| Poker Strategy - Insiders' Guide to Empire Poker and Party Poker, Part II
Have you read our first page of advice on how to succeed at two of
the Internet's biggest poker sites,
and
? If not, click
. The section you're reading
now is a follow-up to our original "cheaters' guide," and exists to help
you make even more out of your online poker experience!
Again, to remind you: Empire Poker and Party Poker are, together, the
largest online poker room. That's a good thing, because the competition
can be very soft. Like most Internet poker sites, limit Texas Hold'em is
the most popular game there is. And while there's a lot of people who
play and it's hard to keep tabs on individual players, the bottom line
is that Empire and Party Poker's limit Hold'em games can be quite
lucrative-IF you play them correctly. We've decided to post some advice
on our website that will help you attack these poker-room giants from
the right strategic angle.
First, you've got to realize that there is a wide variety of players
that play at Empire and Party Poker. Most online sharks have an account
at these sites-we'll be straight with you. But so do most online fish,
and that's where the fun comes in. Anyone who exercises good game
selection could make a ton of money just by choosing the right games.
Unfortunately, the websites make it a little tougher to do this by the
stats alone. They don't display the flop percentage, and basing your
game choice on average pot size alone is not a good idea. A high average
pot could mean a lot of fish calling to the river, but it could also
mean a game full of tight-aggressives, and you don't want that. Another
consideration is that the average pot could be highly inflated due to
one or two recent hands, and besides that a high average pot might
induce a lot of sharks to join the game. That kills the point of joining
the game in the first place, of course.
The best long-term solution to the problem of game selection is to
keep notes on as many possible players as you can. Like most poker
rooms, Empire and Party Poker both allow you to keep individual notes on
each player; use them, for God's sake! These notes don't need to be long
to help: "calling station" or "shark" is sufficient enough to get the
point across.
Also, a good investment is to buy a software program that's known as
Poker Tracker. This program allows you to review your play and keeps
track of certain stats like win rates, percentage win at showdown, etc.
You can have Empire and Party Poker e-mail you your hand histories and
then load these stats into the program. Poker Tracker will also show you
the win rates and other statistics of your opponents, so this is a tool
that will really help you size up your competition. The program
certainly pays off in the long run.
Once you do find a soft game at Empire and Party Poker (and you
will), stay there. If you're in a tough game, leave. These sites are too
tempting for you be facing stiff competition. Go hunting for prey, and
you will find it.
Another tip that we think is often overlooked is that you should
generally play the longhand games instead of the shorthand ones at these
two big casinos. The shorthand games (six or fewer people) tend to
attract more sharks. Generally, fish like to play what they are used to
playing at the casino-longhand. Also, if you learn to play shorthand
well, it'll come in handy in a longhand game. Longhand games often stay
full, but they also often become short at times. If you learn how to
play shorthand well, in addition to having a good longhand game, you'll
have a huge advantage over your opponents, who may only know how to play
longhand. Anyone in the six-person-maximum rooms is there to play
shorthand, so chances are they are just as good at that as they are at a
longhand game. People in the full games, however, often are very poor at
shorthand games, but end up playing short for stretches while they wait
for the game to fill back up. Jump on these opportunities whenever they
arise.
Finally, a very important tip to success at Empire and Party Poker
comes from your first day of poker lessons: starting hand selection. We
just want to remind you that you don't want to get caught playing
dominated hands. If a good player raises in early position, fold your
K-Q, K-J, A-T, etc. The fatal flaw of most Empire and Party Poker
players is that they just play their own hand pre-flop. They think about
the Sklansky charts (which are very useful, we admit), but they don't
consider the relative strength of their hand versus the hand of their
opponents. You know better than to make this mistake.
Make use of the tips we've given you-go get 'em, tiger!
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