Part 9 – April 1st, 2019 through May 31st, 2019

Originally posted: April 10th, 2019

Fast Fold Poker Strategy

Planning isn’t easy at walking pace, doubly at triple speed (doubly at triple sounds like racing parlance), but there’s grace in quickness. Like Bruce Lee said, we must be like water.

Having recently introduced Rush & Cash, our own take on the Fast-fold formula, we thought we’d give you guys a strategic head start.

What is fast fold poker?

Fast fold is when someone pretending to be tough gets a smack and turns into a kitte- wait, wrong article; that’s from my Tough Guy Monthly column.

Fast Fold is like poker but with a jet engine strapped to your hand, it rips around the felt like a rubber ball and before you know it, the buck is back to you. Who can control such chaos? You can.

Fast-fold, like AoF, strips the game down to its barest constituent elements, it’s play one and then onto the next. After folding you’re moved to another table with a new set of opponents, or practice targets as the case may be.

Others have described it as ADHD poker, multitabling for the quick-minded. While still poker in essence, the mechanics change the game sufficiently to warrant a new set of strategies, even for stalwart veterans.

Ways to win

Besides the obvious ones, like being better than your opponents, telepathy or just plain luck, there’s more sophisticated ways to ensure higher victory %:

1. After each hand you’re seated at a new table, meaning you can’t collect solid data for reads as you play, which may seem disadvantageous, but consider the fact that your opponents likewise do not have information about you and your unique style. As we spoke about in our strategy blog, you must exploit all of your advantages to the Nth degree. As this is a relatively new introduction to our cornucopia of games, many players will start patient for observational purposes; playing aggressively to start is the perfect counter. Your bankroll will thank you

2. Following on from point 1, this can be continually exploited; change up your play style each time, making it difficult to predict and discourage anyone from a confident read

3. If your opponent, like a rocked boxer, is playing tight, stealing the blinds can become a treasure trove in terms of profit; widen your opening range, play as many hands as possible

4. Being aware is the key to winning in any iteration, moreso here. Play lots of hands at the beginning, get choosy towards the end and stay aggressive as a honey badger with any hands you choose to play

Zoom poker is a relatively new commodity. The strategies will grow in complexity as time goes on. Now is the best time to start, find the fish, stack up the rakeback and find what strategy best suits your style and guile.

Zoom zoom shake the room

PLAY POKER HERE

Originally posted: April 24th, 2019

Horses Before Hold’em” Stud Poker

We’re back with another poker ponderance. This time it’s a Stud Poker deep-dive, talking rules, strategies and all the basics you need to start playing successfully.

You might see the name and immediately think it’s horse related right? It’s not….

BUT WAIT *gasp*

Does it involve racehorses? Just maybe! During my research I stumbled upon a presumably dubious article concerning the game’s origins, which nonetheless I thought prescient and amusing to share, finding oftentimes anecdotal evidence offers a more colourful etymology than the grey truth.

Horse Stories

As the story goes, three drunken soldiers were further mastering the game which had kept their campaign nights relatively free of boredom, then simply dubbed ‘draw’. One, with three kings in hand, realized he was broke. The soldier stood and rudely left, returning moments later leading a horse by its bridle through the swinging doors, which he then tied to a chair as additional collateral – not quite Black Beauty.

Quickly, the wily soldier realized that his untrustworthy feltmates had almost certainly peaked at his cards during his brief absence, demanding each turn his three cards face-up, discard two and draw two others face-down, laying the foundations for what later became stud poker.

We don’t know who won the horse, but we hope he’s prancing satisfied now in that pearly paddock upstairs knowing a hint of his horsey legacy lives on.

Stud Poker rules

The number of rounds influences which betting structure suits the variant. Games with five or fewer play well under any circumstance, especially no-limit, but games with more betting rounds – seven card stud – suit a fixed limit, or higher betting rounds as the game develops, commonly advertised as things like ‘Stud Poker $5/$10’.

The first bettor changes as the rounds go on. Betting rounds are named based on the amount of cards each player has – third street, fifth street and so on. Cards dealt face down to each individual are hole cards, thus ‘Ace in the Hole’ and other common phraseologies.

Let’s take 7-card stud for example:

Four to eight players are required, along with a standard fifty two deck; above mentioned cigar-ends and a face more wrinkled that a tesco plastic bag caught in a hurricane optional. Each player puts an ante into the pot before the cards are dealt, with two dealt face down and a third face up to start. Antes vary by limit, but this first ante is mandatory for all involved. Money in the pot, dealer deals until each participant has three cards, two down, one up; third street in proper parlance.

Unlike community cards, face-up cards are unique to the individual.

Origins of Stud Poker

To give a clearer picture of the game and enable to reader to disentangle the intricacies of the variant, we return as always to the dust of history, in which the lives of eminent and base persons are made level without cruelty.

I consulted various articles and sources in seeking the origins of stud poker. Some claim the American Revolutionary War as the starting point, others claim the Civil War several years later, within the same century, did more to popularize the game – the supratruth, which defies opinion, likely lies between the two.

It’s difficult to imagine a time when Hold’em was secondary, even tertiary, to stud variants in overall popularity, but from whence it crawled, it never returned. Poker had set deep roots in the minds of the populace, forevermore intangibly associated with the spirit of an age. It has to this day remained part of America’s cultural zeitgeist.

Stud is still popular among the older generation. Seeing the inherent value in providing a platform for these games, most online poker sites offer stud of one form or another.

Concluding statements

Go forth and be prosperous. Stud is a very old game with a hundred variants and another hundred ways to win. If you’re American-born with older grandparents, make inquiries about this game and find out what the best of the old guard did to swell their wallets.

Like, comment and let us know what you thought of this article. In the meantime, we’ll be back next week with more fun and interesting poker content.

Originally posted: April 29th, 2019

Team GGPoker vs Team Discord

Hi all.

The gauntlet has been thrown down.

We’ve got another rumble for you; a true battle for the ages.

On Saturday May 4, we have an incredibly special event – the Team GGP vs Discord Rumble. Three representatives from Team GGPoker will take on three community members in a tournament that’s open to everyone to join in.

The Details

Date: Saturday, May 4

Time: 18:45 UTC+0

Guarantee: $300

Bounty: T$50 bounty for each of the six representatives

Format: No Limit Hold’em

Entry: $10

Rebuy/Addon: Re-Entry (1 max): $10

The Contenders

Team GGPoker, consisting of Twitch icons ShroomTheRiver, Karlencho from the snowy Czech republic and Scrimitzu from the vampyric homeland of Romania.

The Discord team is made up of Twosneverlose, UPAY4DINNER, alone representing the Emerald Isle and Atardisnafu, our Canadian Comrade.

Knock out any member of either team, let us know via support@ggpoker.com and win the special executioner’s prize package – T$50 per head.

The action will take place across GGPoker and Twitch, with select participants live-tweeting the drama as it unfolds.

Your Fighters

Representing Team GGPoker

Karlencho

Country of origin: Czech (yo self) Republic

Special attack: Freestyle, Mindreading, Illuminati contacts

ShroomTheRiver

Country of Origin: UK

Special attacks: Capable of withstanding highly-sweetened flavours, 007 disarming, charming and harming, Aggressive Dancing

Scrimitzu

Country of Origin: Romania

Special attacks: Vampyric evasion, Mist form, micro-crushing super strength

Representing Team Discord

UPAY4DINNER

Country of Origin: Ireland – Discordvania

Special attacks: Native wit, Twitch uppercut

Twosneverlose

Country of Origin: England – Discordvania

Special attacks: Twos, Chip Shuriken

Atardisnafu

Country of Origin: Canada – Discordvania

Special attacks: Moose punch, Omaha mastery

Fortress: Discordvania/Tardis

Will David fell Goliath as was foretold, or does the behemoth have an ace up his sleeve this time around? Will Team Discord live up to their name and cause anarchy in the ranks? Tune in on Twitch and find out!

The beacons are lit,

Mike at GGPoker

Originally posted: May 8th, 2019

Is Online Poker Rigged

Hello again.

Is online poker rigged? The million dollar question. Anyone person positive poker is controlled behind-the-scenes by shady corporate entities who turn on or off the ‘win’ button to further personal vendettas don’t need to ask – their minds are already mind up. If, like me, your inner skeptic trumps that tinfoil hat wearing part of yourself, things are not so black and white.

Short answer is no. Online poker is not rigged. Now let’s find out why.

On the lookout

As sure as there’s sand in a camel’s fur, there will always be fraudulent establishments eager to prey on the unassuming or the naive.

On your quest for a new poker room, you must use your discretion when reading through site rules and webpages to get a feel for its legitimacy. I’ve already written a whole frickin article on what to look out for and avoid when deciding on a new poker room, especially if you’re a frequent player.

Decryers will claim only ‘bad players’ shout ‘rigged!’ by virtue of smaller bankrolls constricting them out of the game, but that’s not a wholly fair assessment. While this is a very real contingent and in every game, from video games to family Monopoly, similar sentiments can be found, it is a discerning mind that asks difficult questions.

If you’re out to play the game or maybe even considering a poker career in future, fairness should be among your primary concerns. So, how to ask a sensible question without appearing overly paranoid? Don’t ask at all! Check!

Third party scrutiny and independent certifications are important documents any legitimate online poker site will display in website footers or embedded deep into marketing emails below the brunt of their spiel. If you can verify the RNG is independently-certified (more on this below), and the website closely follows UKGC guidelines (which are very strict, this tick alone ensures legitimacy) you’re likely onto a winner.

Et In Arcadia Ego

Nothing could be more suspicious than a rigged poker article without references to those rare unfortunate times where a dishonest room tarried the Great Game’s reputation.

The Wild West of poker, along with the heroes and villains it bore, has gone the way of the setting sun. Regulatory bodies police game integrity with militant efficiency, making it unlikely such levels of dastardliness, as seen with UltimateBet, would survive unnoticed.

UltimateBet

Ever heard of UltimateBet? If you’re a recent convert, we must journey back to 2005 when the cultural zeitgeist and the internet were not yet one and the same.

No one could know that within six months, UltimateBet would come to define large-scale poker rigging, becoming the sample case to which future infractions would be compared. It had everything; software manipulation, high-profile players losing funds, losses totalling millions.

During subsequent investigations, UltimateBet claimed any cheating was perpetrated by employees, which led to the discovery of code lines embedded in the software which fed hole card and other vital player info to a single account.

Like tumbling Alice, they followed the rabbithole to its inevitable conclusion, which led to the revelation that a high-profile pro was responsible or at least culpable in the shadiness.

Russ Hamilton cheated multiple times and was found guilty of fraud in excess of $20M. With such large amounts of money changing hands, it was only a matter of time before poker scandals, hitherto confined to the scene, broke the mainstream news.

RNG

RNG is a Random Number Generator, central to all forms of online casino gaming. Through a series of algorithms numbers are constantly transferred. While this engine is running – indeed, it never stops birthing – it is impossible for software to produce a predetermined hand.

If bias is the worry, remove the human element entirely and we’re left with the cool, emotionless grace of machine learning. Not only does the RNG ensure player security in financial matters, the random series of ever-changing numbers means hackers cannot control or identify RNG patterns.

Follow the trail

Does the site you’re investigating have active players? How old are their oldest regular accounts? Do accounts unrelated to the site vouch for its legitimacy? Longevity and reputation go hand in hand. The tests of time are more stringent than the rules of any regulatory body, fearsome or not.

Personal Safeguards

Now that you’ve established a site as safe, it’s time to take some personal steps to ensure account security:

Never use public computers. If avoidable, use only your home set-up or preferred machine, to which only you have access

Password protect everything. Strong passwords, using symbols and numbers throughout

Pay attention to other players at tables. Even the biggest sites with hundreds of reactionary security agents watching like hawks for collusion, things can slip through the cracks. If you see anything untoward, it’s your duty to ping an investigation request up the chain. In doing so, you’re paving the way for the next curious n00b wondering whether his chosen site is rigged.

Frontline experience

Having worked and been around industry veterans for the past few years, I can confirm that behind the scenes everybody is obsessed with fairness, security and game integrity.

While we offer poker and other games, to where there’s no doubt about the aims of the business, legitimacy is the stock in trade.

Without legitimacy or the reputation of acquiring it, a poker room become one of a thousand. Doubtless sordid television programmes depicting the ruthless efficiency of gangster casino owners and backroom drubbings for winning players have influenced the popular image of gambling, but unlike other casino games poker players do not compete against the house, who in turn have no vested interest in their players losing.

With these in sight, choose this site:

Good player traffic

High-quality software

Trustworthiness

Safe, secure banking options

Bonuses and loyalty rewards

Concluding statements

There’s your answer. Is online poker rigged? No.

Was it ever? Yes, a few times.

As with every rule, there are exceptions. Be safe, be daring and in every walk of life let none wear you like a boot sole.

Originally posted: May 20th, 2019

High Roller Streamers Spotted!

Good Game Series 2 had the big guns out in force last night for the Day 8 action!

Among them was the mercurial Mike McDonald (aka Timex), who came out of retirement to compete, and stream, the Day 8 action.

The youngest ever EPT champion fell just shy of the final table of GGS #082. However, he was in incredible form, especially considering he’s been in poker retirement for the past 3 years. Catch Timex’s next stream on Day 15 of GGS2 (May 26) to hear him opine about the state of the crypto markets, life post-lamborghini, and how to run a successful business.

We also had Russell Thomas, a formidable live pro with the screenname of KittysHusband (because, well, he’s Kitty Kuo’s husband)

They call him Run Good Russell for a reason – not only does Russell run good in his personal life (his screenname is KittysHusband for good reason), he runs well at the poker table, managing to cash in for a cool $47k in GGS #083.

Lastly, we had Steffen Sontheimer, German Super Higher Roller, and part of the No Limit GG.

German GTO wizard, SHR crusher, and streamer extraordinaire Steffen Sontheimer, tried his hand at a few GGS2 SHR events. He truly mixed it up, even limping on the button despite his 10bb stack. Let’s ignore the fact that he ran into a flopped full house.

Part 8 – Feb. 1st, 2019 to March 31st, 2019 Part 10 – June 1st, 2019 to June 15th, 2019

Whether you’re a fan of high-stakes cash games or the excitement of multi-table poker tournaments, GGPoker is the premier destination for poker enthusiasts. For those aiming to compete for a prestigious WSOP bracelet, push through the ranks for a WSOP Circuit ring, or simply hone their strategies in classic games or poker formats, GGPoker has something for everyone. The platform offers a seamless online poker experience, with innovative features like Smart HUD, PokerCraft, and integrated staking, designed to elevate your game. Whether you’re grinding your way up in daily cash games or competing for life-changing prizes in major online series, GGPoker provides the best environment to play, improve your poker skills, and succeed in the world of online poker. And if you are not sure where to start, you can always play free poker games and learn at the GGPoker School.

GGPOKER

Blog

A Guide to Playing Mixed Poker Games

A Beginners Guide to Seven Card Stud

POKER PLAYER PROFILE – David ‘Chip’ Reese

The Archives Of The GGPoker Blog – Part 9