Poker is one of the most popular and loved forms of card game which can be played both online and live. However every player has their own perceptions and is comfortable playing as per their nature and choice. Although online poker is ever growing and can be played at ease of access but live games have a little bit extra penache. The charm and glamour of live poker is completely different – huge casinos, intimate poker rooms, large number of tables, variety of games, massive stakes, better amenities have made live poker in India so much better.

The poker rooms have a lavish setup, with the finest eateries, the glitzy environment and the classy outlook ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ making poker a glamorous and skill game. This leisure activity is automatically incredible, and a room could have ay blend of genuine geniuses, great novices and semi-masters, and one time players who wouldn’t bother losing cash in quest for an experience.

The treatment afforded to poker players is unparalleled as they talk the language of money and everyone wants to cater to them. Basically in a high end poker room, high rollers are fed and watered with the best of ingredents and choice of drinks. Table side eating is permitted and even encouraged so that the players remain engrossed, encouraged and upbeat while they play. The room is generally hyper active and players thrive in this environment. The smoke of the cigars, the clink of ice in the glasses, the background music, the servers and dealers all contribute to making the ambience both mysterious and luxurious.

The popular rooms of the world, including live poker destinations in India, have more than lac of visitors yearly. The biggest one consists of 300,000 feet of gaming space, six particular yet associated gaming clubs, three superb inns, a huge number of openings and table collections.

There are major tournaments, bounty, cash games etc that are played each hour or so, 7 days a week. While people from all genres enjoy the game, the Indian youth seem to be more enthralled. However amidst all the glitz there are certain cons as well like hunting for a legal poker room or limited stakes table. But even along with such drawback, the allure of a live poker room justifies the quest for looking for the right one.

While playing live poker in Indian poker rooms, players usually play more hands, bet more flops and turns, and re-raise frequently if the opponents on the table are loose and aggressive. However, players do sometimes deviate from the game strategy and make crazy mistakes. Following are the three common mistakes that players are seen making in Bangalore poker rooms:

Going All-In
Many poker players customarily go all-in over and over again while playing live poker. You can easily identify such players as they usually go all-in from the start of the cash table or tournament. The basic intent of the players ?óÔé¼?£going all-in?óÔé¼Ôäó is to make other players fold their hands. However, you should not indulge in such bets and should go all-in only when you are holding a strong hand that can double your stack. Moreover, you should rarely bluff with an all-in move because going all-in with a weaker hand is considered bad poker.

Under Betting
While playing live poker in poker rooms in India, you will come across several poker players who are afraid to raise pre-flop even though holding a good hand. So, if you have a strong hand, you should slow play the game and should not bet with small amounts or you will end up winning lesser money in comparison to the value of the hand held. Thus, you should never under bet with strong hand and specially when odds for winning are beyond compare.

Over Betting
You will find live poker players get over-delighted when they are dealt a stronger hand. In such a case, they try to tempt fortune by pricey bets and going all-in thereby giving away information about their good hand to other opponents on the poker table. Hence, you should avoid over betting while holding a stronger hand so that your opponents don?óÔé¼Ôäót fold the hand and you don?óÔé¼Ôäót miss a chance to win bigger pot.

So, next time you go to play live poker tournaments in India or visit top poker rooms in Bangalore, you should avoid the above gaming mistakes. You should focus on studying the poker odds, your opponents and game play strategies.

Poker game in India is one of the most relished game. Many famous poker players in India have displayed their talent and passion towards the game. The game of poker is not only restricted to India but its popular among famous sports players around the world. Some of them show a great passion towards the game displaying a good association between poker & sports players. Few of them are:

1.Rafael Nadal Parera :
Nadal is a Spanish professional tennis player who is currently ranked No.5 in the world. He is been titled ?óÔé¼?ôThe king of Clay?óÔé¼?Ø due to his dominance and achievements in the game. Rafael is one of the major name in sports player who is linked to Poker. He joined a famous international poker site during his seven month?óÔé¼Ôäós break of his career in 2012 ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ 13, due to his knee injury.

2.Ronaldo :
Who does not know the Brazilian footballer Ronaldo. He holds titles like three times world footballer of the year, two times world cup winner, two times European footballer of the year and all time world cup finals top goal scorer. Poker is largely enjoyed in Brazil and leading to his interest in poker he formed a sport and entertainment agency known as 9ine.

3.Shane Warne :
He is a former Australian cricketer who was viewed as one of the best bowler. Due to his expertize he was named ?óÔé¼?ôWisden leading Cricketer in the world?óÔé¼?Ø. After officially retiring he also showed his talent into cricket commentating. In January 2008, he joined 888.com with his thirst towards poker game. He even sponsored events like World Series of Poker Asia Pacific and World series of Poker Europe.

4.George St. Pierre :
Canadian player George, a Welterweight Champion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, also has a keen interest in the game of poker. He joined 888.com in April 2012 to cater to his interest in Poker.

5.Steve Davis :
Steve also known as the Nugget?óÔé¼?Ø has won maximum professional titles in sport compared to any other player. He is one of the best snooker players with 6 World championships and 51 non ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ ranking victories. In spite of being 55 years of age continues playing professional snooker. Along with snooker he also excels in the game of poker.

Apart from the above mentioned players some of the famous footballers like Tony Cascarino, Teddy Sheringham, Jon Molby, Steve Watts are also passionately connected to the game of poker. Apart from being fabulous footballers they are talented poker players too.

If you are a live poker player, then you should be aware of basic poker etiquette and should follow them by heart. Following the rules of the game helps you to play live poker in fair and disciplined manner. There do exist conventional rules that you need to adhere to while playing poker at Indian Poker Rooms. So, if you don?óÔé¼Ôäót follow proper etiquette while playing live poker at poker clubs in Bangalore, you can be penalized and even thrown out of the poker room. Here are some worst live poker etiquette you should avoid while playing live poker tournaments in India:

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First we need to understand what is bluff in poker, how is it done and the connection between poker and bluff. In the poker card game when a player makes a bet in spite of having poor cards is called bluffing. The motive behind bluffing is to provoke atleast one opponent with better cards to fall back. While bluffing the player not only fakes his moves but also imitates a false expression on his face, so that he can mislead his opponent and make him act in a desired way.

The bluffer should know the thoughts of his opponent to be able to bluff successfully and form a game plan for winning. The player should follow few tips to Bluff intelligently in poker. Like-

1. The player should not bluff on many hands, rather he should save it for selective hands which would increase his chances of winning.
2. It is safe to bluff when the betting is going on a stable trend.
3. Bluffing is good when there is a pair on board.
4. Avoid bluffing when you are new in poker game. Get some experience before you start to bluff in poker.
   Bluff catching is not an easy task.Bluff catching could be very influential and profitable move if you are observant and have the skill set to utilize the bluff. In low stake game, bluff catching will be more profitable as there would be many loose-aggressive opponents with high bluffing tendencies.

Catching bluff is important because you happen to lose the game not due to bad or poor cards but your opponent’s bluffing. A bluff-catcher is a methodology which is not powerful enough as compared to a betting style but can win only when the opponent player is bluffing.

There are few principals of bluff catching and tips to win poker by avoiding being bluffed:

1. The most important principal of catching bluffs is to think and calculate the profitability of the call. The easiest way to do so is to calculate by dividing the bet your opponent has made by total pot after calling.
2. If your hand looks weak to the opponent there are bigger chances of him to attack your weakness by bluffing. Thereby you become more inclined towards bluff catching.
3. If your opponent has either very strong hand or very weak one, then your actual hand does not have much value and the chances of you catching bluffs with weaker value hands is higher as you become more observant to the game play.
4. Some players are forced to bluff more to win a pot that play wide and weak range. Often they have to lure their opponent players to fold to win as they lack natural hand strength. So your chances to catching bluffs increases with such loose players.

Live poker is a game played by all from a casual businessman to a seasoned online poker player. But when you are sitting in a poker room in India, it becomes difficult to guess the poker expertise level of the player. Following are the signs that can help you spot a professional poker player at your table:

Alcohol Consumption
This is the most easiest way to identify a poker pro. If your opponent is having alcohol like a beer or a double jack, you can count him out of pro list because professional poker players do not consume alcohol while playing the game at Indian poker rooms.

Chip Stacking
How a player stacks his chips can help you spot the poker pro? A novice player hardly pays any attention to chip stacking. Moreover, many new players stack big chips behind the small chips and this is incorrect as per the poker rules. While poker pros place higher denomination chips in the front and not hide them behind lower ones because as per poker rules higher denomination chips should be visible.

Emotions
While playing live poker tournaments in India, you will come across many amateur players who actually get excited and overjoyed when they receive strong hole cards or when they hit the flop. You can witness it in their behavior. On the contrary, professional poker players are usually patient and do not over-react in such situations, and moreover prefer to be quiet and conversing with their opponents on the poker table. Moreover, they do not get upset with bad beats and bad run of cards or get thrilled after winning a big pot. Thus, ability to control emotions is the strongest advantage that poker pros have on new players.

Hole Cards
The players who are new to poker are customarily eager to see their hole cards as soon as the cards are dealt which gives off tells to their opponents on the table. While poker professionals do not see their hole cards right away but wait for their turn to arrive. In the mean time, they observe the game moves of other players on the live poker table.

Age
Age is the other factor that can help you determine whether the player is a professional or an amateur. You will usually find mature players on medium and high stakes tables while amateur players on low stake tables. Moreover, if you see a kid sitting across the high-stakes table, then he is definitely not an experienced player and is playing poker just for fun.

Poker is a mental game that requires out of bounds concentration as players have to imperceptibly analyze situations and continuously assess opponents. And this is the primary reason poker players walk into the poker clubs with music devices and headphones. Music always play an important role in inspiring others and it?óÔé¼Ôäós no exception to be tuned up while playing live poker. Music helps live poker players to stay calm and mentally stable so that they can make right decisions while playing live poker in India. Following are the top five poker songs that poker players love listening when playing poker in Bangalore:

The Gambler by Kenny Rogers

This is the most common poker song that every poker player loves to listen to and that too repeatedly. The song is full of poker related advice, for instance, the line ?óÔé¼?ôYou got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold makes the classic poker verse.

Ace of Spades by Motor Head

Released in 1980, Ace of Spades is a heavy metal classic song based on a life of gambler. The band has used gambling metaphors, and specially poker specific words like Double Up, Seven, Stake, Split and many more.

Poker Face by Lady Gaga

This the featured poker song with the extraordinary vocals of Lady Gaga and heavy sync making it a rocky track to play on. The best thing about this song is that your mind doesn?óÔé¼Ôäót have to ponder what your ears are listening.

Survivor (I Will Survive) by Destiny’s Child

This song makes the best background music in any poker club or a casino for the players, thanks to its well-balanced bass and expanded vocals that resonate in all the parts of the room. While the vocal talent is Destiny’s Child, the key credit goes to the 20+ musicians who have worked on making this song to be an ultimate classic.

Top of the World by The Cataracs feat. Dev

It is the another song that is played in a lot of poker clubs like  Poker Room in Bangalore. It?óÔé¼Ôäós funky beat and simple melody helps to concentrate better as the tune hardly changes, and any poker music collection is incomplete without this song.

The disparity between professionals and beginners always remain immense, whether it is playing an outdoor sport like cricket in Australia or an indoor sport like playing live poker in India. Though both the games don’t relate, they require thorough understanding of the game and the practical experience player put into each move.

Continue reading “What Skills Separate Poker Professionals from Poker Beginners?”

Did you know that the tradition of playing cards does not ends in Diwali, it is welcomed again on the auspicious festival of Holi. Yes; it?óÔé¼Ôäós Holi time! While some are busy playing colorful games like to Find The Coin and Bucket Blast’s time for real men to get down and desi by playing Holi  style.

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Have you been playing poker for more than a year now? Did you visit an Indian poker room in a recent past or played poker in Bangalore? Did you noticed the number of women poker players in the poker club? Yes; so what did you observe? The very first thing that you must have seen is the increased participation of women poker players in the poker world including live poker tournaments in India. And this increased participation of women in poker industry has proved that poker is no longer just a man’s game. According to the Henden Mob Database on 3^rd March ?óÔé¼?£16, here is the list of top female poker players of the world:

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