If you just started out to play poker, you can think poker is just a game of luck. But when you play more often and start reading some book from well-established poker players like “Ace on the River” from Barry Greenstein or “Power Hold’em Strategy” from Daniel Negreanu, you start to think otherwise.

Just last week I argued about it with a colleague of mine. He said that poker is pure luck.
So I started out giving him example after example to prove him that skill is more important than luck.
No matter what I told him he always came down to: “Yes, but you still where lucky you got the card you wanted, etc…”

So in the next week we played poker, I introduced an extra rule into the game I once saw being used on “High stakes poker” episodes. If you win with Seven Deuce (72) in your hand and show them, you get extra chips from every player at the table. But I didn’t tell him that this rule would prove to him that skill is more important than luck.

So we started playing hand after hand, nobody got the Seven Deuce hand. Then I saw a big raise pre-flop and immediately started thinking could he playing the Seven Deuce or does he have a big pair?
My hand was bas so I folded. The ‘luck’ guy called with a KJ suited. With a rainbow A49 flop, his king wasn’t good anymore. The other guy made a big raise and he folded his KJ. The guy who won the pot laughed and showed his Seven Deuce, cashing in some extra chips from every one of us and making my point clear. But I kept quiet, it wasn’t time yet to prove he’s wrong.

A few hands later another guy again won with Seven Deuce, not against him, but he did manage to bluff his hand.
The next day another 2 guys won with Seven Deuce. I just wanted to beat him myself with that hand and still said nothing.
The last day of the week, I finally got the Seven Deuce hand and faced myself playing him and another guy. So One of them had to go before the Turn-card. With AK2 on the flop and me on the button I raised big to get one of my opponents out of the game and letting them think I have an Ace or a king.
Success, me against the guy who believes poker is just pure luck. With another K on the turn, he made a small raise. I kept my cool, looked at him and didn’t put him on an Ace or a King. So I went All-in to try and bluff him out. He hesitated and started think the hand over, I raised pre-flop, I raised after the flop and I raised again after the turn. He looked at me and folded, showing his pocket jacks.

Before I showed him my hand, I asked him, “Hey, remember our little discussion about poker being luck or skill from last week?” He knotted his head and told me: “yes I sure do, why?”
“Well…” I said, “The hand I’m going to show you right now, proves which is why playing poker is clearly a game of skill!” putting my Seven Deuce on the table.
I also explained that by introducing that Seven Deuce rule, I could prove that no matter what you’re holding in your hand, you could bluff everybody out of the game. It’s just a mind switch you’ll have to make and don’t hope that your card will fall on the river.

You tell me, what do you believe, Skill or Luck?

PokerStars is celebrating a milestone, 40 Billion hands dealt!!!

And they’re celebrating it with you. They’re organizing great value tournaments and tons of exiting cash games. 

F40 Milestone hands

Poker players dealt in every millionth hand will win a cash prize of $40 for every VPP they earned in the previous 40 hands played on that table. Every player that’s dealt in will be awarded a VPP and the winner of the hand will get their cash prize doubled.
Example: Play at a $1/$2 table and get dealt into a milestone hand. PokerStars calculates that you have earned 31VPPs in the last 40 hands + the extra VPP = 32 VPPs. This means 32x$40 = $1280!!! If you win the hand it will be doubled to $2560!!!
And to top it off, at the time the 40th Billion hand will be dealt, all players will be awarded $400 for every VPP earned in the previous 40 hands.
Example: 32VPP x $400 = $12800. Win the hand and earn a whopping $25600!!!!

Multi-Table tournaments (MTTs)

F40:Sunday Million $4.000.000 guaranteed on February 21st, the biggest prize pool EVER, with at least $1.000.000 for the winner!! Buy-in $215
F40: $40 Micro Million $1,000,000 guaranteed tournament

A special F40 tournament takes place at 14:30 ET on Sunday, February 14. For a buy-in of just $40 you can play for your share of a guaranteed $1,000,000 prize pool.

F40: 40 FPP - $40,000 Specials

You can also play in a series of special F40 FPP tournaments. Each has a buy-in of only 40 FPPs and a prize pool of $40,000. Start times will alternate between 13:40 ET & 21:40 ET each day.
To register for the Sunday Million or any of the other F40 tournaments, open the PokerStars lobby, click ‘Tourney’ & ‘Special’.

Sit & Go’s

F40: Super Sit & Go tournaments

A series of 40-man Super Sit & Go torunaments will be helt 24/7 from February 14 till February 21.

F40: First Depositor Freerolls

Every player whit a first real money deposit on PokerStars using the code F40 will be awarded a ticket to all 40 of PokerStars free-to-enter tournaments with a $1000 prize pool.

The WBCOOP returns for 2010!

It’s time for all poker-playing bloggers to put down the keyboard and mouse and get ready for action, because the annual PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker (WBCOOP) is back once again. This time round the seven-day event includes six preliminary tournaments, running January 25-30, 2010. The action culminates with the Main Event on January 31, and you can register for all of the events now. What’s more, the WBCOOP is completely free-to-enter for all verified bloggers.

Every year the WBCOOP gives bloggers from all over the world the chance to play tournament poker for great prizes. It’s the perfect way to challenge other poker writers, and compete to prove that you are the best in the business. This year you can win seats to the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP)*, plus SCOOP Steps satellite tickets. We’ll also be awarding spot prizes during the event for the best live blogs and Twitter posts.

So if you have a blog that’s older than 2 months and regulary updated, you can join th eaction and try to win your seat. I’m alreasy registered, hope to see you there!

What hands should you play
When playing poker, your starting hands are very important, but when to play them is even more important.
In the last year, I’ve read a small amount of poker books and pokersites to get my game better.
Especially the sections with starting hands interested me. After trying different methods from different players or sites, some successful, some not.
But by time I started out using a combination of a few charts, matching my playing style.

Hands I play in every position
Pocket pair: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, 1010, 99
Suited cards: AK, AQ, AJ, A10, KQ, KJ, K10, QJ, Q10, J10
Unsuited: AK, AQ, AJ, KQ
With these hands, you should raise whenever you’re n middle or late position. If on the blinds, only raise whenever you’ll have a pocket pair or suited AK or AQ. Remember, you’re first to bet in the next draw so a weak hand isn’t good to bet on the blind.

Middle position
Pocket pairs: 88, 77, 66
Suited: A9 to A6, K9, Q9, J9, J8
Unsuited: A10, K10, QJ, Q10, J10

When you’re holding these cards, you have gained a little info about your opponents in front of you and depending on what they’re doing, you could call or raise. Remember there are still people behind you on the table and most of the times you still need to hit a card to win the hand. So don’t bet to much unless you have a good feeling about the table.

Late postion

Pocket pairs: 55 to 22
Suited: A5 to A2, K8 to K2, J7, 107, 98, 97, 87, 86, 76, 75, 65, 54
Unsuited: A9, A8, A3, A2, K9, Q9, J9, J8, 109, 108, 98, 97, 87

These hands aren’t hands to raise, just call to get to see the flop for as cheap as possible. Maybe you’ll hit a monster.
Also if a player in front of you raises big before the flop, throw your hands away, only call small raises.

Other hands
The hands I didn’t mentioned are practically unplayable, you should only play them on the blinds and hope you’ll flop a monster that will turn the tables in your favor.

For US and Canada players only!
You have a chance to win $1.000.000 on PokerStars for free. Register in one of the tournaments that are running to win an entry to the big pot.
Tournaments can be found under ‘Tourney’, ‘Regional’ button. Look for “FOX-PS Million Dollar Challenge”.
Top 10 finishers will be asked to submit an audition movie where 21 auditions will be selected to compete in the next stage.

A series of heads-up matches to win $25.000 against team PokerStars pro’s and celebrity poker players. Daniel Negreanu will be there to coach you and help you beating them all.
After this you can take home the $25k or go for a guaranteed $100.000 and a shot to the $1.000.000 main prize if you beat Daniel Negreanu.

Don’t have the PokerStars software installed? No problem, you can download it right here.

Good luck!!!