Going back to the days before the poker boom who could have imagined that poker would be such a part of modern day culture in 2010? Not only that, but the game is now considered cool. If you are a poker nerd talking about three betting light and push fold ranges whilst wearing outrageous hats and sunglasses you will appreciated for your skill rather than dismissed as a weird card player. So just what makes Poker so suitable for modern day culture, and will it last?

When Chris Moneymaker turned $40 into $2.5 million in 2003 the idea that cards and poker could be a quick and easy access to wealth really caught the imagination of people. Players note sure about strategy had the added benefit that the newly implemented hole-card cameras showed them the strategy used by the professional players and the myth of “secret strategies” used by professional poker players was broken forever. Players could now see the strategies used to win by players making millions from the game and replicate them into their own poker game. The pace in the growth of poker went up another notch.

Poker rooms began marketing for new players and as the games filled with these new players the potential to earn money from online poker was so high people flocked to join in. Demand and market conditions meant that other poker rooms arrived on the scene to grab their slice of the new and juicy poker pie. The snowball effect took hold and exploded the popularity of the game in a very short space of time.

Suddenly anyone with an Internet connection could play online poker. As more and more households connected to the Internet new players were appearing from everywhere. The age old taboo surrounding the game was now replaced by a game that offered opportunity rather than a guaranteed route to disaster. Players from Backgammon, Chess, Video Games and Mathematics all realised that their skills could be used to dip into the huge prize pools on offer if they mastered poker. The tidal wave of poker had completely smashed into mainstream culture with devastating speed.

Only the global recession in 2007 to 2009 slowed down the gravy train. The bad players had either improved or left the game and people saved rather than spent their money. Gaming became a luxury many families could not afford. A consequence of this meant that the games got tougher and now even the micro-limit cash games are not easy to beat. Any player wanting to learn to play poker must now be aware that we are not in the “glory days” of the poker boom any longer. You can still win but you must learn about bankroll management and take your time before playing against more experienced players. Prize pools are still amazing, but perhaps a little tougher to win.

We have moved into the age of poker training and diligent learning. Fortunately there will always be good player pools in casinos for live events and online poker tournaments will be filled thanks to the boom. We must now earn our crust at the tables with a solid game of ABC poker. Putting in the effort now whilst times are a little harder will be worth it if there is another poker boom in the future. Markets like the Asian market are not fully saturated yet so it is not the end of online poker, only a little quieter than its crazy introduction to mainstream culture.

Things like wide screen monitors and high tech training means poker is now being linked with technology to improve the experience of playing poker online. Poker rooms continue to compete and improve their online software to draw in new customers. Poker is now growing at a smaller and more sustainable rate, but it is still growing and is still a great game to learn, participate and win money from playing and the future is certainly bright for all forms of poker both live and online.

By Malcolm Clarke

When you bet on sports you want an action packed experience and you want to win a bit of money too. For many years I have been a fan of Ice Hockey. I used to play a little when I was younger but alas was never good enough to carry on my interest into adulthood. There is an excellent league in the United Kingdom that is competitive and affordable to watch. Betting on Ice Hockey in the United Kingdom should not be dismissed as an uninteresting betting market.

It is difficult for the bookmakers to accurately compile the correct odds at the beginning of the Ice Hockey season because the team rosters change so dramatically in the off-season with many new players signed and old players moving on each year. Therefore you have a good opportunity to profit if you do your homework on the players and see if any team has signed players very shrewdly and could be an unexpected force in the upcoming Elite League season.

With end to end action and plenty of goals Ice Hockey is a very entertaining sport to bet on. An elite league match is also shown on Sky Sports once a week if you like to watch the matches from home and keep up to date with what is happening. Because the teams play regularly you can get a good idea on current team form and, more importantly, how the teams have played against each other so far in the season.

UK Ice Hockey gets a bad name because no UK trained player has ever gone on to appear in the NHL. However, many NHL players (usually towards the end of their career I must admit) come over and play in the UK. Theo Fleury, Daniel Goneau and goalkeeper Andrew Verner have all played for teams in the elite league. Fleury in particular was one of the stars of the NHL at the peak of his career.

My local Ice Hockey team is the Newcastle Vipers. They are an enigma of a team and recently lost their one of their best players when Matus Petricko decided to move back to his native country after an offer from a Hungarian team. I very much enjoy the Live betting section of my favourite bookmaker bwin.com sports betting website but I also enjoy placing my bets and going to watch the match live. If you live in the UK there is an Ice Hockey team in Belfast, Nottingham, Sheffield, Newcastle, Manchester, Hull, Coventry and Edinburgh so if you are interested in Ice Hockey there is a team not too far away from you. There are also lower leagues in operation throughout the UK, but bwin offers odds mainly on the elite league matches as well as for the major leagues throughout Europe and, of course, the NHL.

Newcastle Vipers are 1/1 to beat Cardiff at home (normally they play at the Newcastle Arena but the match is being played at Whitley Bay which is even further for the Cardiff team to travel) with the draw at 7/2 and Cardiff at 31/20 to win. Face-off is at 7.30pm on Saturday so make sure all bets are placed before the face-off. Newcastle narrowly lost 5-4 at Cardiff last weekend and will be hoping to do better at Whitley on Saturday. I am backing them at even money to win that match. There are three other fixtures this weekend from the elite league and match betting is always available by clicking United Kingdom under the Ice Hockey section on the bwin website.

If you enjoy sports betting you will love betting on Ice Hockey and the UK has a league to follow if you like to watch the teams you are betting on in action live.

By Malcolm Clarke

Poker enjoys a massive level of participation with hundreds of thousands of players everyday logging into their favourite poker rooms and playing their poker hands. I remember logging on to Ultimate Bet early in 2000 and thinking what a strange way to spend your time playing cards on the Internet. How little did I realise just how much I would enjoy it and so many others in just a few years time! But what makes the game so popular?

The Moneymaker Effect

Turning $40 into $2.5 million is amazing even in today’s poker world but back in 2003 before poker went mainstream it was unheard of. Most people thought poker players were steely nerved gamblers but suddenly an amateur in Chris Moneymaker demonstrated that you could compete with the best players in the world, and win! The introduction of hole card cameras allowed players to watch the professionals and learn a style of play that could win. Players discovered poker at an astonishing rate and the poker boom took off. Poker websites, poker training sites and many books and related poker material hit the market instantly and the tidal wave effect took poker into the mainstream. It has been quite a ride ever since.

The Wow Factor

There is something amazing about watching the top professional poker players fighting it out for pots worth $500,000! There is something very naughty about watching people treat money with such disregard as that contrasts how the majority of us treat money. We also are gripped with following the progress of our favourite players secretly wishing we could do what they do and live the high life. Which we will probably never achieve, but of course every poker player thinks they are good enough to sit among the top players.

Poker Tournament Dreaming

As well as watching the top players play for big money we can also take part. Can you win a fortune at a professional golf event or play football for Man Utd? Unless you are already a professional then no, you cannot. You can buy into any poker tournament or satellite in and take on the best for life changing amounts of money, at any age. Dare to dream because it is possible. Harrison Gimbel is 19 and has just won $2.2 million in one poker tournament. He was staked but a good proportion of that money is his to keep and there is no rule that you must be staked. If you have a chip and a chair you could be the next big winner. That dream keeps poker tournament fields large enough to provide this big wins and who knows, it could be you or me next in line for a massive victory and life changing prizes.

Accessibility and Image

Poker is popular because providing you have a computer and Internet connection you can play anywhere in the world. On holiday next to a swimming pool in your private villa or stuck in your dirty bedroom that really needs a vacuuming are perfect places for online poker. It is easy to play and prizes in online poker can be as crazy as live poker. Poker players are considered cool in today’s society and have a far better street image than, for example, a chess player. Poker players in a group are called “crews”, so that means you are cool if you play poker. We are certainly and most definitely not nerds. 

There are also millions of poker blogs on the Internet that have players posting video, podcasts, live poker radio, hand analysis and poker articles. You have more poker related content online than you could ever read with more being added all the time. Whatever is the main reason poker is so popular in today’s culture it seems there is nothing that can stop its growth.

By Malcolm Clarke

When the Glazer family bought Man Utd and in turn placed them in unprecedented levels of debt there were very real concerns raised by their fans as to the long term security of the club. FC United of Manchester was founded by fans disillusioned by the Glazer purchase of the club and preferred to support the non-league side as they started working their way through the leagues from the bottom level of football. The future seemed bleak for the largest club in the world.

That was five years ago. Since that time the club has re-financed in 2006 and pays around £62 million per season on interest. Ticket prices have increased but still they sell-out their stadium for every home game. Success continued on the pitch with Premiership titles, FA Cups and even a Champions league victory. Football betting odds on Man Utd were always low and they continued to dominate English football and be a major force in European games. They also continued to invest big money in top young players like Nani, Anderson and of course Wayne Rooney. Much of the panic from the beginning Glazer era melted away….until this week.

News that Wayne Rooney wants a contract in the region of £140,000 per week to give the best years of his career to Manchester Utd caused media to speculate this was too much for the clubs finances to handle and that he may be sold to ease debts. The club made a profit of £42 million for the financial year 2008/2009, yet they received £80 million cash from Real Madrid for superstar Cristiano Ronaldo. This means had they kept Ronaldo the club would have faced a large loss of £38 million. This worries many fans as they do not want to sell their best players to balance the books every year. Alex Ferguson has also said that he has the £80 million to spend on new players but has found no-one suitable. Unfortunately for him a lot of this £42 profit will be subject to tax, further reducing available transfer funds.

Much of Man Utds firepower has come from Rooney this season so his requests for wages that reflect his status as the clubs top star is not unexpected. Despite the club indicating they will not be held to ransom you would expect the one star they would make concessions for would be Rooney. Should they sell him then there would be major questions asked over the motivation of the sale. Why sell one of the most skilful and tenacious strikers in the world and replace him with a prospect? Surely the years spent developing Wayne Rooney’s talents after his move from Everton was designed to equip him with the skills to benefit Man Utd, rather than sell on for a profit. This would make Man Utd into a selling team, a worrying shift from pre-Glazer years where Man Utd bought stars and kept them for their whole careers.

Alex Ferguson was criticised by fans for not paying to finalise a permanent move for Carlos Tevez who went on to sign for rivals Man City. He said that he did not believe that Tevez was value for the £25 million the owner of his economic rights was demanding. Perhaps it was a restriction of funds and he knew that £25 million was all he had to spend on other targets? Since Ronaldo left the club only free transfer signings Gabriel Obertan, Michael Owen and a comparatively cheap deal for Valencia have been purchased. They are all good players, but not the type of world class player Man Utd was linked to. Franck Ribery, Kaka and David Villa were rumoured targets, yet none were actually purchased.

Football betting fans may start to look at the opposition of Man Utd as value if they continue to shed their stars. With Liverpool straining under large debts and looking increasingly likely to implode, it may be clubs like Chelsea and Arsenal who begin to dominate the league once again as the financial mismanagement of the Glazer family causes the problems to resonate on the pitch for Alex Ferguson and his team.

Without the income from Champions league, Premiership and FA Cup wins the future could be very bleak for Manchester United.

By Malcolm Clarke

Before June 1st the UK must have a general election to decide which party leads the country for the next parliamentary term. Political betting can be an effective path to profit for those who enjoy reading the political updates in the newspapers and predicting the countries mood for change and voting preferences.

Gordon Brown was almost challenged for his leadership last week when Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt, two former front bench politicians sent an email to all MP’s then going public with a call for unity by having a secret ballot to definitively decide whether the party believe Gordon Brown is the right leader. This is not the first time Brown has faced calls for his resignation and was said to be in real danger when James Purnell resigned in 2009. Having survived the latest coup after cabinet members (rather lukewarmly) supported Mr Brown, the question for political bettors is, has this affected the chances of a Labour party majority at the general election?

The general election odds from bwin suggests not. They have the Conservative party very heavy favourites at 1.07, with the Labour Party in second place at odds of 7.00. The Liberal Democrats, who realistically have a very small chance of victory, have odds of 67.00. These odds are for the political parties to gain an overall majority. The media and many commentators have also raised the possibility that there will be a hung parliament and no party with one overall majority.

There are also odds offered by bwin on whether there will be an overall majority. They are favouring a Conservative victory and bwin are offering odds of 1.20 for an overall majority (this can be for any party as the bet is successful as long as there is a majority at all).

Without doubt this is the closest election for many years, probably since 1992 when John Major of the Conservatives was elected after beating the favourite Neil Kinnock of the Labour Party to 10 Downing Street. The subsequent Labour victories in 1997, 2001 and 2005 were all expected and no great surprise to anyone. The majority Labour holds has been falling and the last few years very difficult from a political perspective and perhaps this will be the moment where the country decides on change and votes the Conservatives back to power. The polls suggest this is a real possibility, although they have been wrong before.

In my opinion political betting fans who are looking to make a bet must to look at Labours odds of 7.00 for any value as odds of 1.07 for a Conservative win are too short to hold any value. The bookmakers have obviously taken a large amount for a Conservative victory already and are looking to balance their book. Considering the Tories have not yet been lauded by the majority of the media as the right choice (think back to Blair in 1997) it is correct to say the election result is still in the balance. This makes the Labour odds of 7.00 look a bit more appetising.

Even a Labour supporter like me has to concede that a Conservative victory has been there for the taking. Internal leadership struggles, the economic downturn, the failure to lift the country out of recession and announce any real plans for the obvious spending cuts to reduce the countries deficit have dealt blows to Labours election victory chances. Yet many still believe they still have a chance to win which to me shows that the Conservatives have failed to show they are a credible alternative to run the country.

Many voters are still bitter about some of the Conservative mistakes of the John Major reign. David Cameron has also made some strange statements in an effort to be PR friendly which has backfired.

Even if Labour are re-elected thanks to their oppositions ineffective campaigning and credibility that would still mean a win for Labour supporters in the betting market. Your task before you bet is to decide whether you believe Labour can really win or whether the 1.07 for a Conservative victory is sensible foresight.

By Malcolm Clarke

The interest in Tennis and Tennis betting in the UK revolves around one player who is among the top players in either of the male and female tours, Andy Murray. He is the only realistic hope for titles and Grand Slam wins. Although Tim Henman was in the top five at the pinnacle of his career during the 1990’s and early 2000’s, it is Murray who is legitimately challenging Federer, Nadal and Djokovic at the top of the men’s game. Henman was always considered just outside the best players in terms of ability and apart from 2001 and a French Open final he was never really in contention for a major win. Murray, however, seems to be in with a chance to win multiple major titles.

Considering if you are a fan of betting on tennis and you are a patriotic Brit your Tennis betting will probably include Murray in some way this season and we are going to consider in this article whether he is good value for your bets.

Since Andy managed to make the final of the US Open in 2008 he has won many ATP and masters tour events but has yet to revisit a major final. His best opportunity seems to be at the US Open as his game is best on the hard courts. Murray won at Queens and had a good run at Wimbledon but ran out of steam losing in the semi finals. He has not yet developed the ability to win his opening four rounds in straight sets against tricky opponents in the longer matches at the grand slams. This is something that the perennial finalists like Federer and Nadal consistently achieve and this keeps them fresh for the tougher matches later in the tournament. This is easier said than done of course.

Murray will be among the favourites for the Australian Open because of his high world ranking yet historically he is has only reached the fourth round of the competition in 2007 and 2009. Certainly it is a possibility he may win with Roger Federer losing some matches in the early part of the season and Nadal better on the clay courts. You may think that he is value due to the slightly longer odds because of his past performances in Australia or you may stay away because of his history of struggling at this event. Betting on Murray in slams is always an interesting bet!

My thoughts for the Tennis season concerning Murray is that in the first to two set matches on the tour he is a large favourite in any match. He breaks the serve of his opponent thanks to a superb return of serve. He can be broken rather more frequently than his other highly ranked counterparts but in masters events he seems to have the formula for victory. If he can resurrect his tour form in the Grand Slam tournaments then he may win that first major in 2010 and then the sky is the limit for him.

In the ladies game Heather Watson and Laura Robson are coming through the junior ranks and into the professional game. They may stage some upsets in the early rounds of the ladies Grand Slams if they qualify so if you like to “Bet on the Brits” in tennis then look out for these young ladies as they try to break through into the top echelon of women’s tennis.

To research your tennis betting for the season you should follow the ATP World Tour closely to follow not only the results of Andy Murray but of all the tour professionals. Remember that winning Tennis bets is about selecting winners of any nationality in any tennis match. Profit opportunities abound through this popular sport and there is lots of coverage on television so you can follow who to bet on and watch their matches.

By Malcolm Clarke

Poker is a game of managing risk. Those poker players who work hard, have a bit of talent and can manage risk effectively have a great chance of success. My research into poker leads me to believe that success at poker brings many relevant skills to the surface for any person seeking self fulfilment and achievement in any field. You can apply many facets of poker to everyday life. This gives poker more relevance than simply winning money and can equip you with excellent life skills. Improving your online poker game can be more than just mastering a very popular card game.

Gambling has a bad reputation. I have friends who tell me that when they are introduced to people as a professional poker player they are considered addicts who are too lazy to get a “real job”. These detractors of poker do not realise that property investors, stocks and shares investors and any entrepreneur that has ever lived has been a gambler. There is a risk in everything and good poker players are as good as businessmen at managing risk. Just as a businessman knows their market, poker players know how to play, who to play against and where their money is best placed for profit. Poker players are acutely aware that what they do is risky, giving them an advantage over other forms of investors like property entrepreneurs who do not think they will lose because “property always goes up”.

You should know through goal setting where you want to be in twelve months time. Using the principles of good bankroll management and to be frank, common sense, you should not risk all of your capital wealth to be a professional poker player. This is high risk strategy for poker and for life but some people do live this way. Learning the patience and discipline required for winning poker leads to more self control in situations away from the poker table. Anyone who can grind $100 into $1000 or rebound from $500 down to $60 and back to $500 again following good bankroll management is set for life in terms of emotional control. Poker can train you for all of these things if you learn poker carefully and diligently.

Dealing with the negative image poker has is also character building. I remember reading an article about a leading UK poker player in one of the national newspapers that said how worried his family was over his high stakes gambling. It made out that this person was about to lose everything and live on the street. As someone part of the poker community I know that this person is far from losing everything. They are established and fortunate enough to be sponsored and earn enough each month from poker away from the table to more than cover reasonably large cash game losses. While the losses look bad they had sustained over a short time, they had earned far more elsewhere from poker.

Emotional control that you must exercise at the poker table is necessary when dealing with opponents who want to put you on tilt and take you off your A game. Anyone who works knows that co-workers can be like this to a large degree in some cases. Self control and control of your emotions will positively impact your life in many ways aside of poker. Improving the way you deal with such behaviour is a great life skill.

Many areas of poker from the financial management and tilt control, patience and self awareness and control can be of great benefit to your everyday life. This article may not completely convince your family that your poker playing is beneficial to you but hopefully you can prove them wrong by becoming a winning poker player. Depending on your frequency and stakes you play people often waste far more money drinking in a pub three or more times per week than you wager at cards, it just looks worse to an outsider who worry you will get addicted.

Well done for reading articles such as this and approaching the game in the right way so that it can really help you in many ways from profits to self development.

By Malcolm Clarke

Sit still because everyone is watching. Say nothing, do not breathe or move or speak. This is the standard primer on not giving any poker tells at the table and is, if I may say so, a little extreme. When you play poker there are a range of different things you can do to avoid giving tells. Texas Hold ‘em poker players all have a different approach to detecting tells and avoiding giving them and it is very interesting to learn the tactics players use in relation to physical tells. This article is more focused on live poker rather than online poker because when playing on your favourite poker sites you can put your head in your hands and scream for a fold if you make a bluff attempt and nobody can see you!

If you ask a none poker player to do a poker face, what do they do? They try and look unemotional and keep as still as possible. Many new players think that the key to poker is looking for tells on an opponent then exploiting them to win all of the chips. In reality it is a little more difficult and a lot different. Tells are important but it is so difficult to know whether a tell is real, genuine or just you trying to convince yourself you can see something that is not there that it plays less of a role in poker than a novice may think.

What players cannot hide is the way their hands are played. Optimal poker strategy suggests that in a certain scenario a player plays poker in a certain way and if you can detect these patterns you can put them on a hand and know how to play against them. This gives you a great advantage in a tough situation if you know how the player plays poker. The true poker tells are in hand reading and opponent profiling. Having a read on a player is knowing their tendencies and being able to predict backwards why they made the play they did. They may be twitching, poking their hair and being physically predictable but one thing that never ever lies is the way they play poker hands.

Rarely does a player deliberately play a hand badly to deceive opponents in the way they would shuffle, cough or do something else to deceive a player from knowing their physical tells. Doing things like this is quite a basic and effective way to hide any physical tells. Only a weak player deliberately loses money to give false information about that style. If only to set up a future bluff it is a risky and losing way of playing poker.

Professional players often use scare tactics to make a player feel uncomfortable. They stare down a player looking for reads in their behaviour. Daniel Negreanu says that professionals use these scare tactics to make a player think twice about making a move in future hoping they remember feeling decidedly uncomfortable during the tactical stare down. This method tries to take the less experienced player out of their comfort zone so they either play badly or reveal more about their style by either talking or revealing information through body language.

Sometimes you can be so focused on working out a player physically that you forget to watch the betting. Do they always raise pre-flop with the goods? Are they trappy or tricky? Before watching out for physical tells do your homework learning their playing tendencies through their patterns of play and player style. This is far more profitable to you than risking all of your chips re-shoving because the player touched their nose like they did when they were bluffing three hands ago. They might just have a cold!

By Malcolm Clarke

So far, so good in the eyes of England fans hoping for World Cup success in South Africa next summer in 2010. Following a favourable World Cup group draw where England have been drawn against Algeria, Slovenia and the USA the outright odds for England to win the World Cup stand at 7.00. In light of the group drawing England have avoided teams like France and look very likely to progress to the knock out stages. Terry Venables said in an interview that “England could have hand picked this draw and been happy with it”.

Is there any extra value in the 7.00 for the outright betting market from the football betting odds from bwin? Perhaps seeing that England now have a smooth run into the knockout stages barring a huge mishap which is unlikely under military-esque manager Fabio Capello. England usually qualify for the knockout stages quite easily but struggle to win the three big games you will have in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final to take home these big tournaments. Drawing the matches leads to penalties and we all know our history when that happens. Victories from penalty shootouts have been seldom.

The World Cup winning squad of 1966 are now into their 70’s and are known not for the career achievements but for the achievements of that one game against West Germany. The pressure on our players is immense because hope is being replaced by expectation, especially now that we are expected to coast through the group stages. England are further helped by the fact that they play the USA first so a win against them would virtually assure safe passage to the knock out stages. This match is, however, a potential banana skin so a good start is needed. Looking at the match without emotion you would expect a comfortable 2-0, 3-0 or 3-1 victory most of the time in this match.

England are priced at 1.30 to win the group outright and 1.05 to qualify from the group. This suggests that the bookmakers believe the tournament starts for England when they reach the knock out stages of the competition. Football betting fans can rely on Fabio Capello not to experiment with the side as much as Sven-Goran Eriksson might have done given the easier matches. On a side note Capello will be hoping that Manchester Utd and Chelsea do not meet in the latter stages of the Champions league as many of the England squad would feature in the game. Injuries may affect the betting as this tournament and the Premiership season unfolds.

England’s first match against the USA is played on June 12th 2010 at 8.30pm. England are priced at 1.55 to win this match and I think this presents early value in a match England really should win. The draw is 3.50 and USA are priced at odds of 6.50 to pull off the upset. If Slovenia live up to their billing as favourites in their match and England beat Algeria, which they should as they are 1.30 to win it, then the final match against Slovenia will be a big game. Although well into the future and the actual betting odds will depend on other results, currently England are 1.50 favourites to win that match.

The group stage of the World Cup looks like England should progress but they cannot take anything for granted. In a match where you are expected to win in order to break even then only a victory is acceptable. This must still be attained but should be very possible in what is certainly a nice draw for us. The World Cup comes around once every four years and the country will stop to cheer on the lads.

Keep this site logged and check for updates on odds and World Cup betting as the season progresses.

By Malcolm Clarke

With two hole cards facing down and one face up Seven Card Stud is immediately different from Texas Hold ‘em. Learning the correct starting hands for seven card stud is essential to getting a good win percentage. By the time you read this article you will have a better idea on what constitutes a good starting hand in seven card stud.

In the low limit Stud games, lack of knowledge on your opponents part means that many hands are played all the way to showdown. This increases the need for selective starting hands to give you a good chance of getting a winning hand come showdown.

It is recommended that where possible the lowest card you hold is the highest card showing around the table. In stud games you are only making a hand with your own cards, there are no community cards. In seven card stud high (this article does not deal with Stud Hi-Lo) it therefore makes sense to have more than one way to win in the hand. An example of another type of strong starting hand in seven card stud is three cards to a flush. The higher the flush draw the better. Ah-Jh-2h is a strong starting hand. You could catch a Jack, Ace or flush cards. Count how many of the suit you hold is showing elsewhere on the table and then work out the odds of hitting your flush accurately.

Suited connectors or three cards to a straight give good open ended straight draw opportunities or back door flushes. The benefits of these starting hands are that when you are drawing to these hands, because two of the cards to the straight are face down they are concealed from your opponents rather than the having most of your straight in the up cards. You can also monitor which of these cards are dealt face up to your opponents so knowing when to fold becomes easier with more accurate pot odds. High connected cards also offer opportunities for hitting high pairs, which are likely to be strong hands.

Sets are good starting hands however you must be careful that straights and flushes do not hit later in the hand that beat you. Sets look incredibly strong when dealt as stud high starting hands and this type of hand will be the most common hands to be overplayed by intermediate players. Lower sets in particular should be approached with a degree of caution as they are beat by straights, flushes and better sets.

When your face up card is an Ace there are certain benefits to playing the hand. If there are no other Aces showing from your opponents then providing you have another positive reason to play the hand, whether that be a flush possibility or straight possibility then you can proceed in the hand. It is not a very strong hand, but certainly playable. Other poker strategy articles say that a hand like this can only be played if it is raise worthy. This follows the same lines as having extra strength in addition to the Ace in terms of potential flushes or straights.

Learning seven card stud will help you learn good hand reading skills and learn the changing odds better than Texas Hold ‘em can. As you can see your opponents up cards there are more calculations to make and tougher decisions during a hand. By learning to play only positive expected value starting hands like the ones mentioned above, then you improve your chances of beating the stud games significantly. This used to be the game that before No Limit Texas Hold ‘em hit the big time was the game of choice for poker players. When you play it you will see why that was.

By Malcolm Clarke