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Rookie poker players might wonder which skills are invaluable to a winning poker player. While there are many skills such as aggressiveness and hand reading ability, I think that patience is probably the most worthwhile skill for a winning poker player to have.

Winning poker players will hit the fold button much more often than either the check or bet button, and can withstand the temptation to play weak hands if they have been card dead for a while.

When we watch a World Poker Tour final table on television, we see non stop action for ninety minutes. This footage is edited and we are actually watching tournament action that may take up to ten hours to play. Most of the play during this time consists of a player raising pre-flop and the rest of the table folding. This would make for very boring television which is why this footage is rarely shown.

It has been said that tournament poker entails hours of boredom punctuated with minutes of sheer excitement. What this means is that a good poker player will have an easy decision to make more than 75 percent of the time, and that decision is usually to fold their hand pre-flop. Then when a good player is involved in a hand and demonstrating aggression, their tournament life is now at stake.

Many poker players just do not demonstrate the patience needed to be a winning player. If they have been folding most of their hands for the last hour and they get a marginal hand like KJ off-suit, they may be willing to play this hand in a raised pot since it looks so good compared to the garbage that they have been folding.

This situation gets a lot of players in trouble when they are involved in a pot with a hand that is dominated by a better hand. It is not the initial bets that hurt them, but the multiple bets they may pay on the turn and river with the second best hand.

Most winning poker players are able to make money just by demonstrating patience and the ability to stifle the temptation to just play a hand because they have folded the last ten hands pre-flop.

By John Harding

The World Series of Poker has sprouted many followers in the last couple of years. Amateur tables are popping up all over the world and friendly cash games are everywhere come Friday night. Whether it is for thrill or profit the so called sport of poker has the attention of many onlookers year round. While Amateurs know the basics of the game they usually get lost in all the poker lingo spoken at the casino poker tables. While some is lingo is made up by experienced players to throw off the amateurs, some are actually well known terms in the poker world that any amateur trying to make it big should know. Below is a guide to all the poker lingo you could ever want to impress your friends or intimidate an experienced opponent.

Ante: The initial money thrown into the pot to induce betting. This is done before the flop.

All In: When a person decides to put all his chips in to bet on a certain hand. No Limit Hold ‘Em is the most popular game and All Ins are allowed as many times as a player wants. In Limit Hold ‘Em you cannot bet more then the pot itself.

Backdoor: Backdoor is a reference to when players are chasing a card that has not come up yet but has a good chance to. Having 4 cards of the same kind is a backdoor flush draw, having four cards in a row is a backdoor straight draw.

Bad Beat: A Bad Beat occurs when a player has a large advantage over the other and the last card beats the big hand by luck. Bad beat is usually used to imply that the player with the weak hand should not have been in the hand at all and it was by mere luck that he won his underdog hand.

Blind: In Texas Hold ‘Em, the game uses blinds instead of antes. The blinds are forced bets to induce some money in the pot by the two people sitting to the left of the dealer. The first person to the left of the dealer is the “small blind” and bets a smaller amount. The second person to the left of the dealer is the “big blind” and bets twice what the small blind has.

Bottom Pair: The lowest pair out of the cards out on the table.

Check: When a player decides to not bet he calls “Check”. This is the option of betting zero dollars.

Check Raise: When a player checks with a strong hand hoping another opponent will raise. The player then re-raises with his strong hand thus getting more money out of his opponent in the pot.

Drawing Dead: When a player is trying to make a hand that will still not win the pot.

Flop: The first three cards that are “flopped” onto the table. These are also called community cards.

Heads Up Play: When there are only two players playing a certain hand they are considered “heads up”.

Muck: A pile of unused cards usually in front of the dealer. These come from folded or burned cards. To “muck your cards” is to fold them by throwing them into the muck pile.

The Nuts: Likely the favorite expression of any poker player. The Nuts indicates a hand that is mathematically unbeatable with the cards on the table.

Offsuit: When the two cards you are dealt are of different suits.

Pocket: The two cards dealt to you in Texas Hold ‘Em that only you can see.

Rake: The total amount of money that the casino’s dealer takes out of every pot.

The River: The last card to be flopped on the board. The 5th card to come out in a Texas Hold ‘Em game.

Short Stack: The short stack is referring to the player with the least amount of chips at the table.

Tell: A tell refers to a players action when he or she has a good or bad hand. Some players take off their sun glasses when they have a bad hand. Other players tend to itch their right hand when they have a good hand.

The Turn: The fourth card to be flopped onto the table in a Texas Hold ‘Em game.

These are the necessary terms in order to keep up with the pros. There are hundreds of other terms in the world of poker, yet they are much less needed or too experienced for the amateur. Learn this lingo and impress your friends or play at experienced tables and wow the crowd. Lastly, poker is a great game, but the greatest player in poker knows one this: When to know you’re beat. Everyone likes to hold ‘em, but sometimes you get that feeling and you just have to fold’em.

John Harding is a respected poker author and has more articles at Poker-Prophet.com

By Lise Larsen

Satellite poker tournaments are becoming increasingly popular. Many people are using satellites to work their way to the prestigious and expensive tournaments like the World Series of Poker. What are satellite tournaments? They are generally small tournaments that award a seat (or seats) at a larger tournament as the prize.

Since many of the large poker tournaments are very costly to enter, satellites can be a good entree for a less experienced or cash-poor player. For example, it can cost as much $10,000 to buy a seat at a tournament like WSOP. This is prohibitive for some, however they have a chance by winning a satellite tournaments that can have a buy-in as low as a much more affordable $100.

There are different types of satellites and good players adjust their poker strategies based on the type of tournament they are playing.

Satellite Strategy for Single Winner Tournaments

Some tournaments have only a single winner; these are also known as winner-take-all tournaments. The only way to win one of these satellites is to get all of the chips, so this type of tournament is not well-suited to those with conservative strategies. Of course, luck plays a part, but bold and gutsy play is required to take it all.

Satellite Strategy for Multi-Winner Tournaments

Satellite strategy needs to vary when you play a tournament with multiple winners. Some satellites offer only a winning spots, but tend to have low buy-ins. Others have higher buy-ins but offer more advancement seats to winners. Make sure you look at the number of entrants that will be allowed and figure out how many seats there are per entrant to choose the best satellite.

Once you are in the game, your satellite strategy needs to be based in part on the part of the game you are in. While you need to earn the most chips possible, conservative play in early stages is often rewarded since it will allow you to stay in the game. Since the goal in this style of satellite isn’t to be the winner, but to be one of the last players standing, it is important to play for longevity; hence, a strategy that risks you going broke in early hands s not a good idea.

As the stakes rise, you need to get a little more aggressive. You need to start taking pots. In addition, you do not want to risk your stack getting too small compared to other players, because that will attract aggressive players to attack in order to knock you out of the game. You need to get to the latest stage of the game, but you also need to get there with enough chips to finish the game.

If you manage to enter the final rounds of the game with an ample stack, you need to capitalize on your lead. Since other players may start to be conservative at this point, fearing getting knocked out, you have the opportunity to play more aggressively and scoop up the pots. Consider playing a hand that you might have folded on in the early stages of the game.

Always remember where the money is (or the satellite seats are) and keep your eye on the number of players remaining when implementing your satellite strategy. In addition, it is important to make your play while you have enough chips to make a difference. It is better to get knocked out with a bold play on a nothing hand than to fizzle out when you finally do not have enough chips to ante.

Article by Lise Larsen. She teaches you how to play poker at ChipsAndPoker.com