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Playing and winning at the World Series of Poker Satellites can be your best resort to be able to win a seat at the World Series of Poker main event. Thus, it is important that you play at your best when at the said event. Be eager to win and prepare yourself for any challenges by knowing some winning strategies.

Winning Strategy #1:

Play differently. Try not to play like the rest in the World Series of Poker Satellites. Play the other way around that is more into cashing. Never try to play like other players who make money wins or players who will go all the way with nothing else in mind. Playing differently will make you distinct from the rest, thus giving you better chances of winning.

But just remember, in the event you are already at the final table and you have average stack, take things slowly and don’t take risk unless you really have to.

Winning Strategy #2:

Consider luck although Poker is more about the skills. Luck always has a role to play in Poker. Thus, no matter how good you are as a player, still consider luck. Although you have the skills and the strategies, if you get unlucky, your chance to win will turn upside down.

In World Series of Poker Satellites, considering luck is a must. Blinds move faster in satellites compared to traditional tourney.

Winning Strategy #3:

Never get intimidated in World Series of Poker Satellites. This won’t bring any good results. If you feel at some point others are better than you, just think you all have fair chances on winning. You all share the same goal. Just always play accordingly and everything else will follow.

There are strategies that just won’t really work at certain table conditions. Thus, it is important that you are knowledgeable enough when it comes to changing strategies when the need arises.

Typically, it is time to change strategy when it seems like what you are applying is not working anymore and you are losing significantly. However, of course, before you finally change strategy, know first what strategy will you use after. Be sure to think things over. Study what may probably went wrong so you can decide effectively.

It is also a time to change strategy when your winnings have dried, say for an instance you moved up to a certain limit coming from a certain limit. More or less, there is something wrong with the strategy you are using. Take time to study everything that happened at the poker table.

On the other hand, it is not time to change strategy when you lost just once. It is not a good reason that because you lost in one session you will already change strategy. Your lost may not be directly due to your strategy. There might be some other reasons for it. You maybe not aware but you may have failed to play better than your opponents as you didn’t get good cards or say position. There are so many other reasons actually. You just have to open your mind and understanding for them. There might be just some glitches and unnoticed lapses on your part.

However, of course, you need not to experience a lot of bad beats or losses before you change strategy. After a loss, try again to play using your strategy. If again you didn’t make it, then maybe you can finally change strategy. But be sure your next strategy is far better and more effective.

Poker is both a mind game and a skill game. To be able to beat the game, player must be wise and skillful enough. Although luck plays a role in every poker game, still the success or failure of every poker game will still depend on the player’s understanding on how to become a winning player.

Poker is a game which is much influenced by the cards that are being dealt to players. Thus, for a player to beat the game, he or she must be able to make plans or strategies based on the cards. But on the flip side, he or she must not also give his or her focus or attention to cards alone. Player must also consider the odds, by which are related to cards of course.

Beating the game would be so easy if only odds would be considered or given importance.

Odds could tell if a player will make it or not. Thus, every player must know how to read the odds and check if odds are on his or her side or actually on his or her opponents’ side. For an instance on a post-flop situation, considering the cards on the board and hole cards, what would be chances of his or her cards beating everybody else’s cards, that player must know. Same thing if what are the chances that his or her opponents have a better hand than him or her.

Well, calculating the odds can be so simple and just needs elementary math. But of course odds should be carefully calculated. To calculate the odds, player just have to divide the number of ideal outcomes by the number of probable outcomes. And the basic thing to be remembered is that there are four suits in a deck of 52 cards.

It is very dangerous for you to be predictable at the poker table. If good and experienced players come along and play with you, you’ll surely be on a very challenging situation. Good and experienced players may have the potential to read your moves and eventually plan out on having some counter measures to keep you away from the pot. Thus, it is very important that you always try not to be predictable. Ty to have some strategies applicable on various situations and try to surprise everyone at the table with new moves.

At the table, unpredictability can be your secret weapon. But for your weapon to be effective, you must try to work on things out early. Also, try to observe your opponents very well. Observe what hands they like playing and don’t like playing. Observe how do they react under certain situations and what type of player most probably they are. Having an idea on these things will somehow give you hints as to how your opponents will play against you.

Nonetheless, unpredictability can be your secret weapon at the poker table. It will certainly move and act against all expectations and plans of your opponents.

However, although it can really help that you are unpredictable and have that unpredictability weapon, you also need to set some rules and balance things out. Watch out and be sure to be unpredictable the right way. Never reach the point where your being unpredictable and your common sense would mix up. You still need to have a basic theory and just shift from one strategy to another strategy.

Also, you still need to consider essential things at the table like in particular the cards. Base your strategy on your cards. Odds should also be considered as well as playing styles of your opponents at the poker table.

There are some opponents that you cannot get a read on the cards that they have. You cannot ascertain what they are thinking or feeling because of a face that lacks expressions. Thus, it is really important that you know what are the most common tell-tale signs or poker tells often being made by players at the table and watch out for them so you can somehow get a read on these players based on their actions. And later on, learn to master the art of reading poker tells.

Reading Poker Tells

If you know how to read poker tells, you can get an edge at the table. And if you master the skill on reading poker tells and then use up some effective strategies, you can win games without much sweat. However, you must also update yourself from time to time, maybe with some changes or the like.

Say for example, you are aware of the common poker tells that take place at the table and you know how to read them accurately, consider that your opponents might probably know exactly same things so you should know how to adjust with this. Always observe and match others’ actions with their cards.

Common Poker Tells

Just to extend some help, here are some of the common poker tells at the table:

Shaking Hands

- Shaking hands might signal some sort of nervousness and fear of being read and everybody will fold. Shaking hands might also signal excitement because of having a strong hand.

Steady Eyes Over the Pot

- Steady eyes over the pot might imply eagerness to win because of having winning cards. Steady eyes over the pot might also imply excitement.

Hesitation Being Apparent When Making a Bet

- Hesitation being apparent when making a bet might signal fear due to having a weak hand and eventually losing.

Pros like Perry Friedman, and David Sklansky are both well-experienced and very capable of giving some effective tips and strategies. And they are actually just two of the many pros today. Well, if you are a beginner, hearing some tips and even strategies from these pros can help you a lot. However, just be very careful as there are a lot of tips and even strategies online that are said to be from the pros although they are actually not.

Unrelated Medium and Low Value Cards

Just one helpful tip from one of today’s pros – avoid playing unrelated medium and low value cards. They oftentimes actually appear worthless. Specifically, avoid suited cards, which cannot flop a straight, even both ends of a 9 and 5.

Low Pairs

Great tip from one of the most popular pros – be careful in playing low pairs. The low pairs being referred to include any pairs from 66 down to 22. They can only be played in late positions, if in other positions, it maybe risky playing low pairs.

Two-Way Draw

A tip from one of the pros today – play tight and aggressive when have a two-way draw after the flop. If making a flush, trips, or straight out of your hand is possible, making a bet or a raise can be a good idea.

Ace or Pair of High Over-Cards

The “lucky tip” from one of the pros – bet an Ace or a pair of high over-cards after a worthless flop. Flop is considered worthless if entire flop is with unrelated cards of medium and low value.

Flops of 6, 7 and 8

Helpful tip from one famous pro – keep an eye on the flops of 6, 7 and 8 as they can make out a straight which has the potential to overcome a high pair or the like.

If you can read hand of all your opponents at the poker table, then things will be easier for you. You can easily make some on-the-spot strategies and eventually win without much sweat. However, of course, the ability to read hands wouldn’t be something innate in you unless you have some type of psychic ability.

But though that the ability to read hands wouldn’t be something innate in you it is actually something you can develop. If a bit you have the skills and the knowledge on probability, studying your opponents, and psychology, then you will eventually learn how to read hands.

Probability

Having the knowledge on calculating probabilities can really help. Normally, in Poker, probability of each type of 5-card hand can be computed by calculating the proportion of hands of that type among all possible hands. Probability will then help you assess if what type of hand, strong or weak, your opponent most likely have.

Studying Opponents

To effectively study your opponents, you must be aware of the various types of player and the playing style of each type. You can’t actually make assessments if you are not familiar of these things. For an instance, one of your opponents is a tight player and has been playing tight, if you lack knowledge, you may not easily get the idea that he might be up to something like a strong hand,a strong flush for example, just because he’s playing that tight.

Psychology

Effective psychology in Poker has two significant aspects. The first one involves you having to know the playing styles of your opponents and the second one involves you having to understand the perception other players about you.

To effectively apply psychology over your opponents, know their playing style and observe their hand strength through analyzing their betting and raising patterns.

It’s important that before you learn some advanced and complicated tips or strategies for winning, you should first master how to deal with whatever kind of starting hands you may have to face along the way. There are some good starting hands worth playing however there are actually some that are just worth tossing aside in pre-flop.

AA, KK, QQ, JJ, or AK

If dealt with an AA, KK, QQ, JJ, or AK, it’s best to get as many chips as possible in the pot through betting, raising, and re-raising. But be careful of tight players and those who are raising pre-flop most especially if what you hold is not AA or KK.

10’s, 9’s, AQ, and KQ

If you have 10’s, 9’s, AQ, and KQ, be more selective. Be aware that although these are good to have, you’ll need the board to win with these. Bet and raise to get people out of the hand when in early position however be more conservative if in later seats.

AJ, A10, KJ, QJ, Q10, or 88

You can’t be aggressive with AJ, A10, KJ, QJ, Q10, or 88. Just play these in late position if before you there have been a lot of checking. Look for suited connectors to get a straight or a flush.

J10, T9, 98, 87, 76, T8, 97, 86, and 75 Same Suit

Hands like J10, T9, 98, 87, 76, T8, 97, 86, and 75 same suit should not be played aggressively most especially early part. Same thing with similar hands like pocket pairs from 7’s to 2’s, A and any same suit card, and K with any same suit card up to 8.

Other Hands

Other hands not mentioned above should be folded particularly if you can’t see the flop without checking. This can be the best thing you can do.

Hi there,

Just an information, I play both limit and no limit. When I have strong hands or top pair good kicker, I do play very well. I’m good as well in trapping people. But whenever I have top pair, I lose my mind, however see the board pair, particularly in no limit.

Say hand is QJ and flop is J-7-7 rainbow. Table is a loose-passive one with 8 players in on the flop. I will then raise one off the button. It’s limit. Someone will then bet into me and I have the top pair with a decent kicker, two pair actually. Later, I will play the hand very passively and will call down instead of going for raises. In the end, I will win the hand but will not gather a lot of money as what is supposed to be.

What strategies are perfect in such scenario?

Personally, things are harder for me in terms of two pair. Unless I have both cards like hand AQ and flop A-Q-6, it’s hard for me to consider it a two pair. Maybe because I have already trapped others and I’m afraid to be trapped as well.

Any thoughts?

Warm regards,
Jim
Jim,

In the first scenario, since it is Limit with a lot of people in on the flop, I would raise the first time. If I am three bet, then I will slow down and just call. The chances are increased that someone has a better jack or even the seven with that many people in there. The times that you just call it down and lose the hand, you will end up saving more bets than you could have won with the hands that you could have raised. In Limit Holdem, saving bets is just as important as winning bets.