Molly's Online Poker and Sportsbook Guide

I get asked a lot of poker strategy questions, from beginner to advanced. Some are easy, but some involve the kind of math I can't always do off the top of my head. When that happens, I rely on one of a number of free tools to calculate the probability of winning the hand.

Here's an example based on a hand posted on a website I run:

Our hero was playing at a small stakes No-Limit table online, with $.25-$.50 blinds. At the start of the hand, he had $44. He was dealt Ad-Td and raised to $2. Both blinds called. The flop was Kd-Jd-2c, giving our hero a royal flush draw. The big blind bet $2, hero raised $2 more, the next player called, and the big blind (with more chips than our hero) re-raised all-in. more...

Most Pot Limit Omaha players know that Omaha is a game of "the nuts." In a multi-way pot, the winning hand is, more often than not, the best possible hand out there. When you start with four cards, you have six different possible two-card hands. This increases the chances that someone is holding the nuts. What many beginning Pot Limit Omaha players do not understand is that Omaha is really a game of redraws.

A redraw means that after the flop, you not only have some kind of made hand, you also have draws to a better hand. Having redraws in Pot Limit Omaha is so important that it is sometimes mathematically correct to fold the nuts on the flop. For example: suppose you raise in the late position with Ac Kh Tc 9h -- a very good starting Omaha hand. more...

There are few better situations in poker than to enter final table play as the big stack. However, there's a big difference in coming to the final table with the chip lead and in knowing how to use your stack to take control of the final stages of a tournament.

There are many players who don't slow down once they reach the final table with a big stack. I'm not one of them. By the time I reach the final table, I'll have already played a number of hands against about half of the other remaining players. I'll have developed reads on their games, and they will have done the same with me, which makes this a good time to switch gears. If I've been hammering away aggressively before the final table, I'll often slow things down and go back to playing a more tight-aggressive style than I had been just a short time earlier. more...

It's important to realize that strategies vary for different limits, due to the amount of money involved and the general skill of the players at the table. Micro limit poker has some interesting dynamics and culture due to the fact that the amount wagered at any time is not a lot of money to most of the online players. It stands to reason that the majority of the players play at these low limits because they are beginners trying to gain experience or they are on a limited bankroll. Many of the significant cultural differences between micro limit and the higher limit tables can be broken down into these key observations. (Throughout this article I will use common shorthand to represent the cards. AK means, of course, an ace and a king. T8 means a ten and an 8. QJs means queen jack suited, while QJo means queen jack off suited. Kx means a king and a card of no significance to the hand. A common term used will be connectors, which means cards connected in rank, such as 76 or T9.) more online poker strategy...

I recently competed in a televised tournament where several players lost focus on their game. They were either trying to gun for a particular opponent at their table or making some ill-advised moves to show off for the cameras. In every case, these players were making the same mistake -- letting their egos get in the way of their game.

While most players will never have the opportunity to try and take down a big name pro or make "fancy" poker moves in front of a TV camera, far too many people still let their egos get in the way of playing solid poker. Once that happens, they lose sight of their long-term goals and start playing for purposes other than winning. more...

As you're looking through this week's schedule and you're trying to decide on which teams to bet on, it's always a good idea to look at the home dogs first. When you take the dog, there are three results that can occur in a game: the dog can win, the favorite can win, or the dog can lose but cover. Two of those outcomes are good, only one is bad! Take the Week One game between Atlanta at San Francisco. San Francisco was down 21-13 and came back with a late touchdown that really didn't affect the outcome of the game (Atlanta won 21-19), but all of a sudden your +3.5 looks pretty good. Then in Week Two it was the New York Giants (+3) over Washington with some impressive looking defense from what I could tell. more...

Also known as a combo, a parlay is a selection of two or more wagering outcomes, in which the odds for the payouts increase with the number of teams (sides/totals) chosen; the more teams you choose to parlay, the better the payout. You can combine different sports, pointspreads and moneylines in win/loss and/or totals betting.

In all honesty it's hard for me, on behalf of players, to recommend parlays because of the high hold percentage given to the house, but I can understand why players like betting parlays - it's all about the big payoffs! "Sometimes the smallest investments can turn into the greatest rewards," said one winner. more...

Arguably, there is no simpler bet than the game total. Simply add the score of the two teams together (including Overtime) and if it is higher than the posted total, the Over wins. If it is lower than the posted number, the Under wins. It doesn't get easier than that. However, unlike pointspreads, many new bettors have difficulty predicting outcomes for totals, either from lack of experience or just lack of knowledge.

Most bettors are fans and fans like points so the Over is always a popular choice for recreational bettors. This results in the totals typically moving up over the course of the week. However, professional bettors know this and bet enough Unders to keep bookmakers honest and the posted totals fair. A simple rule for betting totals though is to bet the Over early in the week and the Under late. This won't always work but if you track this rule over any length of time, you should see it holds up as a general trend. more...