Poker Decadence Conference

The holidays are coming up. They provide a chance to have fun and hang out with your family, friends, and loved ones. One great way to have fun is by playing Merry Christmas Poker, which happens to be a variation on the oh so fun Pass the Trash version of poker.

You begin by getting a group together, of course. This game utilizes seven cards, so you need seven players.

Each player will gen seven cards, face down. They can take a look at their hand after it is dealt. Then everyone gets to bet, starting with the person at the dealer’s left.

Now, every place has to pass three cards to his or her left.

This is followed by a second round of betting; now, betting is initiated by the player two seats to the dealer’s left.

This time, two cards get passed to the left.

Next comes the third betting round. You guessed it — third player to the dealer’s left starts.

And you guessed it again — this time, one card gets passed to the left.

After this comes the last round of betting, started by the fourth person to the dealer’s left.

At this point, everyone reveals their hands and gets to declare their hands. Whoever has the best poker hand gets to split the pot with the player sitting to the right of them.

In cards, few things are constant, few things are always true. One true thing is that if you do not fully comprehend the suits and the ranks of the cars, then you will not be a good poker player — period.

This probably seems obvious, but not everyone out there is an expert. It does not take much to understand that, yes, the different suits include hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs, but card ranking and what constitutes a good hand can get confusing.

Sure, one pair is pretty self explanatory; so are two pair. Three of a kind is obvious. But many people who are not yet frequent poker players do not know, for instance, that a royal flush beats all else. It takes everything. Royal flushes consist of a ten, jack, queen, king, and ace, all in the same suit. A straight flush is just down from the royal; it consists of any five cards of the same suit in numerical order. A straight by itself can contain cards in any suit. A standard flush must contain five cards of the same suit but not necessarily in order.

What are pocket rockets? Pocket aces, and if you get them during the preflop, it is cause for subtle celebration. That is unequivocally the best starting hand you can possibly get — but it does not mean you will win, not unless you know what to do.

You have to raise under these circumstances. The key is to drive as many of your opponents out of the game as you possibly can.

But you have to be smart here, you have to be down right psychological. As stated before, a pair of aces does not mean you are guaranteed to win.

After raising initially, you have to start calculating odds, based on how many of the other players, if any, were intimidated by that rise.

Picking out the poker tells of the people you play with — not to mention learning to identify your own — can seriously give you the upper hand. It can even be the key to coming out on top in a tough game.

It is all about reading body language. The guy who covers his mouth may be trying to hide a frown or a smile, denoting a bad or a good hand respectively. Pay attention to his eyes as well.

If someone is trying to engage you in a serious stare down, he or she is likely trying to intimidate you. Don’t fall for it!

You need to pay attention to how your opponents behave during the flop, as well. Look for involuntary twitches of dismay. Remember that typically, if a player sneaks a look at his or her chips after the flop, it may denote a good hand.

What is the first thing that you think about whenever you think about poker news?  For me, it is all about the poker hall of fame and wouldn’t you know it, Mike Sexton actually just got inducted into the poker hall of fame and honestly, I think that is pretty awesome.  For those of you that have no idea who Mike Sexton is – he is actually a spokesman for the Party Poker.

There were actually nine different finalists that were up for election for the hall of fame, a panel of 15 living members and 15 media members which were all allowed to vote for up to three different people. 

Sexton was actually the only member in this particular year that received the most votes out of all of them.  He deserves it!

Being at the top of your game is something that Tom McEvoy knows all about.  This is a guy that is actually one of the world’s most known poker players and I have to say that – he has certainly succeeded in his life as apoker player.  He was actually the first to win a WSOP from just having entered a satellite tourney.

With this, he has actually created quite the poker history for himself.  He was born and raised in Grand Rapids and I have to say that this guy is on fire.  Michigan is certainly my home state and I am so proud that Tom McEvoy came out of it!

So if you are looking for a challenge, Tom McEvoy is definitely the challenge of the day!

When you are a brand new poker player, there are a ton of different feelings that you are going to experience and different emotions that you are going to go through – it is just natural.  However, in this blog we are going to teach you got you can take those nerves and emotions and turn them into nothing.  Poker is a hard game, which is the first thing that you need to realize and admit to yourself, you are not going to learn it in the first go.

Next, you do not want to pressure yourself by comparing all of those beautiful skills you have against another player’s that is more skilled because of practice.  You are still a newbie and you just need to accept that.  It will come with time and as soon as you get good enough, another new player will be comparing their skills to yours.

Finally – relax, it is supposed to be a fun game and while you might have some money in it, relax and it will get easier!

Poker, as we talked about in the last blog is not something that is easy – it is not something that you can just pick up and play, it is something that takes skills … a lot of skills actually.  For example, do you know how to figure out the hand that your opponent has?  There is a way and honestly, I think that you can learn it – you just have to have an open mind and let yourself learn it.

If you look closely at your opponent, you will notice twitches in his/her facial expression that will tell the strength of the person’s hand.  That is what you need to make sure that you get rid of – because they are probably watching you; however most people are not even aware of it.

The smallest twitch of a smile or the smallest sigh can really mean that they have a good hand or a bad hand – so make sure that you truly do pay attention!

When I think about poker – there are quite a few things on my mind.  The game of poker itself is one of those things that while many people understand it, many people don’t understand it either. 

That is what it is all about.  Poker is certainly a game of mystery and absolutely a game that you can get sucked into.  Whether you are winning or losing, poker is a game that will forgive you and kick you all over again.

That is the thing that you need to remember whenever you are losing in the game of poker, it will pick up again.  Poker always picks up again and it is the most fickle game out there – remember that.

There are so many different reasons to raise in poker, however – do you know the secret to the art of raising?  I didn’t until I actually looked it up and researched it a little bit.  There are actually five major reasons in which you should raise – did you know that?  The reasons are going to be listed over the next five blogs and you should do well to pay attention to this one, as they are certainly some of the best reasons in the world!

One of the major reasons to raise is to get more money into your hand – that is the obvious reason right?  You want to make the pot bigger so that when you win the pot, you will be able to take home more money.  However, that is not always the case because you do not always win – remember that.

In the next blog, we are going to talk about the next of the five major reasons why you should raise and after that?  You’ll be able to know all about raising and you will improve as a poker player!