NBA Betting Tips

Let’s look ahead to the playoffs and, instead of predicting which teams will be the best basketball betting tips, this week the champion or the two teams that’ll make it to the NBA finals, it might be more helpful to take a look at who’ll be the breakout star of the second season.

Last year it was Chris Paul. Would knowing that have helped you form your playoffs’ betting plan? Perhaps, but it certainly wouldn’t have hurt.

So who’s is going to be this year?

How about Brandon Roy? If the Blazers get out of the first round, they not only will put a nice little scare into the Lakers, but Roy will light it up, dazzling fans across the nation and improving on his regular season average of 22 points a game. Brandon Roy will be a household name next year. What impresses me the most about this guy is his ability to put up points when the pressure is on (late this season against other playoff teams) and his 48% field goal percentage, proving he’s not just chucking up all his teams’ shots and hoping some fall, he’s actually a great shooter.

Also, look for Derrick Rose, who’s a no-brainer for Rookie of the Year (you’d think), to make a playoff impact. Whether he’ll become a true breakout star might depend on how long the Bulls actually stick around. But if you missed his play this year, you’ll be in for the treat. He’s a career all-star in the making.

Already a household name, but Carmelo Anthony’s fame comes mostly from his Syracuse days. This year, though, with Denver in a real position to go deep in the West, has an opportunity to prove he’s actually on the “next level” in the NBA. Something tells me he’s going to deliver.

Finally, I’ll end of a sleeper. Thad Young. He’s developing into one of the best offensive players on the Sixers. A healthy Young will put up a good 20 ppg in the playoffs. If they somehow miraculously make it out of the first round, he’s got a legitimate chance to raise some eyebrows and, at least within the NBA fan base, become a household name.

Oh yeah, don’t count on Michael Beasley stepping out and proving he’s a star. The Heat will continue to just live and die with Wade. Beasley pulling down 12 rebounds for a game or two doesn’t impress me. Double doubles where they barely pass 10 isn’t impressive, it’s Dikembe Mutombo.

iPoker Network

The iPoker Network is quickly growing into one of the biggest poker internet networks on the internet and is catching up to the biggest poker rooms in the industry like Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars. iPoker Network consists of numerous online poker rooms who share tournaments and satellite events to many of the big poker events throughout the year.

iPoker Network uses the PlayTech software which is a very well known software provider for poker rooms and has been offering there suite of software for years. The software allows you to utilize great custom player graphics plus many other cool features. You’ll be able to play Texas Holdem, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo and Seven Card Stud on any of the iPoker rooms. I figure that they will implement more poker games over time, but for now they only have the four games listed above.

When you’re not playing in ring table games or small multi-table tournaments on FullTiltPoker.net, you’ll be able to play in some of the best satellite events available on the internet. The iPoker Network offers millions in guaranteed prize pools each month and they also offer packages to some of the best live poker events such as the WSOP and EPT. Currently all of the iPoker rooms are offering packages to the Irish Open 2009 which takes place on Easter Weekend in April.

Over the past year there have been a lot of the smaller online poker rooms jumping onboard with the iPoker Network and they’ve been growing every month lately. As of writing this article the iPoker Network is serving up poker action to roughly 10,000 players on 1500 tables and 380 tournaments. Unlike PokerStars.com, there is plenty of variety throughout the network as you can see and you’ll be able to choose from numerous poker rooms to play in based on your preferences. Let’s now take a look at some of the online poker rooms that are on the iPoker Network where you can choose to play.

  • Poker Ocean is one of the medium sized poker rooms on the iPoker Network with both beginner and advanced players.
  • Big Slick is a great poker room for players in the UK because as you play on Big Slick you earn points which earn you entry into tournaments at the two largest live poker clubs in the UK.
  • Tony G Poker is a poker room where Tony G himself competes regularly and if you knock him out of a tournament or game you’ll win an extra little bonus.
  • Expekt Poker is one of the largest if not the largest poker room on the iPoker Network and is an ideal choice if you’re looking for an iPoker Network poker room.
  • Paddy Power Poker offers an awesome poker room with most of the players living in Ireland and the rest of Europe. It only opened in 2005 and already has a nice player base running strongly.
  • Titan Poker is a well known online poker room and has helped spread the iPoker name simply by how popular Titan Poker is. This is another one of the premiere choices when looking for an iPoker Network poker room to play in.
  • Bet365 is a poker room targeting the UK and Europe specifically, but they have also grown an international presence over the years they’ve been running.

Pocket Aces Strategy

So you we’re dealt pocket aces while playing Texas Holdem on FullTilt.net, but you run into the problem that you don’t know how to play them properly. Being dealt pocket aces is a rare occasion that doesn’t happen often and you need to know how to play them to your advantage in order to be a successful poker player. There are a couple different strategies that you can use when you’re playing pocket aces and we’re going to look through these in this article.

You can get in some trouble if you don’t play your pocket aces properly and it can become one of the worst hands to play if you don’t know what you’re doing. The two ways you can play pocket aces is either to slow play them or to come out strong right away pre-flop. There are advantages to both of these FullTiltPoker.com strategies and we’ll spend some time going through each of them below.

The way I generally play my pocket aces is to play them semi strong pre-flop and come out with a raise to scare the crappy hands out of the pot. This way you can’t get beat on the flop if the flop comes up with a bunch of low cards. If you slow play your opponent pre-flop then you won’t have any clue as to what type of hand they have when they limp in. If the flop comes up you could loss the pot to a straight or flush which happens often when someone slow plays there pocket aces.

After the flop you can decide whether to slow play or play strongly based on the opponents in the hand and what the flop brought. If there are straight or flush options out there then you need to throw out a bet so you can find out if someone is on a draw or not. If you get called then your PokerStars.nl opponent is probably on a draw and you’re going to need to be careful if the draw hits on the turn or river. This is why I don’t suggest slow playing your pocket aces when playing Holdem because about half the time you do this you’ll end up losing to a higher draw.

You always want to make sure that you win some money when you have pocket aces, but you don’t always want the pot to go down to the river. The more cards your opponents see in the hand will offer your opponents a better chance of beating you. You don’t have very many options when you have pocket aces except for hitting trips, but this rarely happens. You need to win the pot with the way you bet the pot and can’t rely on your aces holding up.

You’ll need to change this strategy slightly depending on the type of opponents you’re playing against. If you’re playing a loose/aggressive player then you’ll want to slow play the aces a bit and try to induce that player to make a bet. Poker.com pocket aces are hard to come by so make sure that you play them properly when you get dealt them to ensure you win some money instead of losing big.

Texas Holdem Rules

If you’re new to pkr poker.com and you’re looking to learn how to play poker most people will tell you to start with Texas Holdem. Holdem is the most popular poker game played in live casinos and online poker rooms, and everyday new players learn how to play the game. It’s a simple game to learn and once you’re done reading this article you should have a solid understanding of how to play the game.

Texas Holdem has a dedicated dealer in casinos and online poker rooms and the way players determine who the dealer is for a given hand is with the dealer button. At the start of the game the dealer button will start with the player to the left of the dealer. The reason you need to use a dealer button in Holdem is because the two players to the left of the dealer button need to but in forced bets. The two forced bets are known as the small blind and big blind. The player to the left of the button puts in the small blind and the player to the left of the small blind puts in the big blind.

Once the two CarbonPoker.com players put in the small blind and big blind the dealer will deal out two cards face down to every player, these are known as your hole cards. A round of betting takes place after the dealer deals out the cards starting with the player sitting to the left of the big blind. Once the betting goes around the table and everyone has either called the bet or folded the dealer will move to the flop.

The flop is the first three of five community cards put out on the table which all the players in the hand can use to improve there hand. A round of betting takes place once the flop is shown starting with the player to the left of the dealer button, and once the betting goes around the table and everyone makes there play the dealer will reveal the fourth community card known as the turn card. Players who are left in the pot at www.PokerStars.com will bet again and then the dealer will reveal the fifth and final community card called the river card. Players finish the hand will a final round of betting and then they reveal there hands to see who wins the pot.

The goal is to make the best five card hand possible using any of your two hole cards and the five community cards on the board. You’ll need to learn the hand rankings before you know what to aim for, and you can read out hand rankings guide for this. Once you know the hand rankings and you have read through the above rules a couple times you’ll be ready to start playing Texas Holdem. I would suggest playing for play money on FullTiltPoker.net the first little while so that you can get some experience in before playing with your own money. Many online poker rooms allow you to play for free money for as long as you want, and then once you feel confident enough you can move onto the real money tables.