Stu Ungar perhaps one of the most famous poker players of all time once said that he never put a single chip in the middle of the pot until the ante came into play and that playing before that level was not worth it and just asking for trouble. Then there’s the other school of thought that says that coming out firing and raising every pot is the way to go.

There is no right and wrong strategy. Professional poker players such as Gus Hansen prefer a more aggressive style of play and will raise with any two napkins while other players such as Phil Helmuth prefer to stay low key in the early rounds of a tournament.

Let’s take a look at both sides and see the pros and cons of both styles

Playing Aggressively In The Early Rounds

The idea of playing aggressively is to steal the blinds and small pots with the second-best hand or sometimes even nothing at all. The advantage of this strategy is that it allows you to quickly build up your stack and command the action at the table. Having the big stack at the table further enables you to steal the blinds and small pots and cruise your way to the final table. Of course, this course of action isn’t without its risks and perils.

Let’s Imagine This Situation

You’re sitting one away from the big blind and first to act before the flop. You’re holding Q♣ 8♣ which is a marginal hand under any circumstance but you decide you’re going to try and steal the blinds. You raise the standard 3 times the big blind to $150, everyone folds around to the big blind who calls.

The flop comes 8♥ 4♣ A♣

The big blind makes it $150 to go. By now you have to assume the big blind has you beat with an A versus your middle pair and flush draw. What you need to do is establish a range for your opponent’s kicker and then raise accordingly to push him off the hand. It is unlikely that he is holding A-K, A-Q or otherwise he would have bet more than half the pot. So, you put your opponent on A-9, A-7. You re-raise to $500 to represent the A-K and your opponent folds. You take down a $450 pot and become the big stack at the table thus allowing you to continue your aggressive play. When you adopt an aggressive style of play it’s crucial to know when to back down. If your opponent had re-raised on top of your $500 raise you have to lay it down otherwise, you’ll be faced with an all-in decision on the next street.

Playing Conservatively In The Early Rounds

Playing conservatively during the early rounds of a tournament is the more commonly adopted technique and this is how you should approach a no limit hold ‘em tournament if you are still relatively new to the game. The advantage of playing premium hands of course is that you are minimizing the risk of exiting the tournament early. The disadvantage of this technique is that you are allowing the more aggressive players to build their chip stacks to a point where your only defense against a raise is an all-in.

For example, say you are in the BB and you make it $1000 to go which represents 30% of your chip stack. The player to your left re-raises an additional $1000. At this point your options are very limited; you are pot committed but that additional $1000 would mean 60% of your chip stack is in the middle. To the raiser that is only 10% of his stack so even if you call, he will call you all-in on the flop regardless of the cards that come. That is the downside to the conservative approach, you surrender all control of the pot over to the aggressive players.

In the end the best poker players in the world, the ones that go on to win a World Series of Poker bracelet are the ones who learn to adapt to the situation. Sometimes being aggressive is the right move because the players at the poker table are weak and will fold to any substantial raise. Other time you’ll be playing a table with hyper aggressive players and conservative is the way to go until you hit that monster hand and double through.

Playing poker online is a great way to improve your skills before entering tournament play – plus, it’s a fun way to earn a little extra cash on the side. However, the worst thing you can do when you play online poker is to sign into the first room you find. It’s important to put a little time and effort into finding the poker room that best meets your needs. If you’re just getting started, you’ll find that being choosy about the poker rooms you play in will – in the end – help you advance in the game much more quickly.

Software And Usability

Everyone has a different opinion about the best online poker room out there, but if you aren’t yet sure which one’s best for you, start by looking at how easy the program is to use. As a beginner, you’ll be frustrated enough trying to get the hang of the game – don’t contribute to your anxiety level by hanging out in poker room that’s difficult to use. Take advantage of any free trials you can find and use them to determine how easy each poker room is to use. Is the navigation easily understandable? Do you run into any errors, or any freezes in the program? If so, move on to the next option.

Poker Room Popularity

When you’re exploring a poker room, try to get a feel for how many players are active at any given time. Signing up for a program that few people use will only lead to frustration when you sit down to play. After all, you want to jump in and play – not spend fifteen minutes hanging around and waiting for more players to show up. Of course, keep in mind that most online poker rooms have peak times and lull times. If you’re logging on to play at 3:00 am, you’ll probably find fewer players available than if you drop by during the evening hours.

Beginners Welcome

In some poker rooms, it’s a free-for-all – beginners sit down with advanced pokers and learn to play the game in a trial-by-fire way. While some poker students might prefer this method of learning, other beginners will quickly feel overwhelmed. If you’d prefer a little hand-holding throughout the learning process, look for poker rooms that offer separate beginner tables or rank players according to their skill. In these cases, you’ll be able to identify other beginners to test your skills against while you’re all learning together. Some online poker rooms that cater to beginners might even offer educational resources and tips and tricks to help you learn more quickly.

Bonuses, Bonuses, Bonuses!

Let’s face it – as much as we may profess to love poker for the game itself, we can’t deny the appeal of a big fat bonus. If you’re just getting started, you may even be able to earn a special bonus just for signing up. Shop around to see what you can get – if the sites are offering free money, why not take advantage of it? You should also check to see if the poker room hosts tournaments for players, and what type of financial incentives they offer for these games. Winning at a poker game is great, but earning a little something extra when you play poker is even better.

Roulette gambling enjoys popularity of numerous players worldwide. The history of roulette was quite long, during many years various new roulette types appeared, and mini roulette would be among the youngest varieties. In this article one can get information regarding the origins of roulette, positive features of web betting and distinctive characteristics of mini roulette.

Initial version of roulette had been created in the 17th century, when Blaise Pascal was trying to invent perpetuum mobile. “Roulette” means in French “little wheel”, and France is believed to be roulette’s motherland. It could sound shocking but roulette games had been first experienced in French monasteries, when monks attempted to relieve boredom of their lives. Sometime afterwards, being a game for elite, roulette appeared in French casinos. At the end of eighteenth-century French immigrants delivered roulette to United States, there it became extremely popular, and Americans invented numerous unique forms of roulette game.

One of the preferred variations of this interesting game will be mini roulette game. As it is obvious from its name mini roulette in fact is reduced version of classic European roulette. Mini-roulette’s wheel has only 13 slots: numbered from 1 – 12 plus for zero, when standard big version contains 36 compartments and zero compartment. Players should take into consideration that mini roulette is not less interesting activity than classic bigger roulette, and winnings may be large. This miniature variation of roulette is popular as a table game. When you intend an evening together with family or pals, mini-roulette table game may be a perfect opportunity for doing that, in addition, it might be an outstanding gift idea for adults and children. The most effective opportunity for buying a mini roulette set, that satisfies your preferences, is to browse online. When you lack practical knowledge in mini roulette playing, online it is probable to get recommendations of expert players concerning how to succeed in mini-roulette.

In case you are a beginner, it would be recommended to play online mini roulette. What’s very exciting is this: you could practice on free casino sites: a player could examine rules, experiment with different strategies without a rush and without risk to lose cash. Only when it is clear, you are familiarized with mini roulette details, you may find a paid gambling site to start roulette game for money. If perhaps you still think twice about web-based casino gambling, keep in mind that web-based casinos are considerably cheaper, because they can save funds on paychecks for countless workers, expensive renting fees, light decorations, and as an outcome offer minimal costs for players.

At last, let’s point out that internet and off-line casinos offer various possibilities for those that prefer to play for fun as well as for people who play in money-based online casinos, though you should not be in a hurry while choosing the money-based gambling internet-site. Select some site only if it is recommended by those whom you completely trust or after detailed analysis of website’s reputation on the internet.