Black Hat Poker School

B.H.P School

Three Things Before you Begin

The First - RakeBack

Before you jump into any of the poker training material I have put together for you, I have to talk to you about two very important things that will help you become a profitable poker player. With over a year's worth of Online Poker experience (6 year total playing poker), I have to tell you that one of the things that will make a big impact on your long term poker success, is the rake on the poker site...or should I say, getting some of that rake back! If you are already hooked up with a RakeBack site, awesome! You are already making some good cash from it if you are a frequent low-mid, mid, or high stakes player. If you are reading this and have no clue, of what rakeback is, then just check out the section on this site RakeBack. You will get a better understanding of what it is.

The good news is that RakeTheRake is probably the best rakeback site on the net. Not only will you get your rakeback at the sites you choose to play (not all sites offer rakeback, keep this in mind) but you will also be entered into monthly freerolls. RakeTheRake has a $25 000 freeroll every month hosted for Full Tilt RakeTheRake members, all you have to do is earn 500 FTP points every month, and you are in! There are many more benefits to getting hooked up with RakeTheRake, so just check out their site, you can find out how to get there by going to the RakeBack section on this site! Rakeback is important, so if you don't have it, you are losing LOADS of money each year!!!

The Second - Poker Software

I am sure that many of you have heard of software such as Poker Tracker 3, Holdem Manager, Holdem Genius, and a whole bunch more that exist on the net. Using at least one type of poker software is critical if you want to have higher over all profits. When you get better at playing Hold'em, you will realize that one of the best things you can do to increase your over all hourly wage, is by multi-tabling. You can multi-table Double or Nothing STTs, regular STTs, regular MTTs, and of course Cash Games (I do not recommend playing more that 2 Heads Up games at a time).

There are two types of software programs out there. The statistical trackers, like Poker Tracker 3 and poker calculators, like Holdem Calculator Pro or Holdem Genius. The statistical trackers, are more important for the advanced players, as you can build your own database with a ton of statistics on each opponent. Having this wealth of knowledge might actually be more important than live tells, why? Simply because past behaviour determines future behaviour. So if you know what your opponent has done in similar situations in the past, you can use that information against them, and exploit their play. The poker calculators on the other hand, are not that necessary for advanced players, since most of you advanced players know your outs, percentages of winning hands, and pot odds. The calculators do become very useful for beginner, or intermediate players, as they offer hand percentages, and pot odds with an almost 100% accuracy! Sometimes I wonder why some advanced players don't use these for the hell of it! I use the Indicator series in combination with Poker Tracker 3. I don't even pay attention to the calculator all that much, but since I have this software available to me, I would be stupid for not using it.

Maybe you already have one of these software programs I have mentioned and want to get your hands on a few others, but you are just short on cash, or you just don't feel like spending it on a poker software program. These programs cost on average of $70-100. They are quite expensive. Are they worth it? Some are, some are not. Check out my PokerPackage section and see which ones I use. Now the good news is that I am showing you how to get almost any software of your choice absolutely FREE!!! Who else on the net is doing this for you!? I hate to pay for thing that I can get for free. I'm sure you do too, so be sure to check out the PokerPackage section and Download my instructions "FREEPOKERSOFTWARE.zip". I give detailed instructions on how to get almost any poker software, videos, books and audios on the net !!!

If you go to the PokerSites secion of the website, I have organized for you some poker rooms that work with Poker Tracker 3 or the Holdem Indicator Series software. When you decide to sign up at a poker site take into account which sites are compatible with software and which are not. It is obviously very important to sign up to a site that does support tracker software. Remember just because you will have access to all these great poker programs, will not mean that you will become a really profitable player, by any means. This software is to be used with your knowledge and flow of the game, so it can give you an edge at the poker table. There is no substitute for practice and overall poker knowledge, so you should always be learning to keep your game at its best. Poker knowledge with the combination of poker software will turn you into powerhouse player!

The Third - Choosing a Poker Room

After Online Poker has exploded since 2004 many poker sites have popped up all over the net. There are hundreds of sites to choose from, so which ones should you decide to play at? This depends on you of course. If you like better graphics, you might sign up at a poker site such as PKR Poker, or Pacific Poker. If you are looking to get as many hands per hour as you possibly can and you don't care too much about the looks of the site's graphic interface, you might choose to play at Ultimate Bet, Absolute Poker, or Titan Poker.

When I decide to play at a poker site, I take a look at a few things:

• Does the site have RakeBack? (This is most important to me)
• Is the site popular? (Having lots of players at a site is a good thing, there will always be a good game going every time, you just have to find it)
• Does the site have a soft field? (many fish - try to find reviews on the net for this)
• Does the site work with poker software? (very important)
• Does the site offer a good player reward plan? (Poker Points - use them to buy murchandise, cash them out, or use them as tournament tickets, it all depends on what the site offers)
• Is the site legit? (If they are advertised on TV you can count that you are not getting scammed)

• You can do what is called "Bonus Whoring". You basically deposit a good amount of money at a poker site ($200-400) and then you play cash games and clear your first deposit bonus of 100% (some sites give more than 100%). When the bonus gets cleared after playing a good amount of raked hands you will get your deposit back. Generally this is paid out in 5-10 smaller payments. Say you deposit $200 and you play at Full Tilt for their 100% bonus, you will be getting $20 for each 1/10 of the bonus cleared, until you reach the $200 payout. If you manage to keep your initial bankroll at $200 the entire time, you will have $400 after the bonus is cleared. Since most sites offer only one first time 100% deposit bonus, you can just quit playing at the cleared site, and move on to the next!

• This is actually more important than the first. This is why I play on multiple poker sites. I play on sites according to the games that they offer. Since I am mainly a tournament poker player, I am always looking for good tournaments to play. The good thing about having multiple sites is that there will always be a site that has a special event running, which means that they will be hosting special tournaments, with juicy guaranteed prize pools. For example, Full Tilt hosts their FTOPS series. These tournaments (more in the mini FTOPS) are filled with fish. The only reason they are playing is because the site made good publicity, and brainwashed them into playing these tournaments. You will be surprized at how weak majority of the competition is. At least 50%-60% of the players in the mini FTOPS play an average buy-in of $3-$5 with horrible stats. Majority of these players have no clue on how to play a MTT tournament properly, which is why these tournaments are soo good. Since FTOPS is not going to be running for ever, you have to find an alternative, so that is why you sign up at more sites, to see what they have to offer. There are also really good non-special tournaments to play, but you have to search for these tournaments. What I consider a good tournament is when 15%+ of the field gets paid out and the site actually puts in money to the prize pool. If the buy in is $10+1 and its a $5K GTD tournament and there are less than 500 players registered the site is adding money to the prize pool! All you have to do is search for these types of tournaments on multiple sites, and just pick and choose the best ones to play. At 4 pm you have a good $5K GTD at Partypoker and at 6 pm there is a good 10K GTD over at Full Tilt. Having multiple sites, just makes it easier for you to chose a profitable MTT tournament. Aside from  MTT tournaments, I use certain sites for certain types of STTs. I like to use Full Tilt poker for Heads Up tournaments (weak competition + rakeback) and I use PartyPoker and PokerStars for Double or Nothing tournaments, because the competition is weak there, and because FTP does not host it. 
  

Are you just starting out?

If you are new to Texas Hold'em, or poker in general. I will be going through some of the basics with you. It is obviously very important to learn the game and have a solid foundation of what you will be doing at the table before you start to play for real money. Poker will no longer be a game for you, but a money making hobby!

I do not want to waste a lot of time writing basic poker knowledge on the site, because I really want to teach advanced poker concepts. But don't worry I will give you links to learning sites, and watch the VIDEO below!

I have also put up a quick guide that you can download in PDF format. It explains the game of Texas Holdem very briefly. Download it, its right below this...

Beginner Poker Strategies

http://www.pkr.com/poker-school/beginners-guide-to-poker.cfm

http://www.pokertips.org/strategy/strategy.php

http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/poker/poker.html

http://www.poker-strategy.org/default.aspx?tabid=57

Those four should point you into the right direction, if not, you can always Google Beginner Poker advice...etc. Don't forget to check the Poker Package section, where I teach you how to get FREE POKER BOOKS!! After you get a good grasp of these basic concepts: Learning about position, which hands to play, poker hand ranks, and the natural flow of the game, you will be able to go into the advanced concepts.

Here is a short video explaining the fundamentals of Texas Hold'em

Below is a video that will help you determine the good starting hands in Texas Holdem. Remember you can search poker hand charts on Google if necessary.

 Advanced Poker Strategies

Developing your Poker Pro Mindset 

Below are a few articles with tips that will help improve your mindset and attitude ...which is ultimately what separates the winners and losers. If you are willing to take poker seriously, I would highly recommend reading every single article I give you here. I can't stress enough how important proper mindset is!

Small-Ball Poker

This style works best in Cash Games or the beginning stages of Deep Stacked tournaments

(if you know what you are doing)

Lets begin with a style called "Small-Ball Poker". What this means is committing few chips to the pot, in hopes of winning a huge one. I advise you to only play this style of poker, if you are good at reading opponents and have had a lot of experience playing Texas Hold'em. You should only consider applying this strategy when you have a deep stack at a cash game 200bb+ or when you have a deep stack at a tournament (although for many online tournaments, this is a HORRIBLE strategy). If you don't play this style properly you can EASILY become a losing player, so be very careful! The good news is...if you do know what you are doing, this will be one of the best ways of making money with poker. Daniel Negreanu uses this method. So watch this series of videos and add "Small-Ball Poker" to your arsenal!

Note that this "Small-ball" poker is to be practiced on ONLY certain players. This will NOT work against a DONKEY! So be careful. I would only suggest playing this style if you have a large stack size, or else you can get yourself in trouble and ruin your tournament. Just take a look at Chris Ferguson's play in tournaments. Check out the $1500 NL Holdem tournament at the 2008 WSOP. He managed to pull off a 3rd place finish. The style that I have observed from him was Tight-Aggressive-Aggressive, which is the MOST profitable tournament playing style. 

Multi-Table Tournaments

This is the final 25/767 players of a of a $9 - $5K GTD at Party Poker.

I hope that this video gives you some insight into what proper play should look like in these types of tournaments. I have the "Main Tournament Strategy" poker manual on the Poker Package section. It is FREE to download, so be sure to check it out, and improve your poker game!

Heads-Up Poker

You have all heard of Heads-Up poker. For some it is the most difficult and most frightening part of a tournament, but if you learn how to play this game properly you will be winning a lot more tournaments, rather than finishing runner-up! Heads-Up poker is mainly about being able to adapt to your opponent. If you see that they call a lot with weak hands, don't bluff them, rather simply bet big when you have HUGE hands. When you raise, and you are getting run over by an overly aggressive player, just play your big hands very passively and let them do the betting for you. All you have to do is pull the trigger and raise the turn or the river, unless they have already put you all-in by then!

The number one rule is this: Play Tight-Passive from the Big Blind and Loose-Aggressive from the Small Blind (dealer). Make continuation bets often on flops from the button and you will see that you will start to win more heads up tournaments.

Starting hands

Small Blind (dealer): All the premium hands, all broadway cards (suited or not) QK, JK, KT etc.., Kx and Ax, Any suited Ace, King or Queen, Q8o+, J7o+ all pocket pairs, connectors (suited or not) 45o+, one-gappers (suited or not) 57o+

As you can see this is a wide range on the Button, You should only call 3 bets with any suited broadway hand (given its not a huge 3bet) and you should 4 bet (or go all in) with AQs, AK, TT+.

Big Blind hands: You mainly want to just check here since you are out of position with majority of hands, see if the flop connects, if not fold post flop. You should raise these hands 4x BB if not raised already : QK, ATs+, A9s, JKs, 88+, AJ+, QJs. If you get raised from the button, re raise 3-4x the bet amount with KQs, AJ+, ATs, 99+. You should call the raise from the button with any of the hands that remain from the 1st range. If If you are short stacked, you should obviously move in with weaker hands, ones you would normally play on the button.

 Double or Nothing STT

I have written a manual which I have posted in the Poker Package section of my site. Just download it and open it in Microsoft Word. I go through the advanced strategy behind playing Double or Nothing style single table tournaments. Read the strategies, watch the videos below, and you will soon be on your way to mastering Double or Nothing tournaments!

This is me playing three $11 Double or Nothing STTs at Party Poker - For a profit of $27USD in 1 hour!

Below is a video series where I completely break down a $11 buy-in Double or Nothing tournament hosted at Partypoker. Watch the whole series so you can truly master DoNs!

Remember these will take practice, just like anything else ... so don't get discouraged if you don't win 70%-75% of your games right off the batt! As a good poker player you need PATIENCE!!!

I feel that the material recommended here, should get at the level needed to enter the Black Hat Poker course. Keep in mind, that you should practice playing online with play money for at least 1-2 months, but do not play stupid! You will only hurt yourself in the long run if you play like this. It just develops bad habits for when you enter real money play. Just play with those chips as if they were real money chips!

Good luck at the tables!

Take care. 

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