If you play poker online, you have seen turbo poker tournaments. Now what is the difference between turbo poker tournaments and regular poker tournaments? Turbo tournaments are played much faster. Blinds in these tourneys are fast and furious, they rise every 3 or 4 minutes. So instead of playing normal poker tournament for 4 or 6 hours you may play turbo tourney which takes an hour.

Now what strategy you should use to win such a tournament. Play aggressive poker, steal blinds, play monster hands strong. Get the maximum of good hands. So if you have a free hour you may spend it playing poker tournament instead of ring games.

To read more about turbo poker tournaments please check these sites:
Speed poker tournaments reviewed
What's a turbo poker tournamet?

In my eyes, the worst thing beginners do when playing poker is playing every hand they get. They play if they get K7, they play with Q5 or A6, they even play the 72 and hopes that the flop will bring them trips or even a full house. Nonsense! You will never ever become a winning player by playing such hands. Do you know why poker tournaments take so long? Do you know that poker pros only play one hand of 10, and that is only because they are on the big or small blind and have to play. Every poker pro is waiting for a monster hand to play with or they play with suited connectors or expects for flush, but believe me, they never play K7 or Q5.

Stop calling with hands like that. If you play such hands in the dealers position or even the blinds then you have a chance to limp in and maybe even get lucky, but fold them in any other position and especially in early.

Folding rubbish hands will bring you millions. Believe me!

For those interested in further reading I strongly recommend checking these web sites:

Poker mistakes you need to avoid
The 10 Worst Mistakes in Poker

To make online poker faster, online poker rooms added many features to the poker room lobby. There is an auto fold, raise, check, call or
check/fold button added to most online poker rooms.

I agree that most of these buttons are useful and improves game, but
check/fold button is a bit different. This button comes into play when
you are on the big blind and if you use this button you can easily give
away your card. Why? Well, your opponents will see that you are using
check/fold button and if they want to steal your blind or want to get
rid off one caller they will simply raise. And if it is even the smallest raise, your hand will be auto-folded. Nobody wants to you to see the flop as it may be useful even for the worthless hand.

I agree this is not such a big problem for low stakes poker, but if you
play higher stakes poker this might cost a lot. It's a small tip for you to move further.

In this article I will share some very simple but important poker tips with you. These tips should be applied to every texas holdem poker tournament with a up to $20 buy-in.

1. Play tight poker. I mean tight, that you play only monster hands! Never play with A6, K3 or J4. Wait for the better hand and play with it. By saying monster hand, I mean AA, KK, AK, AQ, QQ, TT and similar ones. You say, whole game may pass and I will not get such a hand, and I reply – YOU WILL. Best players play 1 hand of 20. And of the most common mistakes beginners do is playing every hand they hand. Do not chase the cards, do not even think of playing it. Wait for your chance and you will win.
2. Be aggressive.  Now, when you get a really good hand, a monster hand and you know you can win. Be aggressive, be a beast, show that you have a good hand and that you are sure you will win. With this hand you rule the table. Do not limp and check, when it's time to raise or re-raise. Show your balls when the monster hand is yours.
3. No all-in game preflop. Never ever move all in preflop. How many times you have seen crazy players moving all ins with better hands preflop and what did they win. Winning blinds with AA, AK or KK is a big shit. You can do it much better, you can douple or triple up. But blinds, gosh, not with such a hand.
4. Remember the three tips above. No kidding! Learn those by heart, repeat it whenever playing and your game will improve. Be the winner not the loser. Believe me, feeling is much better

See you at the tables!

In my previous post I've talked about some + and – of online poker bonuses. Now I would like to tell you about how to cash out the bonus you have earned. The first thing you will have to do is to clear it out. You may ask what does that mean? Well clearing out the bonus mean, that you will have to play a certain amount of time or hands before the bonus will be released to your account. This is kind of security to avoid players of getting the sign up bonus and immediately withdrawing the sign-up money without ever playing. That would lead online poker room to bankruptcy Also, tournament play usually does not count in to this. There is usually a link on the poker room to your profile or cashier to check how many hands you still have to play to clear out the bonus. Most often, there is a 1 raked hand per 1 bonus dollar rule applied, but some exceptions exist.

So after clearing out the bonus, money is released into your account and you can use it wherever you want. You may continue playing with it or you may withdraw.

See you at the tables!