MLB Betting
The 2009 MLB season is upon us and I’m going to talk about…..the Royals?
Really? You bet, underdog team of the year, worth strong consideration for regular baseball gambling enthusiasts.
I may have dismissed them in the past, I may have dismissed them in this past month even, but they’re growing on me. And fan of the division or not, the AL Central has more question marks than any other one in the league right now.
The Twins? One nagging back injury away from a sub-.500 season.
The White Sox? Suddenly Colon looks like he could toss up an 8-run inning every outing, and Ramirez is banged up early – not good signs.
The Indians? Well, Kerry Wood and his glass…everything…don’t replace Sabathia. Plus Hafner is still yet to fulfill his star DH potential on a consistent basis.
The Tigers are still my MLB betting pick in the division if they’re healthy (good move dumping Sheffield, 499 homers or not), but the Royals actually have a legitimate shot at making people nervous this year.
The Royals paid up for Meche recently, is this the year they can put some muscle behind his solid numbers? (3.98 ERA, 1.32 WHIP in 2008). Is this the year Greinke finishes in the top 3 for AL Cy Young? Don’t laugh, it could very well happen.
I’m not jumping the gun here. I don’t see them beating ridiculous odds and representing the AL or winning the World Series this year, but I could see them making their division interesting, and possibly keeping the AL wild card a race into the last couple weeks of the season. The problem the Royals always seem to have isn’t the season where they almost make it to the top…it’s the season afterwards, where all the players that shined (Beltran, Dye, Damon, etc..) take the money and run.
Joakim Soria could become a household name this year, at least in houses that care about good pitching. Last year he put up a beautiful 1.6 ERA and 0.86 WHIP. So the Royals have some pitching to work with, the “Cinderella” part of the team is going to have to come from the position players. After Jose Guillen, there’s not a ton of proven talent here. A group of castoffs from other teams, and, hey that’s where Coco Crisp is playing these days! Last year they had a very “meh” .269 team average. If they can get that up 7 or 8 points, they might just be in business.
Closer is what I’d bet on, though. The pitching is what I’d bet on. The Royals are going to win games this year, and they’re going to hold onto small leads and leads late in the game. They’ll impress and open a few eyes…maybe a few bank accounts too come the second half of the season.
Slow Playing Aces
When you’re dealt pocket aces on PokerStars sirens start going off in everyone’s head and immediately we start thinking how much we can win this hand. Instead of thinking about how much you could win in the hand though you first need to make sure you know how to play your pocket aces. There are a few different approaches that people make when holding pocket aces depending on the situation.
Pre-Flop
Before the flop you have two options which are to slow play your aces or come out strong and let people know that you’re holding a hand. I prefer to usually almost always raise the pot pre-flop with aces because I hate it when someone limps in with junk and beats you on the flop. There is nothing worse then losing a big hand on pocket aces when you limp into the pot initially because you’re thinking you can trap your opponent into paying you off.
Flop
If you decided to raise the pot on Full Tilt and you got a caller then you should quickly analyze the flop. If you didn’t hit a set and there are flush and straight options out there than you should either push all-in and take the pot down or fold in this position. You don’t want to keep your opponent in the pot with any draws on the board because you never know what your opponent could be holding and it could bear you if they hit a draw.
If you decided not to raise the pot pre-flop, than you’re not going to know where you stand in the pot. I would recommend throwing out a bet right now to see if anyone makes the call. If someone makes the call then you need to start looking at whether or not your opponent could have a straight or flush. If there are no draws on the board, than they could have flopped a set or two pairs. Generally you’ll see two pairs a lot more then a flopped set, but two pairs will beat your single pair of aces unless something comes on the turn or river to help you out.
After the blackjack flop if you still have an opponent in the pot you need to decide whether or not you’re winning the pot and either make a big bet or fold your aces. If you slow played your aces pre-flop and you think your opponent has you beat then don’t be scared to fold your aces. In fact folding the aces is a lot better then playing the aces and losing because everyone will see you lost by slow playing your aces and might even put you on tilt.
I rarely ever play aces past the flop unless I’m all-in and someone calls me because it’s just to risky to slow play your aces in most situations. Don’t lose a big pot with aces because you tried trapping your opponent, it will most likely make you feel sick to the stomach and it will hurt your bankroll.
Large Multitable Tournaments
Most of the internet poker rooms with enough traffic run multi table tournaments on a daily basis and I’m sure you’ve seen them in the lobby already. The benefit of playing multi table tournaments is that you don’t need a huge bankroll to play and you could potentially win a big amount of money with some skill and a bit of luck. You’re not going to do well in every large tournament you play and that’s common, you only need to place in the top ten in one tournament and you will have a nice bankroll. I’ve compiled some tips you can use in your game to increase your chances of winning a multi table tournament.
Be Patient
In large tournaments on www.FullTiltPoker.net you’ll always see about 20-50 people go out of the tournament almost instantly and that’s because most people don’t have patience. You need to have some patience and wait for your big hands to come in the early stages of a multi table tournament. You don’t want to get burned early on and take a hit to your stack, because you’ll want it to use when you get a big hand.
Don’t Be Scared
There is one thing to be patient and one thing to be scared and you don’t want to be scared. When you feel you have the best hand don’t be afraid to push or call an all-in. A lot of players you’ll notice will play marginal hands and you don’t want to be bullied by a weaker hand. When you got the goods, push your stack into the middle and just hope it holds up. You need to win a lot of chips in a multi table tournament so you can’t sit and wait forever to play some cards.
Sit-Out If You Can
If you get enough chips to play poker online and you have a fairly large stack over the rest of your competition then don’t start trying to steal pots and buy hands from players. In a multi table tournament players go all-in almost every hand so you’ll be sure to get a caller if you push and you don’t want to risk your chips. It’s hard to get an early lead in a large tournament so if you happen to then try sitting back a bit and only play your premium cards when they come. Blinds won’t be an issue for you so you won’t need to be afraid of getting eaten up by blinds.
Near The Money?
If you make it near the money places and you’re in a good position to win some money don’t play many hands until you’re guaranteed money. You shouldn’t risk your entire tournament life until you’re already down into the money. Now if you’re barely hanging on you need to make a stand because blinds will be enormous at this PokerStars download stage.
You need a bit more then just skill in a large tournament because you’re going to need to survive more than one all-in hand which is hard to do even with the best hand. I’ve seen many people get rivered when they had the best hand on the turn so you need some luck for sure, but without skill you’re never going to win anyways so make sure you learn how to play MTT’s.