Bulldog Poker Bonuses

Looking For Bodog Poker?

Web Site Categories

• Bulldog Poker Strategy
• Online Poker Articles

Best Bulldog Poker Site

Blogroll

• Free Poker Bankroll
• PKR Download
• Poker Bankroll
• UK Poker Player

Online Poker Table Selection Advice

Picking the right table on which to play your online poker can have a very positive effect on your wealth, depending on the style of player that you are and how you approach your game. Whereas poker rooms are keen to offer a wide variety of promotional opportunities to attract players to their sites, the most effective use of your time is to play poker on the tables which will be most lucrative to you.

In this respect, when first entering the game lobby, you should look for the tables which have the highest “player per flop” statistics in your stake range (stake range being determined by the size of your bankroll).

Most web site allow this column in the lobby to be manipulated in such as way that the highest percentage shows at the top of the page and you do not have to go scrolling all the way through hundreds of short stacked tables with low figures. These tables are ideal for tight players, both passive and aggressive, who will wait patiently for the premium hands to come along and then make the most of them. Aggressive players may feel that the best opportunities for them lie on tables with lower “player per flop” statistics, however you also have to consider the average value of the pots and number of hands being played each hour. If the pots are paying peanuts because there are so few players in them, it is not worth participating at these tables.

The best approach is to join the waiting list for the table (if necessary – or just sit out until the Big Blind), and spend a few minutes studying the players to determine what has caused such a high percentage figure. Because these figures relate to the average number of players seeing flop over the past hour, it might be that the opportunity has gone, or that you can see a number of other players who have already identified the opportunity and are sitting patiently, waiting for their premium hand before they get involved. However, if you do witness a procession of players limping into the flop, you have found your potential goldmine.

The reason that these types of tables are regarded as the best to play on, is because the more players going into a pot, the better value for the player who wins it. If you are aware of the odds of winning a hand and, more importantly, the “expected value”, over a period of time your poker play will be profitable.

Normally, you will find tables with high percentages of players seeing flop at the lower stakes, although it is worth looking in the mid-stakes games if you budget can afford it. Quite often, the tables have a selection of new or inexperienced players who are keen to see flop as often as possible, and by betting strongly with your premium hands, you will get incredible value from your poker. Do not overlook the value of the pots and the number of hands per hour – it is not only the number of players in a game that will make you the most money!

Choosing The Right Poker Site

Playing your first online cash games can be a daunting experience. Irrespective of whether you have played on the sites´ play tables or not before you make your first deposit, it is still foreign ground for many people, and like most things in life, the key tool for your success is preparation. There are a few guidelines you might like to follow before taking the plunge:-

The first thing is to select the right web site to play on. Every online poker room will try to attract you with fantastic initial deposit bonuses and loyalty programs, but you need to find out if the bonus is attainable for the amount of time you intend to be playing. For example, if you feel that you will just be playing low stakes games for a couple of hours a week, being offered “Double Your Money” on a $1.000 deposit is pretty meaningless if you need to turn the funds over twenty times in sixty days to qualify.

So, looking beyond the initial bonus, what standard of play will you find on the site? The looser the play, the more value you will get when you win. Poker rooms associated with sports betting web sites usually have a lower level of player, as they tend to migrate from the betting area of the site onto the poker as an afterthought, or when there is nothing left to bet on! In any respect, the poker is not their prime consideration.

However, on these sites, you may have to wait to find a full table to play on or a game to start, as the poker sites are not that well populated outside of peak hours (European evening and Sundays). So, should you go to one of the larger dedicated poker sites? Well, that is going to depend on what reward structure they are going to give you for playing on their site.

“Rakeback” or “Cashback” is becoming a very popular concept, whereby players receive money back against the rake they have paid to join a SnG or tournament, or that has been deducted from the pot during a ring game. Even if you only intend playing for those few hours each week, you will be surprised how quickly rakeback can accumulate – but not all web sites offer it!

It is fair to say that there is no “One Size Fits All” online poker site. You have to consider all the above factors, plus any ongoing promotions, and select the one that suits you best. If you prefer games other than Texas Hold´em, make sure that there is a strong enough clientele online at the time that you want to play and at the stake level you want to play at.

Choosing The Right Online Poker Name

Choosing the right poker name can be much harder than you imagine. If you are going to make it right to the highest echelons in the world of online poker, do you want to be forever known as “ILuVmyNan”? For as much as she may be a splendid woman, you should try to promote something positive about your poker play.

Your name and avatar are the first impression of you that other poker players get, so avoid ridiculous pseudonyms and images that may suggest you are less than serious about the game, and also names you cannot live up to. There is nothing as humiliating as getting beaten on a stupid bet and then having salt rubbed into the wound by an uncompassionate opponent.

Even subconsciously, your name will create an impression – much like subliminal marketing that companies use to get their brands recognised – so names that represent strength, dependability and  competence go a fair part of the way to establishing you as a formidable adversary.

A look around the tables on any site will show you who has put some thought into the construction of their profile, and who was just too lazy to be bothered. Being lazy with names does not mean you are necessarily a poor player, it just implies that if you cannot put the effort into creating an online persona, you may have taken equally as little consideration when it came to learning how to master the game.

You will be surprised how many people you frequently find on the same tables as you. Some players like tournaments, other SnGs and others stick to cash games. Some play at certain times of the day because of work or personal commitments, others because they live in a different time zone. So although there might be a hundred thousand people registered to your poker room, and twenty thousand of them online right now, when you are playing at the same stake levels at the same time of day in the same type of competition, you will come across players time and time again. If you can get your screen name and avatar to connect with them, it automatically gives you an edge.

An intelligent or humorous use of words that shows you know something about the game and/or its history will help you get remembered, and if you play consistent, solid poker other players will come to respect you as a good player before they have to look at their notes to remember who you are.

Something that portrays strength and excellence shuld do the trick, kind of lke a Bulldog Poker avatar and Fido as a name perhaps?

Poker Genealogy – It’s Not Your Fault You Suck

Some things are genetically passed down from our parents- blond hair, blue eyes, knobbly knees etc. But you may also discover that an ability in maths or a pragmatic way in which you approach problems may also be inherited from your ancestors. You may never have considered this before, but the way you were raised may directly be having an effect on the way you play poker.

One of the best examples of this is the Sexton family of poker pros connected to FullTiltPoker.com. Father, Keith moved the family to Las Vegas in 1988 to benefit from the real estate boom that was happening at the time. He was already a keen Stud poker player, but developed his Hold´em game to such an extent that he has three final table finishers at the WSOP. Keith´s two sons, Matt and Paul are also pros on FullTiltPoker.com, with joint winnings of over $200.000, and on their success Paul is quoted as saying that “Poker was big in my family”. Too right!

Another family home in which poker was regularly played was the Obrestad´s in Sadnes, Norway. It was here that Annette Obrestad (aka “Annette_15”) learnt Seven Card Stud from her father at a very young age before using that education to become one of the most feared women poker players in the world. With lifetime earnings in excess of $4million, that upbringing can only be described as valuable. Annette is also a regular player on FullTiltPoker.com.

However, maybe the most famous example of a poker giant who grew up with it in his veins is Phil Ivey. Often described as the world’s leading poker player, Phil learnt how to play five card stud from his grandfather when just a kid in New Jersey. The story goes that Phil´s grandfather used to cheat on the lad to give him a negative impression of gambling. However that did not stop Phil, who acquired a fake ID to play in the casinos of Atlantic City before moving on to Las Vegas and his first WSOP bracelet at just 21 years of age. Phil is one of the Full Tilt Poker “Team” and plays his online poker exclusively at FullTiltPoker.com

It was Sigmund Freud who first developed the theories concerning the effect a child´s formative years has on later development, and although negative traits can be trained out, and positive ones installed, our subconscious still has a major influence over the way we problem-solve and react to situations.

It is worth looking at your game and thinking about any weaknesses you may have. If you can see where they originate from, the next time you suffer a bad beat, don´t blame the cards – blame your mother!

Poker Playing Styles: Aggressive Players

Aggressive poker players fall between two extremes – tight and loose – and at either end of these distinctions you will find exceptionally difficult competitors to play against. However, they do have their weaknesses, and by exploring their strengths, one can discover where they are left wanting when it comes to being the all-round, complete poker player.

The best of the world’s player are frequently “Tight Aggressive” (TAG) or as we like to call them Bulldog Poker Players. They enter very, very few hands, and only when they know that they have an edge – either in the quality of the premium hand that they hold or from their position against a weak table – will they bet with strength. They have outstanding patience, are aware of pot odds and expected value and are nearly always profitable at full ring games.

Their style of play leaves very few flaws in their game; however they can be vulnerable to tight passive players or “slow players”, and also run the risk of being blinded out when a Sit ´n´ Go or tournament becomes short-handed, due to the minimal number of hands they contest. The best way of dealing with an extremely tight aggressive player is to fold whenever you see them enter a hand. It will not be that frequently, as they play so few, so there will be plenty of other opportunities to get involved at a later stage.

Loose Aggressive players are easily identifiable. They are the “bullies” who come to the table with the biggest stacks, raise pre-flop on most hands, try to steal blinds from out of position and generally inhibit other players from playing their own game. In some respects, this is a successful strategy, but rarely is it profitable in the long-term. Bullies tend to be more commonly found on short-handed tables where the possibility of somebody drawing a premium hand is lower, and will win large or lose larger when somebody takes them on.

It is their habit of gambling against the odds which is the Achilles Heel of the loose aggressive player. Their aim is to acquire more money when they are on a winning streak than they will lose should the cards fall against them, and they can inflate or demolish your bankroll (and their own) within a matter of hands. But, similar to their tighter counterparts, loose aggressive players are also vulnerable to passive players taking a pot at showdown.

The most difficult players to read are the most accomplished – those who can be tight aggressive through the early stages of a competition, and then strike out once in the bubble. Conversely, you may consider a player to be over aggressive in the early confrontations, only to find that once they have established a chip lead at a table, they tend to play significantly tighter. Ideally you will watch for these trends and be able to take advantage of them when the opportunity is presented.

« Previous Page — Next Page »