Tips to improve your Texas Holdem game

Blind-stealing: You can try this when only the dealer and the blinds are remaining in the game, and you are in the dealer's position. A raise here is called 'blind-stealing.' The blinds may fold in this situation. If you had simply called, the blinds would have just checked. Blind stealing will help you get a $ or two, and end the game fast. Check-raise: When you check your opponent, luring him to bet so that you can raise him back. The idea is to create a false sense of security. Opener: This amounts to a backward steal-raise and is intended to limit the number of players.

The opener is when the player who is first to act raises, and forces all other players to call two bets at once. Many players will fold in such a situation. The remaining ones will have really good hands or will be equally aggressive as the one who raised the bet first. Also known as betting for information. Steal-raise: Betting to limit the number of players or take the pot, when you are last to act and all players have checked to you. Try it when you have an excellent drawing hand, such as a nut flush draw. Or better players may begin check-raising against your poor hand! Squeezing: Betting when you have a good hand and suspect another player may be on a draw. Your intention is to limit their pot odds. Used only in a short-handed game.

Holdem Cheating Well, did you start playing poker online because of the cheats in the casinos? Well, you are right. Online poker rooms are the most cheat-free poker rooms around right now. Why? Because you are dealing mostly with technology here, more precisely computer programs. The less the number of people you deal with, the less the possibility of being cheated. The dealer in an online card room is a computer program. It doesn't cheat. It uses random number generators to deal cards. And that is as random as you can get. No illegal card handling either. Because there are no cards when you play online -- you only see the virtual cards.

Worried about hackers bolting with your money?

Tell me, when did you last hear about such a hacker attack? There is only one recorded case of it happening. And while you are counting the years, the encryption and security technology has evolved by leaps and bounds. It is harder to break into an online poker room these days than to hijack a space shuttle. Okay, we're coming to that. Collusion is a word you often hear when people are discussing online poker rooms. Sure players can collude with each other through instant messengers or the telephone. Collusion, where two or more players reveal to each other what cards they hold, is difficult is a poker casino.

Online poker rooms have instituted several security measures against collusion. There are software that watch the games for tell-tale signals of collusion. And there is something called self-collusion. You have a bank of computers where you log in as different players into the same table. In theory you could be playing at all the seats at the table. The one or two real players at the table won't stand a chance. But then online poker rooms don't allow players to play from a similar IP address to play at the same table.