Over betting your hand is rarely the right move in poker. Many novice players will use the all-in bet as a defensive move, hoping to get their opponent to fold. This maneuver might be successful a couple of times, but you’ll eventually run into a hand and get busted up. Even betting too much with a hand that you think is in the lead, but not the nut hand, is not recommended. Any action you’ll get on this bet will most likely beat you. That’s where value betting comes into the game.

The only time it’s a good move to over bet a hand is when you’re trying to represent the situations I talked about previously. If you have a big hand, sometimes an over bet can look like a bluff, and if your opponent has something that qualifies as a hand, they may try and make a big call on you.

The last time professional golfer Rocco Mediate made a run at the U.S. Open he also played in the Main Event at the WSOP. Mediate finished tied for sixth in 2005, not quite as heartbreaking as his runner-up finish to Tiger Woods this year. His golfing stats include five PGA Tour wins, and another four wins in high-profile invitational events.

Rocco compares poker to golf in the way he feels his way through the game – not being robotic, using his instincts to guide him to decisions. He and Greg Raymer have golfed and played poker together, sharing tips and strategies for each. Maybe Rocco will take some of that second-place U.S. Open prize money and take a run at the WSOP Main Event this year. He has no major cashes on the felt to date, but maybe we’ll still see him on the poker tours after he retires from golf.

Season 5 of the European Poker Tour kicks off in September 2008 in Barcelona with nine events scheduled, including the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo and a welcome return to Deauville, France, in January.

“The new EPT season includes all the events which have made the past four seasons such a triumph with record fields across Europe and record prize pools,” said EPT Chief Executive John Duthie. “We have set very high standards and aim to improve on this still further in Season 5.”

“This year’s EPT kicks off in the magnificent city of Barcelona at the beginning of September. The tour will take in nine countries including the return of the ever popular Deauville event in France and we are expecting to add new venues to the tour. Last year’s EPT proved a massive success, generating a total prize pool of almost Euros 40,000,000 ($62,000,000), 5,902 players and the biggest single prize pool ever generated outside Las Vegas at the Monte Carlo Grand Final. We anticipate the EPT making an even bigger impact in Season 5, attracting more players from all around the world and even larger prize pools.”

Poker enjoyed a huge boom in 2003, and has continued to grow in popularity worldwide. Most of the new players have been playing Texas Holdem variations of poker for the last five years. But once they play holdem long enough, they start to look at other variations of poker to break up the boredom. The natural progression is to play Omaha next. The rules are the same as holdem, other than the fact that you have four cards to play instead of two.

It’s been long enough into the poker boom now that many new poker players are expanding the versions of poker they play. Omaha action is on the rise both online and in live events. This year’s $1500 Pot Limit Omaha tournament at the WSOP had 758 entrants, compared to 158 entrants in 2006. Omaha hi/low split is also increasing in popularity, with tournament fields bigger than ever. 

Razz poker is an old game of lowball seven-card stud poker. It’s regular seven-card stud, but the lowest hand wins. It’s probably the simplest version of lowball there is. Straights and flushes don’t come into play, so the best hand you can get is A-2-3-4-5.

If you understand the basics of seven-card stud, you will catch on to Razz rather quickly. The game is always played in the limit version, meaning the betting is limited to four bets per round.

Razz tournaments are great fun, and if you understand the basics you can easily money in a Razz tournament. Basic strategy dictates you only play hands that start with three cards under 8, and you watch your opponents’ up cards to try and put them on a hand. You should also count and eliminate outs for your hand that they may be showing. Bet if you think you have the lead.

Taking notes regarding your online poker play is an important part of being successful. Notes are a lot easier to keep today. Websites often provides hand histories and information about other players. The only real information to keep is a list of action players. These are players who are overly aggressive or just don’t know how to play. Compiling a list of these players can be a very profitable practice.

Every time you find yourself in a game with one of these players you should make note of them and how they play. Then when you decide to play a session, you can pull out your list and see if there are any action players at tables where you can find a seat. If most of your sessions have an action player present, you’ll find that your profit will increase at much faster rate. And don’t share that list with anyone.

Playing suited connectors can be done from most positions, providing you can get into the hand inexpensively. These hands can be very profitable when the flop hits you, and most opponents won’t put you on these types of hands because it’s widely considered poor poker to play them. But experienced players play all sorts of hands in the hopes of hitting a flop.

Once you’re in a hand with cards like these you’ll need to either hit trips, two pair or a good draw. If you have a lead like two pair, it’s important to try and take down the pot right there with a big bet or raise. The board could easily pair, and your lead may get counterfeited if your opponent has a bigger pair. If you’re on a draw, you should be getting proper draw odds to stay in the hand if someone has bet into you.

Playing scared at the poker table is not the way to make money. A tight style is fine in the early stages of a tournament, but in just about every other playing situation, scared poker is disaster for sure. Scared players are usually playing at a table they shouldn’t be, in an attempt to earn back money they have previously lost. The stakes are big and they’re scared to commit money to hands without a monster.

These players can be bullied around all day long. They will only hit big hands on a small percentage, like all of us, and aggression will force them off all the others. When they do show aggression you can just get off the hand. These players will slowly lose their chips because they’re not aggressive enough to combat the other players’ aggression at the table. Scared money is dead money, there for the taking.

Well it’s that time of year again when I have to start to get creative if I want to make it to the WSOP. Coming up with an extra $12,000 or so isn’t exactly an easy feat to pull off. I would sell my car, but I’m leasing it, so that wouldn’t work for very long. I would need to go deep into the event and win enough money to cover my legal cost once the bank finds out what I did.

I need to find a way to hack into the WSOP pre-registration website and get in free. There’s always the chance that I could get a big-name pro to fund me for 70% of the take. It’s not fair, but it’s better than nothing. If I can come up with a good enough sob story, maybe a pro with a big heart will give me a chance.

You can still win a seat to the WSOP. Here’s how.

I think the best poker coach a person could hope to have would be Barry Greenstein. Barry is at the top of poker heap, and has had success at just about every variation of poker. Only a couple of legends like Doyle Brunson and T.J. Cloutier have been on the poker scene longer than Barry. He knows the game on a level that very few can reach.

Among all the legends of poker I think Barry would be the best coach because of his calm demeanour. He is patience personified, which is one of the most important traits a coach could have. Greenstein is well spoken and would be able to get his point across to any eager player looking to get better.

Unfortunately Barry is very guarded about his poker knowledge and doesn’t share it with the general public, so a Barry Greenstein poker school is unlikely to happen.