Online satellite tournaments are an opportunity to get into a big event without investing the big buy-in that’s usually required. These events require that you make it to a certain point to qualify for a seat, so the strategy can change a bit in the later stages of the tournament.

Be aware of the number of remaining players, and adjust your aggression to where you are situated among the chip leaders. If you’re sitting in the top 10% of chip leaders your aggression can be cut back and you can wait for premium cards in good positions - or even sit out of the action altogether if you think you have enough chips to get you there.

If you’re on a bigger stack you can press the action on smaller stacks, especially close to the bubble. No one wants to risk their tournament at this stage of the game.

Becoming a professional online poker player is no easy task. No advice can guarantee that you’ll be good enough to make a living online, but there are some things that most successful online players practice. The first thing is bankroll management. You have to have a bankroll of playing cash that is at least 300 times bigger than the game you’re playing in. The bigger you build your bankroll, the bigger the game you can play. Over time, and with some skill and luck, you’ll have a bankroll big enough to play and live off of.

You need to read and learn everything about poker that you can. And you usually have to play tens of thousands of hands before you start to see profit. But if you’re dedicated, and practice good bankroll management, you can become an online professional. Most don’t stay the course long enough to get there.

How much you should bet in a hand of poker usually depends on the situation. When you feel that you have the lead in the hand, but there are more cards to come, you should bet enough to deter drawing hands from sticking around. Each situation presents different pot odds, but if you think you have the lead, and there’s a possible draw on the board, you should bet around three quarters of the size of the pot. That makes it a mathematical mistake for the drawing hand to call.

If you have the nut hand after the river, a value bet is the way to go. A value bet is any amount that you think that particular opponent will call. If it’s too big you won’t get paid off, so betting a smaller amount that gets called is better than nothing at all.

Planning your play is important for a couple of reasons. First off, unless you’re a professional you can’t just jump on the computer any time you want to. There’s only so much time in the day to play, so finding the best action when you can play will be a good practice. Inform everyone that might interrupt you that you’re playing poker, and don’t want to be interrupted unless it’s important.

Planning the length of your session is important because you don’t want to play too long. A few hands can easily turn into a marathon session. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the game, especially when you’re winning. If you play too long you’re likely to start making mistakes. Tired poker is not a good way to play, so limit your sessions to time frames where you stay fresh. Otherwise you’ll just dump back everything you have won.

If Barack Obama becomes the next president, can he legalize online gambling? First off, online gambling is not illegal in the U.S., except for a couple of exceptions like Washington State and a few others. The laws against online gambling are aimed at the banks that do business with online gambling sites, not the sites or the activity itself. So if he does change things in the future, he would be making it legal for banks to do business with online gambling sites.

He won’t be able to do it by himself, but he will be able put it to Congress. A Congress that is predominantly Democratic. It wouldn’t take too much persuasion on Obama’s part to make online gambling completely legal. However, it would be in his best interest to gauge public opinion more, before making a move that the Republican government could use against him in the future.

I admit it. I’m a podcast junkie. Most of the time I have my head phones on and it’s not because I’m listening to music. Most of my learning now a days comes from podcasts and if you can think of it, there is probably someone out there doing a podcast about it.

As most people like us, we are into poker and I just found a great podcast from Full Tilt. With all of their great poker pros on the Full Tilt team they have just put out a “Tip From the Pros” show. They also have a video cast too!

Now you never have to read again and you can dominate the poker table!

Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson, along with a number of his students (collectively known as the Harvard Poker Society), joined other pro-online poker organizations in a Massachusetts protest today with regards to Governor Deval Patrick’s casino bill. According to the bill, Massachusetts residents caught gambling online would face up to two years in jail and a fine of as much as $25,000.

Nesson’s group claims that as many as 400,000 Massachusetts residents play poker online, and that filling Boston’s jail cells with “bad” poker players is a bad beat and a bad idea.

“I don’t think filling our expensive jail cells with poker players is what Massachusetts voters had in mind when they elected Deval Patrick,” Nesson said in a statement.

LuckyHog.com has re-launched with a new network provider after having problems with Dynamic Gaming Systems. This is the second provider that LuckyHog.com has had to change, after they had problems with First FutureBet Gaming Systems last year. The company will once again honor all player accounts.

LuckyHog.com wasn’t the only company that had problems with Dynamic Gaming Systems, but most companies disappeared and left their customers high and dry. At LuckyHog.com players, will get back every cent of real money once they download the new software. Unfortunately no promo monies will transfer.

The owners of the site have certainly proven that customers can trust them to treat their customers fairly. The first software switch cost them tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket. They are offering a 100% sign-up bonus for new accounts, up to $100. And a 200% bonus for any deposits over $100, up to $1000.

Players that have just started playing poker almost always have a ton of leaks in their game. It takes years to become a really good poker player, despite the common opinion of new players that they are already good. The most common mistake that new players make is that they play too many hands. They don’t yet understand starting-hand winning percentages and think they have an equal chance to win before every hand.

The other common one is to call too many bets when all they have is a draw hand. Novice players believe they will hit their draw too much because they don’t know the probabilities of the draw hitting. They don’t understand pot odds, and that calling large bets with drawing hands puts them in a negative wagering situation. And novice players play their cards too much, and not the player, which is rarely enough to win.

Playing AK is one of the most common mistakes players make in hold’em. We wait so long for good cards that once big slick shows up we treat it like we have pocket aces. Now don’t get me wrong, big slick is a good hand, but if you’re up against a pocket pair you are a slight dog to win, and a bigger dog if it’s aces or kings.

Deciding how to play big slick against a raise depends on the circumstances of the raise. If it comes from a player in late position, after there have been no other raises, you may very well be up against AQ or AJ and be in really good shape. If it comes from a player in an early position, it usually means a small or medium pocket pair, and depending on your position, it may be wise to fold your big slick.