Does the live and Online
Poker community have its luck
candidate? According to some
Poker Review sites that candidate may just be Barack Obama.

Obama just won the democratic nomination. Should we vote for him or should we opt for McCain? A Poker Review site points us in the direction of a Telegraph article that details Mr. Obama’s Online Poker background.

Toby Harnden writes:

“When he was a young state politician in Illinois, Barack Obama played his cards right. “He had the stone face,” said Senator Terry Links, who hosted weekly Online Poker games at his home. ‘He didn’t stay in hands if he didn’t think he had a chance of winning.’

Links told Harnden:

“Barack wasn’t one of those foolish gamblers who just thought all of a sudden that card in the middle was going to show up mysteriously. He’s as competitive in politics as he is in Online Poker. It’s not like he’s going to go into something without a course of action mapped out.”

So would Barack Obama rally behind the Online Poker playing community who today feel like castaways thanks to a few choice politicians? Probably not. But we cannot help but wonder if Mr. Obama would have requested the removal of an attached measurement to curb Online Poker attached to that port security bill.

Anyway, i have read in Doyle Brunson’s blog that that he’s backing Sen. Barack Obama:

“I have come to the conclusion that poker players have to support Obama. We cannot possibly let McCain be our President because he supports most of George W. Bush’s views. Hillary has lots of experience but I do not think she is ready to lead our nation. Imagine her trying to talk to the leaders of the Islamic world? I wish we could have her husband back, but we cannot. Jennifer Harman and I have emailed Obama and asked what his position is on internet gaming. Hopefully we will get a response from his camp.”

You can also count CardPlayer columnist and poker author Bob Ciaffone as an Obama backer.

Hmmm. Whether or not i will vote for him, the real question that really intrigues me is, How does Obama play his cards? Earlier in the campaign several journalists looked into that.

Aside from Harnden’s report, Christopher Wills also filed a report for the AP in September about Obama’s poker playing as a state legislator in Springfield, Illinois:

Obama was a regular at the low-stakes games – sometimes stud poker, sometimes draw – designed to break up the tedium of long legislative sessions. poker, beer and cigars were staples; Democrats and Republicans, lawmakers and even the lobbyists who Obama sometimes rails against dealt the cards and placed their bets.

The traits Obama displayed around the card table those many nights are ones he brings to his presidential bid and are certain to be evident — and analyzed — if he wins the White House.

By his poker buddies’ accounts, Obama is careful and focused. He is not easily distracted and doesn’t give away his intentions unless it’s to his advantage. He’s not prone to taking risky chances, preferring to play it safe. But he’s also serious and competitive: When he plays, he plays to win.

“It’s a fun way for people to relax and share stories and give each other a hard time over friendly competition,” Obama said by e-mail. “In Springfield, it was a way to get to know other senators — including Republicans.” …

Though Obama is one a strong presidential candidate, i am still thinking if he will look back and help the poker industry if in case he wins.

Many less experienced poker players are likely to take for granted their ways to handle the pot. Though live or Online Poker players naturally do not bet a thousand chips into a hundred chip pot, they still fail to practice the fundamentals of managing the pot size and making suitable bets that will eventually lead them to success.

Reading and choosing the best tips and strategies in Poker Reviews may help you maximize your profits and minimize your losses but the trick is still about how you manage the pot size.

One will notice frequently that Poker players make large sized bets for what they want to earn, and because of this mistake, they tend to lose control of their hand. For instance, consider you are in a free game where rules are loose, and you are in possession of K-10 which is not suited in the button. A player limped before you, you called, tiny blind also called, and the huge blind checked to see the free flop.

The flop came as 10d-7c-3h. You are in possession of the leading pair and tend to be holding the best of the best hand, even if it there is a chance that a single player with A-10 would’ve called the pot preflop. The action is then to check you, what are you going to do now?

Apparently, you are going to bet. But the question is, how much? One may be tempted to place a large bet here but, considering the situation, a large bet can easily backfire. One can easily beat a top pair, if someone is holding an ace and hits it on the turn. In addition, considering that the game has been lenient, one should expect callers.

Placing a smaller bet is indeed advisable in this situation since it will make one to escape the hand cheaply if the turn card helps one of your opponents.

“Placing a bet signals that you have a hand, making it possible to take the pot on the turn if nobody improves their hand, and your bet will not commit too many chips to the pot, making it painful to let go of the hand that you have if one of your opponents shows aggression on the turn.If you make a bet near the size of the pot, you’re going to want to continue with the hand even if an ace comes on the turn and the chances become very good that you are beat, simply because the pot is large and contains a lot of your chips,” said PokeronaMac

Betting too many chips is a good example of how you are forcing yourself into making painful decisions that you could have avoided by making a smaller bet. Again, tailoring the size of your bets to your situation is what should be done.

No matter what or how many Poker strategies you employ but if you do not match your bet to the pot size, you will lose. You have to be aware of the strength of your hand compared to the likely holdings of your opponents. The game of Poker is about making wise decisions and doing the correct plays at the right time.

Son of Rep. Jim Moran, Congressman of Virginia, is reportedly addicted to Online Poker.

Congressman’s son, 39-year-old Jim Jr., is said to be a Washington, D.C. area regional manager for Dominos Pizza and an Online Poker aficionado.

According to some Poker Reviews site and Poker News site, Moran’s pal, Bruce Ryan, had posted posted a YouTube video of him screaming, “I had the nuts the whole time!”

The nuts he was referring to were reportedly a pair of queens; the term is used in poker to refer to an unbeatable hand.

Reports said that Ryan posted the clip as a publicity stunt to attract attention — and hopefully funding — for his planned documentary on poker.

Ryan, a real estate agent and aspiring filmmaker, reportedly worked on a documentary on adult kickball that did not receive wide exposure.

The three-and-a-half minute YouTube video, unsubtly titled, “Congressman’s Son Goes Crazy Playing,”poker could fare better.

The video features Moran Jr. variously screaming, pointing at his computer screen, whooping and hollering, “I worked you!” while advancing in an poker tournament.

Despite obtaining a top ranking, Moran eventually lost the competition, Ryan told ABC News.

“I worked that guy!” the lawmaker’s offspring shouts after winning a key hand. Then he turns to his computer screen. “I worked you! I worked you! I worked you! You thought I was being a wuss, but I had the nuts the whole time! That’s what time it is! You got a watch?” — he points energetically to his wrist — “Cuz that’s what time it is!”

Congressional office of Moran’s father declined to comment for this story.

“He’s probably, IQ-wise, a genius,” Ryan said of his friend Jim, “at least on paper.”

“I’m really good at math, and I know when people are lying to me,” said Moran, explaining his skills as a poker player.

Moran told ABC News that when he first saw Ryan’s video he thought, “‘That makes me look like an idiot,’” but Ryan assured him when people watched it online, they would think it was “cool.”

The video has reportedly attracted the attention of Roll Call, a D.C. newspaper which covers Congress.

Despite his Ryan’s hope for publicity, however, Moran said he refused to talk to the paper’s reporter, because he said another Roll Call scribe had misquoted him several years ago in comments he made about former Rep. Stan Parris, R-Va., whom his father defeated to win his seat in Congress.

“[Parris] made fun of me on a school trip when I was in third grade, and got the whole class to laugh at me, and I’ve hated him with a passion ever since,” Moran Jr. explained. When Roll Call ran his quote about the man, Moran said, they added an adjective which made his words sound harsher. “I got in trouble.”

Playing Poker is a game wherein the more information you know about your opponent, the more advantageous your position is. Holding on to more pieces of information will make you most likely beat your opponent. While luck is a big factor in Poker, it is still the struggle for information that is the most important since it enables people to play Poker professionally.

Often times you, as a Poker player, resort into concealing information about yourself, but you also have to be vigilant of what information you want your opponents to see, either intentionally or unintentionally. There will be times when you will wish to let your opponents have some information, as you want to compel your opponents to take certain actions. If your opponents are falling to the information you leaked, you can lead them straight into a disastrous game, or simply cause them to make the wrong turn.

An example of this happened in a nine player sit and go. A good looking player was playing on Poker Stars. He had been getting horrible cards, and went almost an entire level without seeing a single face card. After a long period of folding, He finally picked up a hand, pocket queens. He was on the button, so he had a good hand with good position. However, the second player to act pushed all-in, and at this time his stack was only slightly decreased from his starting stack. Another player called, so he made the proper move for this stage in the tournament: The player threw his hand away. As it turns out, he would have won the hand, as the raiser had Q-8 and the caller held A-K with unremarkable community cards. One player revealed that they had folded A-Q, and after careful deliberation, the good looking player revealed that he had held pocket queens.

Why did he do this? First of all, the other players were starting to realize that he was playing tightly, so by revealing that he had not given in to the temptation to play a big hand in a bad situation, they would come to the conclusion that he truly do only play good cards, and he wouldn’t be making any dumb plays when he held good cards. He wanted to instill fear in them, fear that would cause them to fold when he did raise, as his style relies on aggressively forcing other players out of the pot when he enter a hand.

Just shortly after revealing that he had pocket queens, he started to pick up hands and he was willing to play with in good position. He used these hands to his advantage, raising when he came into the hand, either winning the pot outright or isolating himself against one or two opponents. If he did get callers before the flop, he was always able to make them fold after the flop. His stack was growing, and he became a powerful force at the table without winning a truly big pot.

At one point he, apparently, looked at his stats, and saw that he had seen eleven flops, and had won ten pots. A couple of those wins came preflop, so that slightly skews the numbers, but the only time he saw the flop and didn’t win the hand was when he was playing for cheap from the blinds. Every time he raised before the flop, he won the hand. He had accomplished his goal of getting the other players to fear him. it is also during this time that he had only made it to one showdown, this occurring when he was in the big blind and called the short stack’s all-in, as they only had five more chips than his big blind. He won that pot for the very small win and an elimination.

This is, in reality, a perfect example of what can happen if you take time to analyze carefully all the information that is available and use them to your advantage. Being able to carefully control information is essential if you want to win in Poker and sometimes it is a good idea to leak some information to your benefits.

Playing Online Poker means
that you can do many things
that you would never be
allowed to do in a Poker table.
When you lose a hand you can
scream for as loud as you like
and can even curse, no one will
hear you anyway. No need
to hide your emotions when you
get excited or get nervous when
the game is not running your
way. Also, you can use a variety
of different Poker tools which
can enhance your play and give you essential pieces of information about the game. There are a variety of Poker different tools available online, and here are just a few of the tools available for anyone to use- you are free to use don’t worry, no one will know anyway. Using these tools does not mean you are cheating, these tools are merely guide for a smooth Poker game.

Poker-Edge: This is a player tracking software that lets you know exactly who you are up against. Poker-Edge stores Poker statistics of Online Poker players and shows you what kind of Poker player you are up against. If your opponent is a less experienced one with very little skill, Poker-Edge will let you know. And if you are up against veteran players who know every strategy that will make you lose, Poker-Edge will give you a warning. Poker-Edge has a very simple interface where you can see these vital information about your opponent. Poker-Edge places an icon next to each player. It can be a fish for a weak player, a bomb for a player who will wait for hands, but will play them aggressively, and a shark for the most dangerous of opponents. These are not the only icons. In fact, more icons can be displayed together with a small window that lists every player with their icon and their names color-coded so you don’t have to look all around the table. If a player’s name appear in green, then he is weak. A player’s name which appear in red is a tough one. If you really want to know exactly who they are, you can also look at Poker-Edge database of statistics on each player to get an exact view on who they are at the Poker table.

Texas Calculatem: This is a Poker tool which show you the Poker chances of you winning the hand as well as showing you the mathematically correct move. Added to that, Texas Calculatem will also give advice based on the number of players, your position, playing style, and many other factors. All this helpful information is displayed in a small interface that does not mess your view of the Poker table and your potential to compete against the other players.

Pokerbility: A tool which is very similar to Texas Calculatem. Pokerbility will show you the odds of the hand, the chances for you to make various hands such as a full house or a straight, and the number of outs you have that will improve your hand. Pokerbility will also give you advice and also take into account your playing style, which you can alter at any time depending on how you feel like playing. Just make sure that the Pokerbility window does not cover the Poker table, as this can cause problems. Pokerbility shows a little more information than what Texas Calculatem shows. It also displays the information in a fancier way due to its nicely made graphics, but in the end it all boils down to which one you think is better.

These are only three tools an Online Poker can use to aid his gaming experience. Keep in mind to research each Poker tool you are considering to use before you purchase or download it. Remember that viruses and malwares are on the loose.