A friend of mine recently told me about a hand he played online. On the river my buddy has the nuts and makes a bet. His opponent pushed all-in. Rather than just pushing the call button and collecting the chips, he clicked the “time” button and waited the full amount of time allowed prior to hitting call. To me, this is the worst form of slow rolling I have ever heard of. I’ve known this guy for more than 15 years and I can guarantee that if this same hand were to take place in a live casino, he would never think to pull this stunt.

This made me think of my own time spent playing poker online. Have I said things in a chat box that I wouldn’t have said had I been face to face with my opponents? Do I play differently online than I do in a live cash game? While I may never have taken it to the level of slow rolling with the nuts, I would have to say that I have definitely played and acted differently online.

When I play in live cash games, I play a fairly tight game. That’s partly due to the stakes involved. In a live cash game, most casinos have a $100 minimum. Depending on the maximum, you may need to bring $300 – $500 to the table in order not to be short stacked. With that much on the line, I’m not likely to be playing 6/3 suited after a 4x raise hoping to catch a lucky flop. However, put me on a $25 max buy-in online table with $0.10/$0.25 blinds and I may very well make that call.

As for etiquette, I believe that needs to be held up both in live games and when playing online. Treat others as you’d like to be treated and it will all come back to you in the end. Or so they say.

So how about you? Are you a regular Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde when it comes to playing live or online?

In online poker’s infancy, some unethical players would open multiple accounts and simultaneously play 3 or 4 seats at a single table. Teams of cheaters would gather in a room and would all play at the same table sharing information about their hole cards. For players who couldn’t sit in the same room to cheat, chat rooms, instant messenger and internet phone service all provided easy ways for players to share information.

But the poker software began to get smarter. Multiple connections from the same IP address would be blocked from playing at the same table. Online casinos made it more difficult for a single player to have multiple accounts by requiring more information and ID verification. This is just the tip of the iceberg. As cheaters get more sophisticated, so must the detection software.

A few months back it was widely report that cheating had been going on at the online poker room Absolute Poker. The details were given and then debated in this gigantic thread at the 2+2 forum. The main difference with this scandal was that the online casino itself (or an employee of) was linked to the cheating. To summarize the story for you, it appears that an account at Absolute Poker that has administrative rights to see all players hole cards during a game was used to relay information to second player who used the information to win a large poker tournament. The video above is a replay of the hand history from the administrative account. You can see additional footage on youtube here: parts 2, 3 and 4. When I first heard about this story, I wasn’t surprised at all. Going back to my first statement, when money is involved, people are going to try and cheat. Just because they work for the company doesn’t mean they are above cheating. It just means that when they cheat, they have access to tools others may not.

Another form of poker cheating that is on the rise is the use of a poker bot. An increasing number of poker bots are becoming available and are becoming harder to detect. As hard as the online poker rooms work to keep them out, the cheaters work just as hard to beat the software and be undetected. While many of the poker bots available online (search eBay) simply calculate the best move (raise/call/fold) based on percentages, more advanced bots will record opponents betting patterns and other information that it can use to determine the likely holding for the specific opponent. With enough computing power behind it, a poker bot could be made to be virtually unbeatable.

The question is, will casual players stop playing at online poker rooms because of the use of poker bots? The answer is no, of course not. People who go to casinos to play slot machines, craps, blackjack or other table games know ahead of time that the odds are stacked in the houses favor. They still show up by car, bus, train and plane or any other way possible they flock to Las Vegas to gamble. These same people make up the majority of online poker players. I would venture to bet that if every online casino were to put a message on their login screen that said, “Our casino allows the use of poker bots”, less than 10% of the players would stop playing.

Do I think poker cheating is on the rise? Yes, of course it is. But it’s only due to the rise in popularity and the amount of money available to be gained. Think about it, nobody is going to go too far out of their way to steal a little bit of money from a small group of people. But, if the pool of people and the amount to be won is big enough, and I’d say the online poker industry certainly qualifies as big enough, then there is no doubt that more people are going to try and cheat it.

The bulk of Phil’s 45 minute speech centered around poker. He then intertwined aspects of how being a successful poker player relate to being successful in business. He spoke of 6 key traits a person has to have to be successful in poker.

Those traits are:

Aggression
Being aggressive at the poker table and attacking pots allows you to win the hand without ever having to show your cards. By checking and calling you are forced to show down hands and hope you have the best of it.

Patience
It sounds contradictory to being aggressive, but being patient is certainly key. You should be folding most hands you are dealt, especially when playing out of position. Waiting for the proper opportunities will win you far more in the long run than trying to attack every pot.

Courage
When sitting at the table and somebody makes a big bet, sure, it’s easy to call when you have the nuts. Having the courage to make that call (or raise) when you only have a decent hand, but are pretty sure you have the best hand, this is what it takes to make it as a poker player.

Resilience
Having a “Never Give Up” attitude is very important. When you take a bad beat and lose most of your chips, this is no time to throw away the rest of your chips in defeat. Dig deep and do whatever it takes to get yourself back in to the game. You only need to double up a few times to build up a formidable chip stack.

Observation
Watching what other players are doing while you are in a hand is important, but it’s just as important to watch what’s going on once you fold. Watch the players in the hand when the flop is dealt. Did he look at his chips? Did he swallow real hard? Did he sit up in his seat? What happened next? Keeping a mental note of how players act under certain circumstances will help you know exactly what to do when you are in a pot against them.

Desire to Improve
The previous 5 traits can all be taught. However, if you don’t have a desire to improve, you might want to take up a different game. The rules of poker are very simple. You can learn them in a matter of minutes. The nuances involved are endless. Ask any pro player if they are as good as they can be at poker and I promise that every single one of them will tell you that they are constantly trying to improve their game. That’s what winners do.

As I left the conference I asked myself if I felt that I had all 6 of these traits. I believe that I have all of these traits inside me, they just don’t always show up at the same time. One day I may have 4 with me. Another day, only 2. But I promise you this, I always have the desire to improve!

Here is a list of 4 things that will affect the way you play before you even sit down.

1. Your mood
When you get to the casino to play poker, the mood you arrive in is important. Being relaxed with a clear mind is important for making proper decisions at the table. If you just had an argument and you are steaming, sitting down to play poker is likely a losing proposition.

2. How much time you have
When you are heading to the poker table, always try to arrive early enough so that you can play until you are ready to leave rather than being forced to leave because of the time on the clock. If you have only a limited amount of time you may be compelled to play mediocre hands in an effort to see action before it’s time to leave.

3. The stakes
Having a bankroll to match the stakes you are playing is important. Even though you may be perfectly comfortable with the skill level of the players at a certain level, if the limits are higher than your bankroll dictates, you may find yourself laying down a higher percentage of winning hands by playing too cautiously.

4. Your health
While you may not need to do any heavy lifting at the poker table, if you are battling a cold, you are going to have a harder time thinking clearly. You need to be clear and focused to play your A-game. If you aren’t feeling well, take the day off and rest up.

Keep this list in mind before you head to the casino. It could mean the difference between a winning and losing session.

All of these are factors on what makes a good poker player. But, how do you get to that point? One of the key factors is time spent playing the game. Reading books, blogs & forums on poker strategy will only take you so far. But, to really advance at the game of poker, you need to put in the hours at the table. You need to be put to the difficult decisions. You need to stare down hundreds of opponents.

A while back my buddy Scott called and told me he was thinking about quitting his job to play poker full time. I remember my first thought – “You are crazy!” But, fast forward to today and Scott hasn’t posted a losing month. We have talked on the phone almost daily to discuss hands. He values my opinion on situations and I enjoy getting to live vicariously through him as I would love to be playing poker for a living. Even though he calls me looking for my opinion, if you were to ask who is the better player, I’d have to honestly say that he is based on the amount of time he spends actually playing the game.

The point is, to get better at this great game, you have to get out there and play. Start playing at stakes that you can comfortably afford to have several losing sessions and only move up when your confidence, winning session % and bankroll dictate.

The tournament is a celebrity poker tournament with a $500 buy-in, multi-rebuy plus add-ons and has a $40,000 guaranteed in cash and prizes. There is also going to be a sports memorabilia silent auction.

If you are going to be in Vegas in September, you should definitely check it out! Sign up soon as this will definitely sell out!

For more information, visit shelterforhumanity.com

It is the casino’s responsibility to report the winning player’s monetary win to the IRS. The casino would normally issue each winning player a W-2G form for the full amount of their win. The winning player would then add this to their tax return the following April. In the instance where the player has sold part of his action, that player can provide the casino with Form 5754. The casino is then required to issue a W-2G to each person listed on the form.

If you plan to sell a portion of your action to another person or group of people, it’s important to let everybody know ahead of time that they will be responsible for their share of the taxes. Friendships and relationships can be damaged when large sums of money are at stake. Diffuse the situation before it happens by being prepared.

This information is not to be used as tax advise. For all tax related questions, please seek the assistance of a trained tax professional.

© texas-holdem-poker.com
John Hawkins is the writer and editor of Texas-Holdem-Poker.com. Check out
texas-holdem-poker.com for the strategies, tips and tricks that can help bring your poker game to the next level. This article may be reprinted on your Web site if the copyright, author information and active link are included.

The first thing you should do before planning a home poker tournament is to check the laws in your area. Each state and in some places, even the county you live in have laws regarding gambling. In most cases the laws restrict anyone from making a profit from the tournament. This means you can’t charge an extra fee for entering the tournament. Any money collected for entering the tournament should be added to the prize pool and distributed to the winners. Your local laws may differ.

Questions to ask yourself before sending out the invitations:

What game are you going to play?
While there are a great number of different poker games, the most popular version these days is No-Limit Texas Hold ‘em. This is what everybody watches on TV and will likely be familiar to everybody you invite.

How much are we playing for?
A home poker tournament should be more about having a group of friends over and having a good time rather than about winning a large sum of money. Consider the tournament a night of entertainment for your guests. Dinner and a movie will run between $20 – $30 dollars. This is a good place to start and is likely in everybody’s comfort zone.

Will you allow re-buys?
Playing No-Limit Texas Hold ‘em means that it’s possible for players to lose all their chips very quickly. Allowing players to purchase more chips if they lose them all during a specific amount of time is one way to make sure that everybody gets a chance to play for an ample amount of time prior to being relegated to watching the tournament from the sidelines. The other benefit to re-buys is the additional money in the prize pool for the winners. Set the number of rounds for which you will allow re-buys.

Will you allow add-ons?
While a re-buy lets someone buy more chips once they have lost all theirs, an add-on is a way to let all players, regardless of the amount of chips they have, to purchase more chips. There is usually a specific time for making the add-on purchase and once that time has passed, no additional chips can be purchased. At this point, if you lose all your chips, you are out of the tournament for good. It’s typical for re-buys and add-ons to be available for the first hour of play.

How many chips do you get?
The physical number of chips is going to depend on how many chips you own or can borrow. The chip values, in reality don’t matter either since everybody is going to be starting with the same total value in chips. However, to make it easiest on yourself and your players, I suggest keeping to a pretty simple formula. Start each player with $2000 in chips. The configuration that I start each player with looks like this:
(10) $5 chips
(10) $25 chips
(7) $100 chips
(2) $500 chips

In order to make this as easy as possible, make the cost of the initial buy-in, re-buys and add-ons the same cash value and worth the same number of tournament chips.

As a side note, to cut down on the amount of physical chips you will need, for all re-buys and add-ons, either give the player (4) $500 chips or (2) $1000 chips.

What are the blinds?
Here is an example of a relatively simple blind structure:
level 1 – 5/10
level 2 – 10/20
level 3 – 25/50
level 4 – 50/100
level 5 – 100/200
level 7 – 200/400
level 8 – 400/800
level 9 – 800/1600
level 10 – 1600/3200

Each blind level should last 15 to 20 minutes. If the structure above seems to get too high, too fast, you can easily add in the following levels: 75/150, 150/300, 300/600, 500/1000 or as many additional levels as you choose. Just remember, the more levels you add, the longer the game is likely to last.

How many winners will there be?
The number of players who will win part of the prize pool largely depends on how many start the tournament. If there are going to be 10 players or less, I usually do a 60%/40% split of the prize pool for the final 2 players. Between 11 and 30 players, split the prize pool 50%/30%/20%. If your tournament is going to be larger than 30 players, for each 10 additional players, add another payout spot. Take a few percentage points off each of the higher payouts as needed.

Will you be providing refreshments?
Just because you are hosting the tournament, doesn’t mean it’s your job to feed the group. There is nothing wrong with letting your guests know ahead of time that you will provide chips and sodas and that they are welcome to bring food items or beverages of their choosing. Or, ask everybody to pitch in $5 or $10 for food and then plan to order pizza and stock your fridge with sodas and beer.

Now it’s time to send out your invitations. I suggest using a service like evite.com. It’s an easy way to keep track of who’s coming and who isn’t. This will help you in your preparations the day of the tournament. Send out your invites as early as possible giving your guests the best chance to schedule the night out.

What you are going to need on the day of the tournament
By this time you should have a pretty good idea of how many players to expect. Now it’s time to get set up.

Tables: It’s important to consider how many players you can fit around each table. Figure that each table needs to hold an equal amount of players. You will want each table to hold no less than 6 players. Also, plan on covering the tables with either a table-cloth, or if you can purchase a fold-out poker table-top or a poker felt. During the course of the night you will not want to have poker chips, drinks and whatever else sliding across your uncovered table surface.

Chairs: Obviously you want to keep your players as comfortable as possible. Most houses don’t have 20 chairs sitting around, so you may need to buy, borrow or rent enough chairs to handle your tournament size. Folding chairs will run you $8 – $14 each depending on if they have padded seats or not. If you plan on running your home poker tournament on a regular basis, purchasing the chairs may be your best option in the long run.

Poker Chips: Your options for poker chips these days are tremendous. There are literally thousands of sets available on ebay.com and hundreds of online poker supply stores. If you plan on using the poker chips on a regular basis, I strongly suggest you purchase a large enough set to handle at least 50% more players than you are expecting to show up. And, purchase a decent quality chip set. This doesn’t mean you have to go broke, but make sure you are going to be happy with the chips in the long run. I suggest buying at least 11 gram chips or 14 gram chips if you really want a “casino feel” to your chips.

Cards: The saying “you get what you pay for” couldn’t be more true than when it comes to purchasing poker cards. Every poker supply store will sell you “cut” or “stamped” cards real cheap. These are cards that were used by a casino and have been retired. They usually come from the blackjack tables and have seen only 5-6 hours of play. But, these cards will get bent and marked quite easily. I suggest you stick with Bicycle brand plastic playing cards, or if you want to go for the professional feel, search for KEM or Copag cards. These are plastic cards that will not be ruined if a drink is spilled on them, they take back their original shape after being bent and are a solid investment for long term use. These cards will cost you $10-$15 per deck but will save you money in the long run as you won’t be replacing them several times per night like you would with the cheap cards.

One additional item that you may want to have for your poker tournament is a program available for your computer called Poker Tournament Manager. This software will help you keep track of which players have already paid for their buy-in, the chip color/denomination, the blind levels, the payouts and it also keeps track of players’ personal stats including where they have placed in each of your tournaments, their buy-ins and payouts, etc. It also has a timer that keeps track of when the levels are supposed to change. The software also allows you to post each tournament’s stats to their server where you can view all the stats online. I’ve personally used the software for over 2 years and could not see running a tournament without it.

Almost game time
Just before you start the game it is a good idea to take a couple minutes and go over the “house rules.” Remind them of your policy for re-buys and add-ons. Let them know exactly how many places will be being paid out and how long they have to make re-buys or add-ons. See if anyone has any questions before you start.

Seating the players
Players should not be allowed to choose their own seat location. If you picked up the Poker Tournament Manager software, it will randomly seat the players for you. Otherwise, figure out how many tables you are going to have (I’ll assume 2 full tables of 10 players for this example) and then remove the Ace through 10 of two different suits. Mix the cards up face down on the table and have each person select a card. This will be their seat number and table assignment. All the people who chose the same suit will sit at the same table in the order of the rank of their card. You can let the player who drew the Ace choose their seat and then the remaining players would fill in the remaining seats with #2 being on his left, then #3 to his left, etc…

If you are lucky enough to have players who are experienced enough to also know how deal, see if one of them would be willing to be the designated dealer for each table. If so, automatically sit them in seat 1 in the middle of the table giving them the easiest access to deal to the entire table.

If you do not have a designated dealer at the table, it’s best to have 2 decks of cards at each table. Be sure to have recognizably different sets of cards at the table. For example, the backs of one deck can be red and the other deck blue. This will make it nearly impossible for the decks to get mixed up. Decide where the dealing is going to start (typically with the player in seat 1) and give them one of the decks to shuffle and deal. Give the second deck to the player in seat #2. They can shuffle the cards and get them ready for their turn to deal after the conclusion of the current hand.

It’s time to play cards. Shuffle up and deal!

© texas-holdem-poker.com
John Hawkins is the writer and editor of Texas-Holdem-Poker.com. Check out
texas-holdem-poker.com for the strategies, tips and tricks that can help bring your poker game to the next level. This article may be reprinted on your Web site if the copyright, author information and active link are included.