Online poker art, playing low pairs, and five card stud
ART OF POKER If you want to be a successful poker player you’re going to be doing a lot of staring at your computer screen. To ensure that weeks on the oceans of green baize don’t begin to make you “PC sick” you could try www.artpoker.net. They have a whole range of visual styles ranging from movie backgrounds like The Matrix to seductive pictures of celebrity beauties. It’s even possible to customise your own victory celebration if you haul down a mammoth pot. The software is extremely easy to install and will work seamlessly on all of the big poker sites. Set your own mood. At my table for example I sit next to Paris Hilton on one side and Scarlett Johansson on the other. There’s a very strict code of what everyone at my table has to wear: Only smiles are acceptable.
PLAYING LOW PAIRS Don’t be scared of playing Twos or Threes as hole cards just as long as you’re in late position and providing there hasn’t been a raise ahead of you. A full table where you are last to act is certainly the most fertile ground to steam ahead with low pairs. Twos, Threes and Fours don’t work in most other situations unless you’re in a short-handed game when of course their value rises. However, even under the circumstances indicated above, don’t hang onto a low pair after the flop if it fails to deliver you trips. An exception might be made if the pot is being deserted by a full table of limpers and no-hopers.
FIVE CARD STUD Five card stud is undergoing a little bit of a revival of late as players strive to vary their games. New players raised on Texas Hold’em will find considerable similarities in terms of hand rankings. Basically every player places an “ante”, a token bet, before cards are dealt. Then the dealer deals all five cards face down to each of the players, going clockwise around the table. The player to the dealer’s immediate left acts first. During the first round of betting players can choose to “Open” (bet any amount) or “Check” (only permitted if no-one has opened the betting prior to your turn). To check just means you don’t want to open the betting and you don’t want to fold. Once betting is underway you can “see” another player (you match their bet to stay in the hand). A “raise” requires you to first “see” the preceding bet and increase it. If you “fold” you quit. Players who have not folded are now permitted to dump cards they don’t want and take replacement cards. Each player is allowed to discard up to three cards and replace with three new ones. Everyone retains just five cards in total and all discarding and replacing is done face down to retain secrecy. Now it’s time for a new round of betting. There’s the option of opening or checking and once a player has opened the betting the other players following on can see, raise or fold. Finally all players remaining in the hand turn their cards over and the player with the highest hand wins.
