional players know that causes them to make a profit year on year. Maintaining a more stringent dedication to the small factors that give you an edge over the man next to you, is crucial.

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I have often been asked by those that do not play poker how the game is not a simple case of luck. My reply is always that when a very skilled player has the second best hand at the table, they lose less money than the man next to them would have. Experience and a good sense of judgement ensure you lose the minimum when the going gets rough, but also, when you have the best hand at the table, if you are skilled, you will make the maximum profit. These are the variables of poker that professional players can alter. Keeping a firm hold of your emotions no matter what befalls you will help earn a living at the game much more than you might think too.

One piece of bad luck followed up by two hands of frustrated reckless play, just once a week even, can make a considerable dent in your profit over a year. Professional poker players dedicate years of their life to understanding the situations a deck of cards will bring, and this wisdom, judgement, and nurtured skill will always bring a slight edge eventually. There will be days when luck is good and days when it is bad, but the certainty in poker is that luck will even out over time, and differences in talent will not.

Poker staking is something which has come to the fore in recent years, although the idea itself is not entirely new. Mike Sexton famously staked the winner of the main event in 1996, Stu Ungar, and the reasons why he would choose to stake such a player are obvious. Stu Ungar was perhaps the most naturally gifted player poker has ever seen, and so it would make sense to stake such a player.

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That brings us to the issue of poker staking in the modern game. There could be a general sentiment I feel, that those who are talented enough to be worthy of staking would surely be able to win enough money at the game to stake themselves, but not everyone feels this way. There are still people out there who will stake a poker player, but with so many talented poker players on the scene nowadays, you would normally have to be lucky to get staked in such events.

There is currently a scheme running called ‘Black Belt Poker’ which involves poker staking and training for talented players. Joining this poker site would increase your chances of getting staked, and some poker sites can even offer a similar deal to players who prove their worth online. Keep an eye out with online poker rooms for offers which involve being staked to a tournament and play excellent poker. I think that in terms of poker staking, this is all you can really do to increase your chances in my opinion.

Antonio Esfandiari has become a well known name on the professional poker players scene, as much for his outgoing personality and crazy prop bets as anything else.

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He was born Amir Esfandiari, in Iran, 1978. He later moved to California with his family, and decied to become a professional magician after developing his skill with different tricks. It is easy to see how card tricks might bring a young Antonio (having changed his name at the age of 19) into contact with card players, and subsequently, Texas Holdem.

Antonio became a successful poker player very quickly, but it was not until 2004 that he picked up his first WSOP bracelet in a $2,000 Pot Limit Holdem Event. This was followed by a WPT title in the following years, along with several appearances on television. Many popular poker shows invite players such as Antonio, because they create a very watchable show as well as being astute cash players. You may say that Antonio does not have a very long list of titles to his name, but he has made profits well into seven figures at tournaments alone, throughout his career.

Antonio is known for his part in the television show ‘I Bet You’ with Phil Laak also co starring, and makes many strange bets whilst at the tables with fellow pros. Antonio would be an asset to any game of poker, but do not be fooled by his limited amount of titles, as there will surely be more won by him in the years to come.

Phil Hellmuth was born in Wisconsin, July 1964, and is certainly one of the most colourful poker professionals on the circuit. He has made a name for himself in several ways, and certainly realises his own talents.

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The first significant point to make about Phil Hellmuth jr, is that he is the current bracelet record holder, with 11 WSOP bracelets to his name. Every one of these bracelets has been won at Texas Holdem, which shows his strength in this game, as much as it perhaps demonstrates weakness at others.

Hellmuths first ever bracelet came in 1989 when at the age of 24, he prevented Johnny Chan from picking up an unprecedented three straight main event titles. He became the youngest player ever to win this title, an accolade which he held until last year. Phil Hellmuth is certainly well respected for his excellent achievements within the game, but he is not necessarily well liked by all. He has always been an explosive character, and a perfectionist, often chastising his oppnents for what he sees as poor play.

Many regular poker players have perhaps taken a dislike to him, but you have to respect the amount of World Series bracelets he has won. Perhaps the most noticeable thing missing from Hellmuths achievements, other than the lack of bracelets in different game varieties, is his lack of a WPT title. He has had some success in this area with three final tables, but has yet to convert this into a win. Whether you like his personality at the tables or not, Phil Hellmuth is the most successful Holdem player there has ever been, and continues to be a factor in any tournament he plays.

If you are new to online poker, then do not worry, because almost every poker room has a section detailing exactly how to download the software. There are also instructions on how to open an account and deposit funds, as well as a poker school if you are new to the game entirely.

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Personaly I would advise that you play free tables first to get a feel for the way the poker room works. This will not teach you how to play great poker of course, because of the carefree loose play to be found at the table. But it can help you familiarise yourself with online play.

Feel free to look through different areas of the poker room and acquaint yourself with cash tables, STT tournaments and MTT’s too. Scedules can be found onsite which show all the start times for multi table tournaments, as well as the buy in fee.

Once you are comfortable with playing at the tables, you can progress on to cash play if you wish, with most sites offering a bonus of at least 100% on top of your first deposit. I would recommend playing lower stakes tables, and not risking all your funds on one table. You ideally want to balance playing high enough levels to find a decent game of poker, whilst not risking a great deal of your bankroll in one go. Also be careful not to play with money it would hurt you to lose, and if you wish to find out how to play a new game, you should find instructions for playing different poker games on each site.

The poker term ‘show one show all’ is linked to the practice of showing a hand after you have either lost with it, or bluffed an opponent out of a pot with it. Whenever a player is in this position, they do not have necessarily have to show their hand, but can choose to do so if they wish.

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Showing one player your cards but not others, would not be allowed however, the main reason being that you are giving away information about the hand to one player, and holding back that information from others. This means you are giving an unfair advantage, however slight, to an opponent.

From personal experience this isn’t considered a serious breach of the rules at all, most often you might show your cards, but a player at the other end of the table may not be able to see them. In that case you will be asked to show them, or the players who saw them might be asked what the cards shown were. You are of course obliged to be completely honest if someone did not see your cards when you showed them.

This is a good rule to have in place I feel, because the obvious risk to the game without this rule, would be that players could work together and show each other their cards, but not other players. Many of the rules in poker are in place to ensure that players do not play to aid one another, and that each player only ever acts for the benefit of their own chipstack. So remember, if you want to show your hand after the action has finished, make sure you show them clearly to all players.

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Naming the top five poker rooms online is a difficult choice to make, because with so many competing with each other, the standard is very high for most sites you will encounter. Different players will invariably look for different positives in a site depending on the game type they play, but personally, this would be my top five.
PKR has become my online home in terms of poker playing, but that may change in time if the other poker rooms, bring a more visually interactive experience to their room. I would like to see Five Card Draw offered at PKR as this game gives me a sense of nostalgia from my very early poker playing days, but everything else I wish of a poker room, PKR provides.

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I would have to rate Pokerstars very highly due to their trustworthy name, great team of sponsored pros, and the vast number of games offered. It would be fair of me to note that another of the positive points of Pokerstars is it’s player traffic, and that in turn, enables them to fill tables in the more obscure games.
Full Tilt have also laboured to become among the best in the business, and have many of the same qualities that Pokerstars do. They offer a great variety of games, promotions, have great support, and are very well renowned.

Paddy Power Poker was the first poker room I ever joined, and I feel they still offer a very good place to play online poker. Finally, I would say there are many sites which could make it onto the list, but I shall go with Celeb Poker on the basis of their first time deposit bonus, which is outstanding.

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Joining an online poker tournament is a relatively easy process, provided you have already registered and created an account. Presuming you have opened an account and have deposited funds, you should be able to register for a tournament of your choice onsite. From the lobby you should be able to find a section on MTT tournaments. These all have a scheduled starting time, and so you must register before the tournament begins.

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Beside the name of each tournament on the schedule, you should be able to see the buy in amount for the tournament. these buy ins vary considerably, but you should be able to find something to suit you quite quickly on most sites.

As soon as you go to the lobby for a particular tournament, you should see an option to register for the tournament. As soon as you do so, the appropriate funds will be deducted from your balance.
You can choose to unregister from the tournament at any time before registration closes. This results in your name being taken off the list and the funds being reimbursed immediately.

STT tournaments work in much the same way when it comes to registration, but there is a key difference to be noted. STT’s are not scheduled for a particular time, they begin once the required number of players have registered. This means you will usually have a game starting more swiftly if you do not wish to wait for an MTT to start.

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We should all have dreamt of it at some time or other, making the perfect poker folds and reads, completely dominating a table and decimating the players stacks around us at will. On Wednesday I would say for half the tournament I came about as close to this as I ever have been, with someone later telling me that the players at the table looked constantly frightened of what I was going to do next.

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For some players, simply hitting every flop is what they need for the perfect tournament, but you can never hope for that alone. It is the way you play your cards that makes a tournament as much as how often you hit your hands.

Feeling invincible and playing the best poker you are capable of is a great feeling, but it is surprising how quickly the cards can remind you that you are as vulnerable as everyone else. I can recall only making two mistakes all night in that live tournament, but when everything started to go wrong I feel I did the right thing in tightening up my play. Regardless of this I was still eliminated in 7th with (A,K), but if I had carried this form all the way I would have pretty much wiped out most of the field single handedly.

Of course you need an element of luck to be able to achieve this, but I think reading situations and trusting your judgement is more important. Even half a tournament being so one sided in your favour is an achievement, but having an entire tournament where you are the only player who ever looks like winning, is elusive to the point of being almost impossible.

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I think that one of the key points to consider here, is that you will always gain a greater understanding of something by having a willingness to learn. Some players may assume that poker is a game of luck and feel that trying to better their play is futile, some may think that their play is as good as anyones, and feel that they have nothing left to learn.

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In my opinion, both these thoughts are wrong.

I feel that you will always be able to expand upon your knowledge and level of play to yield better results. Talking with other players, and reading books, are likely to have a positive impact, as long as you allow them to mould your exisiting style of play rather than trying to replace it entirely.

Putting the hours in can often have a positive impact too. if you play once a week for a few hours you will become a good player over time, but to really take your play to the next level, I feel that you have to be either playing poker or thinking about poker for at least a few hours per day.

Understanding your mistakes would be high on my list of key points too when it comes to getting the most of your poker game. Too many players after finding themselves eliminated from a tournament, will leave bemoaning their poor luck or the good fortune of another player, but this isn’t always the cause. You should always have the humility to look for the cracks in your own game, before assuming you simply got unlucky. If you are eager to learn in poker, and can follow the points mentioned above, there is no reason why your game cannot develop into the best that it can be.

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