BodogPoker.com has not yet released the full schedule of events, but an official announcement is expected within the next week. Until then, registration for the Bodog Poker Open II Main Event is present in the Bodog Poker lobby, under “Scheduled Tournaments > BPO”.

Satellites to the Bodog Poker Open II Main Event are also ongoing. If you’d like to take a shot at winning a seat in the BPO II Main Event, there’s no better time to start carving that path to victory.

The inaugural Bodog Poker Open, hosted in March of 2008, was a 6-event tournament ending with the BPO Main Event, worth $305,120. 596 participants took to the online poker tables, building the prize pool on top of Bodog Poker’s added $25,000.

A lot of familiar names remained as the final table converged, but it came down to heads-up play between “phatcat” and “_TheFinisher_” to determine the historic first-ever winner of the BodogLive Poker Open.  When the smoke cleared, it was “phatcat” who devoured the competition, tasting a $76,280 slice of the prize pool pie.

To commemorate the victory, BodogPoker awarded “phatcat” an engraved Omega Speed Master wrist watch, valued at over $4,000.

It will be interesting to see what BodogPoker has in store for the online poker community as we anticipate the release of the BodogPoker Open II schedule of events.

What this really mean is that someone’s introducing a stacked deck into play. This can advantage both players and casinos. Casinos? Yes, Casinos.

Player Advantage
In home games, usually the dealer button is rotated around the table along with the cards and everybody takes turns at dealing. Your sly friend has another deck sitting under the table that has been stacked to his advantage and he gives this the old switch-a-roo to get it up on the table. He then gives the deck a quick false shuffle, a few false cuts and deals the cards. Low n Behold, he’s got pocket Aces, and takes down the pot.

Casino Advantage
When I say “casino” here, I mean the term in the loosest sense possible. Any poker games that are collecting rake are casinos here, including your beloved poker rooms, Bodog.com and PokerStars.com.
I am not saying that all casinos do it (though, I am quite sure there are a few that do), but it is quite feasible, especially in online poker rooms. Basically, cold-decking in this sense would not be favorable to any one player in particular. Rather, it would give a couple of players significantly strong hands, in order to promote aggressive betting (in fact, in online poker, it’d be feasible for the cards to be dealt to the most statistically-proven aggressive players) in order to build a larger pot. As you all know, a larger pot = a larger rake. (For those that are still not following, a larger rake = more money for the casinos!)

I could go on and on at how people can rip you off at pocker… But then this site wouldn’t be about poker, it’d be about card manipulation!

By now, you should be able to discern between whether or not your opponent has a strong hand, or a weak hand. You may not (yet) know how to use this to your advantage besides when not to call, but it’s time to learn about when to bet. A perfect metaphor for bluffing is as follows (I think it was Daniel Negreanu who said it):

Bluffing is like a story. You’re trying to convince the other player that you’ve got X,Y cards when you’ve really got A,B cards. You do this by betting - through a beginning, middle and an end.

Here’s what I call blatant stupidity:
You’re at www.PokerStars.de playing the board & the flop, turn and river have all come down - every round has been checked - and now the river is knocked onto you, sitting on the button. What do you do? Throw in a bet, about the pot-size, in the hopes of stealing the pot. Stupid. More than likely someone will call you on your bluff with a mediocre pair, or even ace high. You told an unconvincing story.

Here’s how to bluff properly in poker:
Ideally, you should start your bluff pre-flop. (Starting after the flop is fine too, if there are few players left in the pot already) Tell your story - you raise 3x the big blind, everyone folds with the exception of one other player.
It’s now heads up poker on Poker Stars.de; you’re holding 3,8o and your opponent is holding A10d. Flops falls Q, 10, 3. You caught a pair, but so did your opponent. You throw 5,500 into a pot that’s now 9,000. Your opponent calls. Turn: Q. Now, you can throw in another bet (remember, you can probably guess that your opponent doesn’t have top pair or better, otherwise he’d have re-raised with his nice kicker that he would *have* to be holding) or you can check and see what he does. Checking is the wrong move - you’ll show him weakness and he’ll probably bet to see where his two pair is at anyway (and then you’ll either have to fold or re-raise him to save/win your money) Throw out your bluff (which will always be the final bet in this situation), and you’ll chase your opponent out of the pot.

Yes, bluffing does require a lucky flop sometimes. But hey, you still had the worse hand and told your story to your opponent who now thinks he “read” you like a picture book. Don’t show your hand, you’ll only show that you’re being an ass

If you’re only looking for fun (or are a novice), then you shouldn’t invest more than what is “fun” to lose. You can also play for free at Full Tilt Poker and PokerStar.net.We understand that it’s never fun to lose, but I guess this amount is just something that you’re not going to worry about if you do lose it.

If you’re looking to play a little more seriously, and actually use it to earn a consistent income, then you’d better be prepared to manage your finances properly! Be prepared to bank 300 big bets (big blinds) at the specific limit that you’re playing. If you’re playing 2/4$, you should have a bankroll of $1200 (simple math: 4*300). This will prevent you from losing your entire bankroll because you were stiffed.

It’s a great idea to take note of your session records. The way I did this was to create an Excel spreadsheet, with a column for Date, Buy-In, Cash-Out. Down the bottom is an aggregate “score”, if you will, of how much you’ve lost/won in total. It’s also handy for tax purposes!

In texas hold em (a poker variant), players receive 2 down-cards as their personal hand (also known as hole cards), after which there is a betting round. 3 community cards are turned simultaneously (called the flop) and another then betting round occurs. The next 2 community cards are turned 1 at a time, with a betting round after each. A player may use any five-card combination from among the community cards and their hole cards. A player can even use all community cards and no hole cards to form their hand (known as “playing the board”). There’s a dealer button to indicate where the deal starts. Usual rules includes the use of 2 blinds (’small’ and ‘big’), but it is possible to play poker with 1 blind, multiple blinds, an ante, or combination of blinds plus an ante.

The object of the game is to form the best possible five card poker hand. This can be achieved through using a combination of your own hole cards and the community cards. Whoever has the strongest hand takes down the pot.

Betting Rounds
1.The dealer deals each player their own 2 hole cards face down.
2.1st betting round (known as the pre-flop betting round)
3.The dealer burns a card then turns over 3 community cards. (known as the flop)
4.2nd betting round
5.The dealer burns 1 card, then flips over 1 as a community card (the turn)
6.3rd betting round
7.The dealer burns 1 card, then flips over 1 community card (the river)
8.Last betting round
9.Showdown (Remaining players show their hand. The aggressor/bettor must show his hand first)

Hypothetically, you’re in a game at www.PokerStars.net with 5 other players at the poker table. The hole cards have been dealt and you take a look: Jh3h. The pot is $15 after the blinds. The 3rd and 4th position fold while the last player calls, you follow, making 35$ total.

The flop is: 9hQdQh. You’ve got a relatively decent chance of making a flash draw (~35%) and it will be Jack high (technically, Queen high. But because everyone plays that card… you get the idea.)

You watch the action: the SB bets folds, BB bets 40, the last player folds, and the ball is in your court. Do you call or fold?

Gut reaction is call; your chances of completing a flush are decent, and there’s an outside (real outside) chance of completing either a straight or a straight-flush. Whilst it’s true that other players could be holding either a full book, or a higher flush, there’s very little chance of this.

Pot odds would advise you to fold. Your instinct is right, though, this is not a hand you should back away from. The potential winnings you will get from completing you flush, make up for the difference in the call.

The dealer flips the turn – 4h. You’ve got your flush but keep your face blank. Big blind calls, the other player calls – you raise to $15. As expected, the blind checks but your opponent meets your bet. After the river, the blind folds while your loose opponent checks. You call; your opponent calls and you show your flush – his cards turn out to be Queen-high trips. In the end, you win a hell of a lot more than the original $55 that you would have folded on.

Lets start with an example:

You have AJs in late position, a full 2/4 NL game. There are 3 limpers, you raise to 15, and only one player calls. The flop comes out 2, 7, 10. Rags. Your opponent has checked, and now you’ve got two options:

• Check in turn, and show weakness.
• Throw out a continuation bet. Most of the time you’ll take the pot down.

You need to understand that this continuation bet does not mean you should start a betting war every, single time that you raise at Poker Stars. It’s sole purpose is to steal as many pots as possible, whilst masking hand-strength. If someone re-raises, and you haven’t hit, run!

In this article, I will just teach you quite an easy way to calculate poker odds at the table. This will give you a fairly accurate idea of what your odds will be. The downside to this shortcut is that it is not 100% accurate, but it is very, very close to the real odds if you were to calculate them the long(er) way.

You may be asking why knowing your odds is so important. This is simple really, by knowing your chances of completing your hand and winning the pot, this will give you good information so that you can make informed decisions about when to call, and in the long run make you a consistent winner.

As an example, if you were to gamble at FullTiltPoker on something as simple as a flip of a coin, you would be expecting 1:1 on your money as there is a 50% chance of it being either heads or tails. If you played this all night you should break even. Now for arguments sake somebody offered you 2:1 on your money based on a coin flip this would make it a very profitable thing to play. In theory you should lose half of the flips - but the ones that you do win, you will be making 2:1 on your money and, in the long run, come out in front.

The first thing you will need to know when calculating the chances of making your hand are your outs. What cards will make my hand?

For instance if you are holding two hearts, and the flop also contains to hearts you are drawing to a flush with two cards still to come. Now there are still 9 hearts in the deck that can complete the flush for you.

In the short cut method I am about to teach you consider each of your outs to be worth 2% then multiply that by how many cards are still to come. So for your flush draw you calculation should be as follows

9 outs X 2% = 18% 18% X two cards to come = 36%

As you can see you have about a 36% (By calculating the long way you will find your odds are 35%, so you can see the shortcut is very close) chance of making your hand, which means you will make it about 1/3 of the times you play it.

Does this mean I should only call one in every three times I flop a flush draw?

No, the answer to that question is you should call based on the pot odds.

Pot odds sound scary but are very simple, they are merely just the money in the pot (plus the bet) in ratio to how much it will cost you to call.

For instance, if there is $40 in the pot and your opponent bets $10 the pot odds are 5:1, which means you will need to win the hand 1 out of every 6 times to break even.

Now you know that you are going to make your flush and win the pot 1 out of every 3 times, so in the long run you will make a tidy profit if your opponent offers you odds like this.

So as you can see if the pot odds are greater than the odds of making your hand you should call as in the long run this is profitable. But if the pot odds are shorter than your hand odds you should generally fold.

Of course this is just a quick guide so that you know how to calculate poker odds for your own use. You will need to consider many more aspects of the hand at Poker Stars.com before deciding whether to call, fold or raise. Things such as “implied odds” need to be taken into account, and of course the obvious things such as if your opponent is bluffing.

I will go into more depth about pot odds and ‘implied odds’ in the coming weeks, but for now I want you to get just a general idea about how to use pot odds and give you the basic calculation to assist you in your game play.

Keep updated for more articles about pot odds and ‘implied odds” in the coming weeks

Poker Terms to know:

• Under the Gun - First person to act pre-flop. (Person after big blind)
• Middle Position - 2nd to 5th after BB.
• Late position - anything after middle position, right back round to the dealer button.
• Full-Ring - This means the table is full, it has 10 players.
• Short-handed - Fewer players, ~5 or 6.

Under the Gun.

You really cannot limp with anything shy of a good poker hand. How do you know what a ‘good’ hand is in this particular situation? Put it this way: is this the sort of hand that you’d call a raise with?

A lot of players at FullTiltPoker and other poker strategy articles will tell you not to limp, at all. I can’t agree with this strategy whole heartedly; to the contrary, I feel a call (under the gun) of moderate suited connectors is usually not a waste of money. The underlying principle is that because there are so many players still to act, it’s more likely that a raise will occur and you’ll be forced to muck your mediocre hand.

Middle Position.

Generally, raise with pockets over 7’s, and any AJ or higher (AJ, AQ, AK). Of course, you must also keep in mind (when raising) who has already called. Note how many callers have called before you. If there aren’t any, raising with your big Ace is not so strongly advised. You still want to see the flop.

Late Position.

Again, you must observe the number of callers prior to you. Are there a lot of limpers? Play your weaker hands.

As a general rule, you must remember that small blind and the other early positions are the worst positions to be in, and the dealer is always the best seat. (last to act.) You must also understand though, that there are large advantages in acting and betting first - it is much harder to call a bet, than it is to make one.