NoPokerFace.net

Just a quick post to let you all know about what's new on the NoPokerFace.net website and other sites we manage.

First off, we added a couple of new pages on NPF. We added a page explaining Where to play poker online, that's also available in French at Comment jouer au poker en ligne sur Internet.

We then added a page with information to buy poker chips sets , and in French où acheter une malette de poker.

On Rush Poker For The Player, we added a page about Rush Poker Tournaments, and we will soon be adding an ebook about rush poker strategy.

In a single-table tourney, your chip stack (how much cash you have compared to your opponents at any given point) relative to other players is the most significant aspect of the game.

Chip stacks bears a substantial impact on the hands you wish to play and the method you bet those hands after you jump right into the pot.

Your chip stack matters a lot. As you move on through a tourney, two players frequently acquire bigger stacks than other players in the table. Watch any growing giants closely. If they seem to seek to bully people a little, try not to stay in the middle of a hand where there is a head-to-head battle.  You must watch King Kong vs. Godzilla from a safe distance. You shouldn't be running among the civilians of New York getting trampled by those huge feet.

Determining your chip stack

To find the latest standings for the tournament, head to the tourney lobby. (The lobby is likely the place where you previously registered for the poker tournament.).  You can see the list of players registered with the tournament, as well as the blind amounts (during play at any moment), the start time, and the size of stack size owned by each player. Although the info itself is easy to grasp, the way it influences the game is a little more subtle.

To fully understand your chip stack, you should consider a few factors:

• Any big discrepancies between the stacks
• The blind sizes compared to your chip stack and other small stacks
• Your standing compared to any stacks

Pay attention to opponents with big chip leads or those falling quickly behind; both have a moderate tendency to over-bet the hand. If you have a superior hand, you shouldn't be afraid to go up against those desperados; in fact, you need to raise when you have the opportunity to show you are serious about that hand.

Always have a general idea about the number of level big blinds your current stack is equal to. If you have less than ten big blinds worth of chips, you should be ready to swing directly into the “5-to-10” rule, which prescribes that you conserve chips followed by an aggressive stance when you have a good hand.

Leading a single-table tourney in the initial stages does not do much for you, other than the mental comfort that usually comes with knowing you are not losing the game.

If you ever find yourself down after an early knock or two - particularly if an opponent knows that you are bluffing - tighten your playing style considerably and wait for high quality hands. Don’t guard the blind if you have mediocre hands. Once again, you want to conserve your chips to use them only if they can bring you more chips later.

Finally, you are good and ready to play for real in cash games. The time has finally come and the bell has tolled. Get yourself and your cash ready; you are about to break into the low-stakes tables.  In the real life poker world, low-limit usually means anything below $6/$12.
Occasionally you can find real life poker limits at $2/$4 for Omaha and Hold 'Em and maybe a Stud game at $1/$2. The cyberspace gives you a whole lower spectrum of poker world, sometimes starting at $0.01/$0.02. (The site's main menu always informs you the available limits - just choose a game type and see the bottom of the list.) People refer to anything under $1/$2 as micro-limit and call anything from $1/$2 to $5/$10 as low-limit.

Micro-limits

In the micro-limits, the playing level typically isn't too high. These games tend to be quite easy to beat; good for boosting the ego of a skilled player. Players at this level are substantially more sociable than their bigger-monies counterpart on the higher-limit tables.

Another good feature of micro-limit games is that the house frequently doesn't take a rake (meaning that the poker site doesn't take a percentage of each pot). Most sites do not take a rake until the pot hits $1, and if you choose to play in the fixed-limit poker games with stakes of $0.02 / $0.04, well, the pot will never get that big. Rakes normally don't amount too much, but when you just begin and have just enough skill to beat your fellow players, you'll be happy you don't need to outpace the rake. If a few extra cents in your online poker account make you happier, this will be a good thing.  Don't ignore the difference between the $0.02 /$0.04 games and the $30/ $60 games. Your successes at the micro-limit games do not mean you are automatically in par with those heavy hitters. Micros are played a lot more loosely than the upper-class games. The level of play rises in accordance to the limit on the tables.

Low-limits

If you have played low-limits in the real life poker environment, the playing experience on the cyberspace should seem very comparable. The most visible difference is the quality of player. In the real life poker world, we encounter some really good players at the lowest limit games. They just practice to improve their skill and prey on the clumsiness of low-limit beginners.

You do not find these seasoned players on the cyberspace as much. The level of play on low-limit online poker tables seems to be substantially lower.  A percentage of those people may be players who want to see some action above the micro-limits but simply don't have enough skills to match the new limits.

Due to the mediocre playing style, low-limit online games are probably the most profitable place you can have when we consider the amount of profit you can make each hour relative to the limits.

Where to play?

Good places to start playing at low stakes cash games includes PokerStars, Party Poker and Aced Poker.

(Contribution by TJ)

Before you take the plunge into cash poker games, you can take these steps to prepare yourself:

• Prepare yourself psychologically to lose a few games. Raw statistics inform you that you will lose periodically. If you play in a no-limit game and you lose the all-in bet to a weak hand, you need to shrug it off. In the end, you win more games than you lose by keeping a solid, strong playing style. When you are playing poker, you should focus on your long-term poker playing skill. Keep the bigger picture in mind.
• Choose the limits in accordance to your bankroll balance. You need to have adequate cash to withstand the swings of fortune. You should begin with three hundred big bets in the limit play (if you choose to play $1 / $2, that means six hundred dollars), ten full buy-ins in the no-limit play (fifty dollars if you want to join a table that allows a five dollars max buy-in), or twenty tournament buy-ins in tournament play. Every time you lose twenty-five percent of your bankroll, step down to the lower limit play, continue doing so until you are able to win regularly.
• Get a poker diary in shape and you are ready to go. You can't really be fully aware of your winnings and losses if you don't establish a reliable way to track them. Excel files come in handy for this.
• Make a cozy poker nest. You are going to be spending many hours in front of your PC, so make it comfortable and play-friendly. Comfortable chair, big enough screen and anything else that could give a slight edge.
• In the ring games, do remember that you can easily switch tables. You have to understand you may not be the greatest player on the cyberspace - and you may not even be the most skilled player at your table. If the current game you're playing at seems too hard, make organized notes on the good players you find (in case you encounter them in the future) and move along to a less demanding game.

It may sound stupid, I know, but the most crucial thing about playing poker for money is to take the online poker game seriously.  Because you only observe it as chips icons on your computer screen, your cash may feel fake, but it certainly does not feel that way if you lose it and then take have to stare at a big fat zero in the cashier afterward.

When you lose in online poker, you lose real money. If you ever feel that you don't care much about the final result of a game or hand (or worse, you seek to lose a few games just to clear an account you have set up with a poker site), just log out, play some PC games to take away your boredom and come back later. Winning online poker is hard enough without adding up a financially apathetic behavior to the mix.

(Contribution by TJ)
Well, the chips are absolutely free, for starters, and nobody can beat the price. These are a few positive aspects of free chips.

Help you to adapt to a new site

Each time you try out a new poker site, you should try it with free chips first. Regardless of how many poker sites you've played previously, and no matter how good a player you claim to be, you have to play for free to get a good feel for the interface of the new site. Many poker sites have visible differences and the differences appear in the user interaction, general look and speed of play. Play with the free chips to get accustomed with the new dynamics.

When you are practicing for the upcoming hard currency play, you need to be certain to play the hand the same way you usually do at the money table. Then, you can be sure to fully try all the controls and have all things work the way you want with no surprises.

Learning the new game

If you tired of playing Hold 'Em and want to try out Omaha, free chips are a great way to do it. You will get the full action and the full game dynamic with none of the financial risks associated with the general game rule. You will also find it easier to obtain tips and advices from more experienced players at the free chip table. (Go easy on the amount of credit you give for the advice, you do sometime get what you pay for.)

Adjusting to online playing speed

If you haven't tried online poker before, but you are familiar with a poker game you want to play, the greatest benefit of playing with free chips is getting accustomed with the pace of online poker. You play your hands about twice as fast in online game as you do in the real life poker, and you unquestionably want to get accustomed with that level of speed before you start playing for real with hard currency.

Free chips share the same problem with that familiar hall monitor in the elementary school: Free chips have no true authority, because nobody takes them seriously enough. You may expect a 'fixed limit' $5 / $10 hard cash Hold 'Em poker game to collect an average pot size of approximately $100. In a free chip games, 'fixed limit' $5 / $10 game, the pot size frequently swells to $400. People raise, stay in, and play more garbage hands.

This type of poker game sounds dopey, sure, but fake chips lure you to make those types of calls. Too much eating candy eventually decays your teeth; too much fake chip play eventually ruins your motivation and playing skill. Your playing style gets loose; your assessment gets buggy; and then you're curious why you can't win consistently again when you move over to hard cash games.

Simply put, if your purpose is to win hard cash games, you should use those free chips only until you fully understand the site mechanics and the game dynamics. After you are accustomed with the online poker dynamics, move to small-limit games to play with real cash. Moving up only if you get comfortable with the game is a great thing you can do to maintain your financial condition, especially if you are a novice.

Yes, it is perfectly possible to be able to consistently win money from online Poker. In fact, some players actually make a very comfortable living from it.

So, now you're wondering how this is possible, and how you can go about winning money for yourself. Allow me to answer these questions for you...

Why can you win money from Poker?

In a Poker game, everyone is dealt random cards from the deck to play with. Players have no control over the cards they are dealt and the hands they make, but they do have control over the way they check, bet and fold.

Being able to control the way you check, bet and fold means that you can make profitable decisions in each hand. For example, if you have a terrible hand, you should fold in order to save yourself money. If you have a great hand, you should bet in order to try and build the pot and win extra money for yourself.

If you build on this simple principle, you can see why it is possible to consistently win money from Poker. Even though there is always going to be an element of luck, winning poker players exploit the skill side of the game and use it to their advantage to win more pots than they lose.

What about other Casino games?

Unfortunately, it is not possible to win money from other games such as online Roulette, Craps, Slots and Blackjack.

The reason for this is that in these Casino games you are playing against the house, as opposed to playing against other players as you do in Poker. This means that these Casino games have been developed so that the house will always have a slight edge over the players, which allows them to win more money than they lose, resulting in you losing money over the long run.

In Poker, the house does not care how much you win, as you are winning money from other players and not the house. The Casino makes money by taking a small amount of money from each pot, so there is nothing stopping you from being able to regularly win money at the Poker tables.

How do you win money from Poker?

It's all about the strategy.

In order to win money from Poker, you need to be able to outplay your opponents and make the most profitable decisions as frequently as possible. If you are a better player than the majority of your opponents at the table, it stands to reason that you can expect to win more money from them than they win from you.

It is not easy to learn a winning Poker strategy, but it is perfectly possible. If you take the time to read strategy articles, books and forums, there is nothing from stopping you from eventually becoming a profitable Poker player.

The only thing that stands between a losing Poker player and a winning Poker player is learning solid Poker strategy. Best of luck!

Once in a while, I will be looking at how visitors came about our site, that is, how you, yes you who's reading this now, found nopokerface.

Here is how people landed on our website during the month of December 2008.


poker
Well surprisingly enough, some of you found nopokerface by using the word poker in the search engines. It does seem that we were ranking fairly high for the term "poker" on live.com for a brief period of time. Pretty cool.

poker wallpapers and wallpapers poker
NPF features a couple of cool poker wallpapers which were designed by young talented graphic designer from the UK. It's the same guy who does our poker faces. I do hope that you guys like our poker wallpapers - we'll be adding some more in the future.


nopokerface & nopokerface.net
Well nopokerface is the name of the site, so it's no surprise that we rank first on all (that I've checked) the search engines for the term - it's our name!

pokerstars newbie guide
We created and put our pokerstars newbie guide back in November. The guide is for new pokerstars players. The poker interfaces of online poker rooms are quite confusing nowadays, so we wrote this guide specifically to make it easier, as we thought it could be useful - looks like we were on the money.

skrivbordsunderlag
Skrivbordsunderlag is Swedish for wallpaper. NPF is available in 5 languages, including Swedish, and we do have a poker wallpapers page in Swedish.

probabilità implicite inverse
Probabilità implicite inverse is Italian for reverse implied odds. Our poker strategy section is very popular, and that in all five languages, but especially our German poker and Italian poker sections.

avatar poker
People typing avatar poker in the search engines were probably looking for poker avatars to use on pokerstars. We offer free poker faces to all NPF members. While you have to be a member to download our poker faces, being a member is free.

fond ecran poker and fond ecran de poker
This was used by our French visitors who were looking for poker backgrounds and wallpapers - this is what fond d'écran stands for.

pokergrakien
Our Swedish friends once more kept finding NPF using different keywords. Pokergrafiken stands for poker graphics. I bet you were able to guess that one, weren't you?

basic mtt strategy
Perhaps the most exhaustive pages in our poker strategy guide are our basic mtt strategy articles. It's a 3 part article covering the basic strategy a poker player should use in a multi-table tournament.

facce da poker download
Our Italian visitors looking for poker faces to download. Facce da poker is our Italian page to download poker faces for forums and online poker rooms.

changer image sur pokerstars & sélectionner/changer d image
Looks like some our French visitors were looking to switch their pokerstars avatar and stumbled upon our French poker face section. They might also have been looking for our pokerstars guide to find out how to change your pokerstars image.

pokerstar myspace graphics
While we do poker graphics that can be used on myspace, none of them are specific to pokerstar or rather pokerstars.

happy birthday poker myspace comments & myspacepoker happy birthday comments
This is probably an attempt to find our happy birthday poker images for myspace.

rebuy tournament strategy
Re-buy tournaments are a special kind of poker tournaments, and one of our writer wrote a specific article about rebuy tournament strategy which is part of our poker guide.

squeeze
Well, I'm assuming the person who stumbled on our site was looking for our poker squeeze play article, which is a specific poker strategy where player A will bet, player B will call, and hero will re-raise (usually a semi-bluff or full bluff) causing player A & B to fold.

poker-avatare
Poker-avatare is poker avatar in Italian.

nopokerface's step by step guide to play at pokerstars
You can find nopokerface's step by step guide to play at pokerstars by clicking it.

desktop poker hintergrund bilder
Poker wallpapers in German. NPF is definitely becoming more and more international.

coole pokerwallpapers
That person probably made a typo and was looking for some cool poker wallpapers.

poker face à face stratégie
Head to head poker strategy in French. Unfortunately, we don't have a head to head poker strategy article... yet. It's on the to-do list.

coole poker bilder
Cool poker photos in Swedish. We don't have a lot of poker photos on NPF currently. This may change with the arrival of our new poker blog.

bild verwenden pokerstars
No idea, I will have to ask our translators what bild verwenden stands for.

pokerstars compliment programs
Some people are probably looking for some complement programs they can use on pokerstars, such as poker tracker. PS recently banned the use of sharkscope and I'm not sure about other programs. Okay, I get it, I'll look into and write an article about compatible pokerstars program.

position
We have a great article about position in poker in our poker rules section.

scaricare poker face gratis
One of our Italian friends was looking to download a poker face for free - word for word that's what scaricare poker face gratis means. Visit this page my friend.

poker strategy the float & float play poker
The float play is a poker strategy which consists in calling your opponent's bet on the flop, and when he checks on the turn, you bet and take down the pot. You must have position on him for it to work.

mtt starting hands
MTT starting hands that you should play depends at what state you find yourself in during a multi table tournament. Check out our poker strategy guide for more info.

allas lösenord till pokerstars
Looks we had some kind of shady visitor on nopokerface - allas lösenord till pokerstars litteraly means everyone's password on pokerstars. Sorry buddy, we don't and will never have that kind of poker information here.

cards
Poker is a game of cards. :)

poker slow ball
Slow ball poker is a poker strategy made popular by Daniel Negreanu which involves being a loose player playing a lot of hands but making small bets to limit the amount one loose if things don't turn out the way one want it to turn.

This is the first post, but don't waste your time reading it. www.nopokerface.net/poker-rules.html

I'm just testing some of the features, making sure everything is being displayed like it should be. Go read another page, like our Poker Strategy section.

Yeah, go read that instead! Let me do my work in peace, please.

Bah, I'll just delete this anyway.