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Starting Hands in 7-Stud

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As with hold'em, you are looking for hands that are either the best hand right now, or good draws. This article offers a starting hand guide that is slightly tighter than most. The goal is to turn you into a winning player quickly. Starting hand guides are essential for the beginner. Once you are more experienced and have a solid feel for the game, you can take a few additional liberties. In the meantime, start out holding rigidly to these tight starting requirements.

The following table lists a variety of 7-stud match-ups. These are Monte Carlo simulations so they have limited use in the heat of combat. Nevertheless, the table is a convenient way to illustrate the relative strength of hands.

Title Example Percentage and Odds Your Edge
Trips v Under Pair J-J-J v T-9-9

 93% v 7% or  13.3-1

 Huge Edge
Trips v 3 Flush J-J-J v Q-7-4   86% v 14% or  6.1-1 Huge Edge
Trips v Over pair J-J-J v A-K-K   85% v 15% or  5.7-1 Huge Edge
Pair v Three random cards J-J-T v X- X- X   70% v 30% or  2.3-1 Big Edge
Pair v Three straight with no over J-J-T v 8-7-6   68% v 32% or  2.1-1 Big Edge
Pair v Three flush with no over J-J-T v 9-7-4   65% v 35% or  1.9-1 Big Edge
Pair v Three over J-J-T v A-K-Q   64% v 36% or  1.8-1 Small Edge
Pair v Smaller Pair with undercard kicker J-J-T v 9-9-8   62% v 38% or  1.6-1 Small Edge
Pair v Three flush with one over J-J-T v Q-7-4   60% v 40% or  1.5-1 Small Edge
Pair v Three straight with one over J-J-T v Q-J-T   60% v 40% or  1.5-1 Small Edge
Pair v Smaller Pair with overcard kicker J-J-T v 9-9-K   58% v 42% or  1.4-1 Small Edge
Pair v Three card straight flush J-J-T v 8-7-6   56% v 44% or  1.2-1 Negligible Edge

Online Poker Tournament Tactics

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Strategy and tactics are two different terms that are often confused with each other, or wrongly used interchangeably. Strategy is a long-term plan of action intended to accomplish a specific goal. Tactics are the expedients and maneuvers for achieving that goal.

Now that we've sorted quite a few of the strategic issues, let's run down some of the tournament tactics that can be extrapolated from them. We must dutifully repeat that these tactics are dependent on game situations and are not hard-and-fast rules.

Calling short stacks. If a short stack raises a pot, you can usually safely call, because short-stacked players are often forced to play marginal hands. If it makes sense to raise and put that player all in, by all means do so.

Playing a short stack. The flip side of that particular poker chip is playing a short stack. Your options are limited. If the next round of blinds is going to bust you, you'll want to go all in on anything halfway decent, such as an Ace-whatever offsuit. Otherwise, you're going all in on the blinds with random cards.

Online Head's-Up Tournament

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You can't find head's-up tourneys in the brick-and-mortar world, because the environment just isn't suited for them. The game would take up too much space and personnel (not to mention the insane amount of card shuffling you'd have to sit through).

The online environment is ideal for head's-up tourneys, however. Shuffling and pot payouts are instantaneous. Sites take care of blinds automatically. You don't have to worry if the guy sitting across from you at the table has taken a shower. You have found a truly perfect poker world.

  The action in head's-up tournaments is fast and furious. Playing head's up is like having a newborn child - you just can't believe how much attention it demands. You may well see a dealing rate in excess of 150 or more hands per hour, so if you sign up for one, don't expect to do anything else during that period of time. We don't advise playing multiple tables during any event, but you should never play head's up on one table and try to sit in any game on another table at the same time.

Hold'em: When To Bluff

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One of the key elements to bluffing is knowing when to do it. If a bluff is well timed, it will mean more to your stack and it's more likely to succeed.
There are two polar-opposite philosophies about how opposing players should view you as a player at the card table. One is to have people think of you as an unknown-and-hard-to-classify player, the other is to be thought of as being very predictable. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage of being an unpredictable player at a table is that no one is sure what you have and what it means. Is he bluffing? Is he just over-betting? Does he have something but wants us to think he's bluffing?
There is certainly a kind of satisfaction in being thought of as the loose cannon at the poker table that can be had in few other ways (aside from doing something like standing up in the middle of a restaurant and starting to sing). The problem, however, is it will cause people to just stick closer to their pure game, and possibly think of your actions as static from the All Freak Network.
From a pure bluffing point of view, you're better off conveying a sense of predictability.

Body Language In Poker

 Body language, in poker, refers to the way people act and look during certain game situations. Expert players become sensitive to these signs and very good at reading them. The term "tells" is used to refer to the various signals and mannerisms coming from a player that "give away" his position in the game, or his cards.
Tells exist in everyday life, too, and in fact are quite common. They are all around us, and we are all familiar with them. For instance, we all know that sheepish "caught with his hand in the cookie jar" look when we see it on someone. We all recognize the "resigned to my fate" look, or the "cat that ate the canary" look. We know the "It's not my fault" shrug, and the "I don't need this" look, and the "pretending to be nice, but actually inwardly angry" look. We've all seen the "child-looking-up-at-a-parent-and-asking-him-a-question" look and the "grandmother bending over and scolding a chiId" look - and so on.

Pot-Limit Omaha: Key Concepts (Part III)

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11. Good table position is extremely valuable. Out of the fear of giving free cards, the opposition is more likely to bet their good hands. Thus, the check-raise is used much less frequently in Omaha than in hold'em. and a check is more likely to indicate weakness. Moreover, it takes a much bigger hand to bet into a field than it does to bet when everybody has checked to you. This makes acting last - and being in late position in general - a major advantage, as the pot is often ripe for the taking with one pot-sized bet regardless of your own holding.

Pot-Limit Omaha: Key Concepts (Part II)

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6. Draw only to the nuts. This is especially true in multi-way pots. It doesn't pay to draw to a hand only to have it be second-best when you hit it. Drawing to the second nuts is a good way to lose money. That means we don't draw at a King-high flush or inferior straights, and we don't draw at a full house when holding bottom set.

Pot-Limit Omaha: Key Concepts (Part I)

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While pot-limit Omaha may appear to be little more than hold'em on steroids, subtle differences between the two games have a fairly significant impact on correct playing strategy. Below are 14 key concepts.

1. The primary goal of PLO is to win our opponents' entire stacks. As is true of any big-bet poker game, our goal is to win not a large number of pots, but rather entire stacks. We will pick up our fair share of small pots along the way, but our focus is on winning the big pots.

Poker Playing Styles (Part II)

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Use what you have learned from what appears on the Board to figure out what other players are likely to hold. This too can be done when you are not in a hand. And don't worry about being very accurate. Just go through the thought process to put players on a range of hands.

Often this is done through the process of elimination-by starting with a broad range of hands and then narrowing it down based on the factors you have observed during the play of the hand. Here's an example.

Poker Playing Styles (Part I)

See also Poker Playing Styles (Part II)

Most players, especially most players in the relatively low stakes version of no limit hold'em that you're likely to be in, will fit into very few broad categories. These categories will be invaluable when it comes to figuring out what their likely holdings are. Use four basic categories into which you should place each opponent. And then remember into which category you've placed them.

We'll give you the four very basic categories and a brief description of each. Feel free to tailor and expand this list as you develop experience categorizing your opponents. But start with these.

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