As the poker chip leader of my table in a MTT, I chose to limp with KQ on the button. There is one mid-position limper, myself, and both blinds that see the flop. It comes As-Ac-Jh rainbow. Everyone checks and I check my draw. I think it’s possible for the poker online limper to have an ace, but not likely AJ. The turn is 10d, keeping the board rainbow. I get my straight. The big blind bets 430, the limper calls, I call and the SB folds. I just call here to try and keep this casino pot small. I’m likely against trip aces with a weak kicker. From the limper and the BB could be trying to bluff this scary board. The river is 9c. The BB bets again, and the limper raises. I can’t really put either on a boat here, having limped and just checked form the blinds. I call and then both players go all-in. I stubbornly call and they both show A-9 for a rivered boat. BB had A-9 hearts and the limper had A-9 diamonds http://cakepoker.com/en/HandHistory/Default.aspx?Hand=xsXBzMPNzcLCxcTExMLMw4jDzMHBxcY%3dThis is the last time I ever call a weak un playable hand and go all in risking all of my chips for nothing in the end!

Being short stacked in a poker tournament is an uncomfortable situation. Any hand you play could be your last, and you can’t just wait patiently for monster pocket cards because the blinds are going to erode your short stack even more. If you chip stack is 10x the blind or less, you are in a precarious position. At only 5x the blind, you have no leverage at all. When you are short stacked, you must focus on the goal of doubling up through another player at the table or to accumulate some chips through a multi-way pot. Here are some tips for playing a short stack: * Avoid betting a portion of your casino chips that gives opponents the right price to call. Instead pick a reasonably good hand and shove all your chips pre-flop to narrow the field of opponents. * Do not call an all-in bet unless you are holding a very strong hand. * If you get dealt an Ace or pocket pair, it is worthwhile to shove all-in if you are first to enter the pot. * Look for other short stacks to target with all-in bets. * When below 5x the blind, then even marginal, speculative hands are worth shoving all-in if you are first to enter a pot and late position. * Look for multi-player pots that you can pursue with live cards, like suited connectors. Most likely your hand is not best pre-flop, but it could return the most value for your poker chips, rebuilding your stack again. This is where you should make the do-or-die decision.

Setting Up for live wedding music is just one of about a hundredprojects facing brides and wedding planners. Between flowers, photos, venues, gowns, parties, rings, video, and more, even a little and unpretentious wedding needs a great amount of preparation. It can be a stressful time because if even one of these areas falls through the cracks, your big day can end up being a huge disappointment.

Here are five tips to engaging live wedding music players for your ceremony and reception:

1. Make a point to you employ a band with a proven track record of professionalism. Does the manager return your phone calls promptly? Does the band have a web site? Business cards? Other marketing materials? Or do you get the impression you’re talking to a guy rehearsing in his garage with his pals? The way the band introduces itself as you begin speaking with them is a genuine indicator of how they’ll come on (or not!) on your big day.

2. Promptness is key. When you set an date to connect in person or on the telephone, it’s like a mini-contract. If the band handler is tardy to meet with you, it’s a cautionary sign that they don’t take their agreements earnestly. If they can’t arrive on time in the planning phase, what other arrangements will they fail with you on your wedding day? This extends on to you, also - being prompt is just one way you can live a life that displays that you respect your commitments.

3. Make sure the dance band is easy-going rather than being a bunch of divas. By now you’ve probably heard a dozen Bridezilla jokes, even if you’re not hard to please or outrageous. Imagine engaging the equivalent in craziness for your wedding dance band. The last thing you want on your wedding day is to have to wait on your musicians hand and foot, delivering them food and drink, having the thermostat changed for them, or catering to other exacting demands. The greatest band for you is one that can take care of itself, one that’s easy to get along with, and one that does all it can to make sure your day is easy and fun for you.

4. Book a wedding band that’s fun. Getting hitched is one of the deepest decisions you’ll ever make. It’s serious business. The music on your wedding day should be beautiful and fun. You don’t want to see your guests yawning, lethargic, and wishing the party was done with. You want them up, dancing, singing, and smiling. If you choose a live wedding music band well, your choice will do a lot to make your wedding day unforgettable in a fabulous way. This is the big day you’ve been looking for, and music is such a critical part of it. Be sure you book a dance band that makes the day flawless - gratifying for you and your guests.

George Pollis is the handler and a musician with Reel Ting Steel Drum Band. For a professional, timely, easy-going, gifted, and fun live wedding music band, look into Reel Ting at http://www.reelting.com.

I was at a poker tournament a while back, and I got a rare opportunity-I got to see a player who did everything wrong. This guy made every mistake that I’ve seen in my years of poker online as well as a few new things that I’ve never seen, and all of it in a matter of ninety minutes. He did everything a player could do to give away his money-he played lousy starting hands and kept playing them all the way to showdown, he’d talk about the cards he needed after the flop, he’d fold when he could have checked, he was pretty much a grab bag of chips. The guy was a piata-anybody who managed to hit him would always shake some chips loose.

One hand, he went into the hand with an Ace-Queen, with one other player calling him. After an Ace came on the flop, the other online poker player went all in, and the newbie called him, and the both turned over their cards. The noob showed his Ace-Queen, and the other player showed Ace-King. Before the next two cards were dealt, the newbie tossed his hand into the pot, muttering about how much he hated Ace-Queen. All of us were shocked, and the dealer asked if the newbie was folding. He affirmed, and the dealer drew the turn and river, both of which turned out to be Queens, which would have given the newbie a full house.

Basically, this guy had absolutely no idea what was going on. It should go without saying, but it’s probably a good idea to see the entire hand before you fold an all-in bet.

One of the most common adages about poker is that poker is a game about perception. How you present yourself at the table often is the determining factor in how much you win. People who project an aura of confidence often win because the other players are so intimidated that they begin to doubt themselves. The people with the confidence are the poker online sharks while the people without confidence are the fish.

For those of us with a little less skill at the table, there is always a danger of appearing more like fish than sharks. Even if we may have the skills to back up a claim as a online poker shark, we may not have the confidence. Luckily for players like you and I there is a way to fake it. What you need to do is posture like a poker shark. Whether you feel like you have the confidence does not matter. Fake your confidence. Pretend like you are a world class poker shark who has the ability to completely conquer any poker table. Even just pretending like you are the best poker shark at the casino can make the fish believe in the illusion. The only people that you need to convince are the ones whose money you will be taking.

The 2009 World Series of Poker winner, Joe Cada, refers to himself as a “shorthanded specialist” at the game of online poker. He logged many hours playing online and preferred to play shorthanded tables and heads-up contests.

Being able to choose from a variety of games is one of the advantages of online poker. There are cash tables with different limits or no-limit poker plus all types of tournaments, from single table sit-n-go to multi-table contests with many participants. You can gain lots of practice at shorthanded tables and heads-up. These experiences will prepare you for final table play, which tends to veer from tight to aggressive and back again, when you enter larger tournaments.

When you play short-handed or heads-up online, you gain rich experience how to focus on your opponents rather than just relying on your pocket cards. Because there are no distractions as in live poker rooms, you can really concentrate on betting patterns and keep hand histories to review.

Cada likes to play shorthanded and heads-up contests in an aggressive style. When you are up against only a few players or heads-up, you must seek opportunities take control of the action with aggressive betting and to leverage your position in the betting action.

Playing heads-up online, either with play money or for low stakes, will enhance your abilities to read opponents and will force you to act aggressively.

In our modern online poker world, online poker is by far the predominant form. Most online pokerplayers learn the ins and outs of internet poker before they ever sit down at a live game. Any retrospective on the history of poker, therefore, must look closely out how online poker came to be. We must learn to ask ourselves how the poker that we play came to be, not just how traditional poker came into being. Where did our game come from? How did online poker start? For the answer to this question we must turn to Planet Poker, the first online poker room to offer cash games online. Planet Poker dealt out its first hand of digital poker on January 1, 1998. This first hand signified that poker was not longer tied to physical poker tables or brick and mortar casinos. In 1998, online poker was something new and exciting. Online poker was proclaimed to the wave of the future. Some people did not even believe that online poker would catch on. Some thought it was just a phase. It has grown quite a bit since that time to become the predominant form of the game. Planet Poker’s decision in 1998 shaped the future of poker’s history.

Blinds keep you alive. It may seem like a pretty cheap parlor trick compared to the huge bluffs and gutsy calls that you’ll see in any given poker game, but stealing the blinds will be what keeps you alive in the long run. Remember-slow and steady gets you to the final table. Poker isn’t always a game of big stack intimidation and doubling up, it’s about surviving the early rounds with enough of a chip stack to play in the money. One of my favorite ways to stay in the game is to steal a few blinds now and then. When I’m last to act or near to it, I always gauge the poker table before and after the flop to see if anyone’s excited to play. If the aggressive players aren’t in and I’ve got a semi-decent hand, I’m pretty likely to raise a good amount and take in some blinds. Stealing the blinds may build your stack, but more importantly, it allows you to fold more often when you have to deal out the blinds. It the blinds are 5 and 10 dollars and you’ve stolen 90 dollars worth of blinds, then you’ve paid for six more rounds of poker, and you’ve got a nice buffer if you get a dry run of cards.

When you sat down to play your very first game of poker with a group of like-minded individuals, what did you use for betting? Were you just a kid playing for pieces of gum, did you use actual coins, or maybe you had a set of cheap, day-glo, plastic poker chips? Well, there comes a time in the life of an avid card player when those tawdry betting supplies will no longer do, when, no matter the cost, you simply must have a large, wonderfully heavy set of casino-style clay chips, preferably in a beautiful silver case. The only potentially disappointing aspect of such a purchase is that, at first, your new chips might have a dull finish to them. This is because, just like your first cast iron skillet or baseball mitt, they need to be worn in to look their best. Casino chips take on a glossy shine because they are constantly in play, making contact with hundreds of oily fingers. If you cannot wait for that much action to transpire, the next best thing is to oil the chips yourself. To do this, use mineral oil, and only mineral oil, and a clean, lint-free towel. Simply apply a little oil to the towel, polish each chip, and watch it come alive.

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