I post these articles every week. They come courtesy of the Full Tilt Poker newsletter. Phil Gordon is one of the Poker Pros at Full Tilt Poker. You can get great tips like these every week simply by downloading their software and becoming a member. Plus its a great site!

Phil Gordon Presents “Chip Sandwich”

Let’s say an early position opponent - preferably a loose opponent - raises and gets called by one or more players. Now there’s a lot of money in the pot. More importantly, the players who simply called are unlikely to have a hand that would merit calling a big re-raise. If they had such a hand, they probably would have raised instead of flat calling in the first place. Now it gets to me.

I “sandwich” the callers with a big raise.

If my raise gets the initial raiser to fold, the meat of the chips will very often be coming my way.

I prefer to make this play from the blinds than from the button; if one of the blinds happens to wake up with a great hand, it really doesn’t matter what the initial raiser was betting with - my goose is cooked.

I get maximum value from the sandwich raise when I am down to about 15 big blinds. For instance: I’m in the small blind. A loose player brings it in from early position for three times the big blind. Two players call. There are now 10.5 blinds in the pot. I look down and find 8-7 suited.

Lessons From the Pros

I raise all-in.

The initial raiser now has to make the tough decision as to whether to call a significant raise. Even if my timing is off and he has a big hand - let’s say A-K - and decides to call the bet, I’m still in pretty good shape. My 8-7 suited will beat his A-K about 41% of the time. I’ve invested 15 big blinds and stand to win 37 big blinds. I’m getting exactly the right odds on my money here.

I won’t make this play with a hand that can easily be dominated, like a small ace or king. I don’t want to be 25% (or less) to win if I can help it.

And by making the play all-in, I completely negate my positional disadvantage, and make the most of my short stack. With all of my money in the pot, I can’t be outplayed after the flop.

If it’s chips you’re hungry for, try the sandwich. You might just find that it hits the spot.

Phil Gordon

Posted by as Learn Poker, Tips from Poker Pros at 7:51 AM BST

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One of the cool aspects of seven card stud is that everyone can see 4 cards from each players hand. This allows for a lot of bluffing because 43% of the players cards are hidden from view. If a player has a pair showing, they easily might have a full house or four of a kind hidden. Players with 3 or 4 suited cards showing could easily have a flush. So this leads to a lot of opportunities for bluffing. On the other hand a player could have a flush with only two suited cards showing!

Another cool aspect that many people overlook is that you can see SO many of the cards available. The initial deal shows 8 cards face up. Thats 15% of the entire deck of cards.

How might you use this to your advantage?

Lets say you were dealt three hearts. You are thinking about betting hoping for the heart flush. However you notice that three other hearts were dealt face up already. That makes 6 of the 13 hearts. Since there were also 16 cards dealt face down chances are a couple more hearts will be dead to you. Odds are not very good that you’ll hit the heart flush. So you probably don’t want to play it.

On the other hand, lets say you were dealt a wired pair of 6’s. (That means your hole cards, the ones face down, are your 6’s.) You look around at all the cards facing up and don’t see any other 6’s. You might want to play the hand knowing you have a hidden pair and you have a chance to make a set. On the other hand if you look around and see both the 6’s in the other people’s hands, you might want to fold the hand even though you have the wired pair.

If you pay close attention to the cards that are dealt you’ll be able to play very smart poker.

Lets say for example you have an inside straight draw. However you see 4 of the cards are already dead because they appear in other player’s hands. Your odds of hitting your inside straight draw are now not any better than a gutshot straight. Once again you might want to lay the hand down.

These are just examples to get you thinking about how to play strategically when you play 7 card stud.

- Fittsy

Posted by as Learn Poker, 7 Card Stud at 5:35 PM BST

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Did you know the World Championship of Online Poker is at PokerStars this weekend?

The World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is the world’s biggest online poker event with 15 big events and a guaranteed prize pool of $8 million!

You can enter satellites for as little as $3 or 50 frequent player points.

Don’t miss out! The tournament launches this weekend. Satellites are going on NOW!

I’m going to be playing in satellites this week!

See you on Poker Stars!
- Fittsy

# DATE EVENT BUY-IN FEE GUARANTEE   1.   September 4 (Sun)   No-Limit Hold ‘em $500   $30   $800,000     2.   September 5 (Mon)   Pot-Limit Omaha (rebuys)   $200   $15   $200,000     3.   September 6 (Tue)   No-Limit Hold ‘em Match Play    $200   $15   $200,000     4.   September 7 (Wed)   Pot-Limit Hold’em Short-Handed 6/Table   $200   $15   $200,000     5.   September 8 (Thu)   No-Limit Hold ‘em (rebuys)   $200   $15   $700,000     6.   September 9 (Fri)   Limit Hold ‘em   $200   $15   $150,000     7.   September 10 (Sat)   Pot-Limit Hold ‘em   $500   $30   $350,000     8.   September 11 (Sun)   No-Limit Hold ‘em   $1,000   $50   $1,000,000     9.   September 12 (Mon)   Seven Card Stud   $300   $20   $150,000     10.   September 13 (Tue)   No-Limit Hold ‘em Triple Shootout   $1,000   $50   $700,000      11.   September 14 (Wed)   Limit Omaha High/Low   $500   $30   $250,000     12.   September 15 (Thu)   Seven Card Stud High/Low   $500   $30   $150,000     13.   September 16 (Fri)   Pot-Limit Omaha   $500   $30   $250,000     14.   September 17 (Sat)   Limit Hold ‘em   $1,000   $50   $400,000     15.   September 18 (Sun)   No-Limit Hold ‘em   $2,500   $100   $2,500,000                 Total Guarantee   $8,000,000

WCOOP event times: Monday - Friday 3:00PM ET, Saturday and Sunday 4:30PM ET.

Posted by as Learn Poker, Texas Hold Em, 7 Card Stud, Cool Poker Sites, Omaha at 2:54 PM BST

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In seven card stud each player is dealt 3 cards facing down and 4 cards facing up. Each player has their own set of cards. There are no community cards as in Texas Holdem.

7 card stud is dealt to a table of 8 or fewer players. This means you have two fewer players than in a traditional holdem game.

7 card stud is dealt, 2 cards down, one card up to all 8 players. Then the first round of betting occurs with the player with the lowest card being forced to bring in half the initial bet. This is a forced bet to get the pot started. This player may choose to make a full size bet if they like.

After the first round of betting another card is dealt face up to all of the players at the table. This makes the fourth card. Betting from this point on will begin with the player who has the highest up card(s) initiates the betting.

Now the third card is dealt face up. Another round of betting occurs. At this point the bet is now doubled.

Now the fourth card is dealt face up. Betting starts again.

The final card is now dealt face down. Betting occurs again, and cards are shown.

There are two variations of Seven card stud commonly played today. Seven Card Stud and Seven Card Stud High Lo.

7 card stud is a high card game. Meaning it is played like normal poker with the highest hand winning the pot. The highest hand is the royal flush, followed by straight flush, 4 of a kind, etc.

7 card stud high/lo is significantly different. In each hand there is a possibilty of two winners who split the pot. Half the pot goes to the person with the high hand following the traditional poker rules as above. The other half the pot goes to the person with the low hand. The low hand being comprised of 5 unique low cards ranging from Ace to 8 where the ace would represent “one” as in blackjack. So the best low hand would actually be ace, two, three, four, five. Pairs do not count towards low. You can only count one of your cards from the pair. So if you had a pair or a set of threes only one 3 could be counted towards low. However straights and flushes don’t affect this. So a straight flush
a 2 3 4 5 would be the best hand. It would win both low and high unless someone else had a higher straight flush or royal flush.

In high lo there isn’t always a low winner. Sometimes there is only a high. It is also possible for one player to win both the low and the high as in our example where you have the straight flush. This is called “scooping” the pot.

One key thing to keep in mind is Scooping the entire pot (winning the high and the low) is significantly more profitable than winning two split pots. Why? In a split pot your winning your chips back, and perhaps making a small profit. In a hand where you scoop the entire pot you will win significantly more chips and make much more profit. Scooping a few pots is going to earn you A LOT more than splitting a bunch of pots.

You should probably start out playing high/lo in some low limit games or even freebies. Or sometimes you can find mixed games where you play holdem for 20 minutes, 7 card for 20 minutes, and omaha for 20 minutes. This can be a great way to learn the other games you are unfamiliar with.

- Fittsy

Posted by as Learn Poker, 7 Card Stud, How to Play Poker at 7:53 PM BST

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I recommend new players start playing poker SLOWLY. It is one thing to beat your buddies regularly, it is something entirely different to go online and play. You never know who you are up against. You might be playing against a real professional or at the very least someone who has been practicing and honing their skills for years. Thats a quick way to loose a lot of money.

When I started playing I didn’t really know what my options are so I started by downloading the software from Poker Stars. I like Poker Stars and if you are experienced you want to check them out NOW as the World Championship of Online Poker starts Sept. 4th at PokerStars.

What I recommend you do as a new player is start by playing at Poker Pages. Poker Pages is entirely free and there are constant games available 24 hours a day.

Before you run off to Poker Pages to download the software STOP. Go to Bugsys Club first and signup!

Why? Because Poker Pages and Bugsys Club are related. In order to play in most of the tournaments at Poker Pages you will need a Bugsys Club account. Why? Because you win Bugsys Bonus Points, real money in your Bugsys account, or satellites into real money tournaments at Bugsys.

The cool thing is the same software is used at Bugsys Club, Poker Pages, and Poker School Online. So all you have to do is go to Bugsys and download the software. That will allow you to setup a Bugsys account and from there you can start playing at Poker Pages.

You see this is how I got started. I started playing for free. I could test my skills against hundreds of players. Once I got to the point where I actually started to place in the money in tournaments I then upgraded to playing for real money at Bugsys. During this time I also purchased a quarterly membership at Poker School Online so I could start studying poker and reading articles from professional players about how to play better poker.

This combination of skills allowed me to start winning real money tournaments at both Bugsys Club and at Poker Stars.

So by starting out playing for free you can begin to test some strategies. You can test what starting hands you want to play. You can learn how to play in the middle rounds of the tournament. You can practice being patient and waiting for the best opportunity to go all in. You can start learning how to read other players by their betting strategies. You can start learning to alternate your own betting patterns playing loose at times, tight at others. As you get better you can step up to a higher level. Poker School is a subscriber based service where you can play real players for only $14.95 per month. This means you get a little bit better quality opponent than you get at Poker Pages. These are all people who have paid to play, not teenagers playing poker illegally like you sometimes find on the free poker sites. These are people that take poker seriously and are at Poker School studying to be better players. Finally when you are ready, you can play for real money at Bugsys Club. They have $10,000 tournaments on a weekly basis, offer WSOP qualifiers, WPT qualifiers, etc.

If you haven’t done it yet, go download the software for Bugsys Club and get your free Bugsys account today. Then you can start playing at Poker Pages and Poker School too!

Stop sitting around reading this blog! Get started playing poker NOW!

- Fittsy

Posted by as Learn Poker, How to Play Poker at 11:47 AM BST

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You can start playing poker for free, however you’re probably going to get to the point where you want to start playing for money.

The real question is, how do you protect yourself?

How can you deposit money with a onliner poker room and yet still protect yourself from fraud?

This was the dilemma I was faced with about a year ago. I was playing poker for free at Poker Stars and was doing fairly well. I wanted to try my hand at playing poker for money and see if my luck held up, or if it was just a fluke.

I started by trying to use my credit card. Unfortunately most credit card companies do not allow you to use your card for online poker, casinos, or gambling. When you try to deposit money it is almost always denied because of the credit card companies policies. It has nothing to do with your card. It is simply standard operating procedures for credit card companies to not allow online gambling purchases. The same card might work in a real casino like Harrahs but not work in an online casino!

I think the issue here is fraud. Credit Card companies are afraid of online fraud. They’re also afraid of chargebacks. So you have to find alternatives to using a credit card.

Many sites allow you to do western union transactions. I’m a bit scared of this stuff myself, the reason is when you do a western union transaction you have to contact the poker room to get their information for Western Union. Apparently the information changes daily. Every day they give you a different name or location to wire money to. That seems pretty sketchy if you ask me! I don’t want to send $200 to Jose in Venezuela without some sort of guarantee.

However there are some excellent alternatives!

The alternative I chose is Neteller. Neteller is sort of like PayPal for online poker and casinos. Just in case you live under a rock I’ll explain PayPal to you.

PayPal started as a way to allow you to buy stuff from Ebay by using your credit card. PayPal is sort of the middleman handling the transaction. You can use a credit card with them or you can have them directly link to your credit card. They simply charge a small percentage. However PayPal also offers excellent services such as insurance to help protect you from fraud. I actually feel safer using PayPal to purchase something from an Ebay auction than I do by sending the person a money order or check in the mail!

Neteller is pretty much the same thing. With Neteller you setup an account with them. They are an excellent company and I am very pleased with their security systems and support. When you open an account with them you have to provide a real telephone number and someone calls you on the phone to verify your information. Once I was even on the phone with them from my cell phone and I had listed my “home phone” on the contact form. The guy actually asked me if he could call me back on that number to verify I was really who I said I was. Again, it was only a minor inconvenience to me because I prefer them to be secure! That was an excellent way to prove to me that they really are a secure service.

Neteller offers several options for you to deposit money. You can use a bank wire, a visa credit card, or you can do a sort of direct deposit from your banking account.

What I chose to do was to link them right up to my checking account. Again I know this might seem scary to you. I agree. It was scary to me. I would never give someone access to my family checking account! However I have a little personal account setup where I put a small amount of fun money every month. This is the account I gave them access to. This is a very simple process. You simply enter in the numbers from the bottom of one of your checks. Thats all you have to do. Then they verify the account. They deposit a small amount of money in your account (less than one dollar.) You then confirm exactly how much money they deposited in your account. This ensures that you really do have access to this checking account and verifies that you are in fact the owner. Again this is an excellent security precaution they have in place! They actually DEPOSIT $.20 or $.31 or whatever in your account to verify you are in fact the owner.

Once they are linked to my account I can choose to have them make a withdrawl directly from my account. This is an instant transfer. This is the fastest way to deposit money.

Once your linked you can also withdraw money from your Neteller account this way. Neteller will DEPOSIT that money in your checking account. I used this when I had a big win and I wanted to withdraw some of my winnings. I simply went to Poker Stars and had the cashier transfer the funds to my neteller account. I then asked Neteller to deposit the money for me.

It might seem a little risky, but so far I’ve had good luck… and keep in mind I use a secondary checking account just for this purpose. The account never has more than a few hundred bucks in it. That way I don’t take too much risk.

You can also use their other methods of deposit as well. Just keep in mind this is going to cause a slight delay of 3-5 days when making deposits and withdrawls.

So far I’m really pleased with neteller. I’ve done BOTH deposits and withdrawls with them so far and I’ve had no complaints. Their security systems seem robust and customer support has been excellent!

There are some other alternatives to Neteller and I’ll be reviewing them soon.

- Fittsy

Posted by as Learn Poker at 9:07 PM BST

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My friend BenB over at The Poker Blog posted an article this weekend about 7 card stud. He actually listed a strategy he uses to determine which starting hands he will play:

The hand I’m willing to play to a raise are: 3 high cards to a straight, 3 suited cards, a split pair bigger than 10s, a wired pair bigger than 7s. I realize that I’m playing incredibly loose, but it works for me because I have no problem throwing away two pair and I am very good at figuring out what people have based on their board cards.

Keep in mind that BenB is an experienced player. He knows when he is in too deep and knows when to lay down the cards. I would not recommend these starting hands to anyone. However if you want to try them out for fun or in a tournament try BenB’s strategy. I played on Full Tilt at $.10/$.20 this weekend and won $25 in a little over an hour using this method.

He plays the following STARTING hands in 7 card stud (high):
Wired pairs bigger than 7s (meaning the two hidden cards are a matching pair)
Split pairs above 10 (meaning one of the pair is hidden and one is facing up.)
Any 3 suited cards
3 high cards to a straight

Now keep in mind BenB is pretty good at judging his hands. I am also pretty good at this.

I know how to read my opponents hands and determine what my odds are going to be of successfully finishing my hand.

So for example if I have 3 hearts and I’m playing for the flush, but I see my opponents each have a couple of hearts… I know my odds of getting two more hearts has gone down considerably. I know where 5 of the 13 hearts are. I know there are only 8 hearts remaining. Depending on my odds, what the amount to call is, etc. I may play another card. If on the turn of the next card I see another heart or two come out I know there is very little chance I’m going to make my heart flush.

So I know when to play these cards.

However I thought I’d give them out as an example of starting hands you might want to play in 7 card stud HIGH. Keep in mind that 7 card stud high-low is a different story!

- Fittsy

Posted by as Learn Poker, 7 Card Stud at 6:53 PM BST

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Do you have a favorite poker hand?

I was planning to write about why you shouldn’t play your favorite hand all the time.

I know some guys that have favorites and they hate laying down their favorite.

For some people it is the 72. They love playing the hammer. For others it may be the 910. Who knows why people like their favorite hands. Perhaps they won a big hand against the odds.

I’d been trying not to have a favorite hand. However my last two straight flushes were in diamonds. One was
A5 and the other was
79 . I know at a table of 10 players neither one of those hands has great odds but at the time it made sense for me to play those hands. In both cases I made a straight flush.

I started to have a tendancy to play ANY two diamonds, even if it put me in a bad position. I was going to write about how this was costing me a lot of money.

Then I hit my 3rd straight flush ALSO in diamonds! Today I was dealt a
10j and flopped the straight flush with
8 9 7 . (oh, and my opponent bet into me!)

Once again I’m tempted to play any 2 diamonds I get! After all it seems to be my lucky suit!

What do you think? Am I crazy? Is there such a thing as a lucky suit? Or should I stick with my normal strategy.

- Fittsy

Posted by as Learn Poker, Texas Hold Em at 4:18 PM BST

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