Deuce to Seven Triple Draw is a 5 card draw low game. Each player is dealt 5 cards and the goal is to make the lowest possible 5 card hand. There are four rounds of betting and three draws in this game. After each round of betting players choose cards to discard, anywhere from 0 to 5, and the dealer deals them replacement cards. After the third and final draw there is one last round of betting. A dealer button determines the order of betting and discarding.

Hand rankings

In Deuce to Seven Triple Draw players try to make the lowest possible 5 card hand. Aces play for high only and deuces play for low. Because you are trying to make the lowest possible hand, straights and flushes count against you. This means that 23456, for example, is a very bad hand. It is not considered a 6-low. It is a straight and is therefore worse than holding AKQJ9.

The best possible hand you can make is 23457 with no flush. This hand is called a wheel. The next best hand is 23467, again with no flush. This hand is often referred to as Number 2. Likewise, 23567 is referred to as Number 3 and so on.

Because Aces play for high 2345A is not a straight. It is the best possible Ace-low you can make-also called the Nut Ace. 23458 is the Nut 8. 23459 is the Nut 9 and so on. AKQJ9 is the worst possible unpaired hand you can make, since your goal is to make a low hand. 22345 would be the next best hand after that. Trips are worse than pairs. Straights are worse than pairs and trips. Flushes are worse than straights. And full houses are worse than flushes. The worst hand you can hold in this game is a Royal Flush. So, the hand rankings are the inverse of the hand rankings in a regular high game.

How Deuce to Seven triple Draw is dealt

Deuce to Seven Triple Draw is dealt as a 6 player maximum game. The game uses a dealer button just as in hold’em. The player directly to the left of the dealer button posts a live small blind and the player two to the left of the dealer button posts a live big blind. Each player is dealt 5 cards and there is a round of betting. The first betting round starts with the player to the left of the big blind, just as in hold’em. Each player in turn has the option to call, raise or fold.

After the first round of betting is complete, each player who has not folded has a chance to draw. Players are prompted in order to discard any cards they wish to replace in their hand. The first player to act is always the player closest to the left of the button. Players can discard from zero to 5 cards. If a player chooses to discard zero cards he is opting to stand pat. After a player acts on his hand and decides how many cards to discard the next player is prompted in turn to discard and so on until all remaining players in the pot have acted on the draw.

After each player has decided on their discards, the dealer begins replacing their cards in turn. For example, if the first player discards 3 cards, the second player discards 2 cards, and the third player discards 1 card the dealer would deal the first player 3 cards, then take that player’s discards into the muck. The dealer would then deal the next player 2 cards then take that player’s discards into the muck. The dealer would then deal the last player 1 card, then take that player’s discards into the muck.

After the draw is complete, there is another round of betting. The players then have an opportunity to draw again. After the second draw is complete, there is another round of betting. The players then have one more opportunity to discard. After this third and final draw, there is one more betting round.

What happens when there are not enough cards to complete the draw?

Sometimes, there are not enough cards to complete a drawing round. When this happens, the muck has to be reshuffled and the draw is completed after the reshuffle. The cards that are included in the reshuffle are the mucked cards from all previous drawing rounds and the mucked cards of any player who has gotten all of his replacement cards on the current drawing round.

Going back to our previous example, let’s say that Player 1 discards 3 cards, Player 2 discards 2 cards and Player 3 discards 1 card. The dealer then deals Player 1 three cards and Player 2 one card. At this point there are no more cards left in the deck. The mucked cards from any previous betting rounds are now shuffled with the discards from Player 1 only. Player 2’s discards are not included in the reshuffle since all of his discards were not replaced. This means that it is impossible for a player to ever get his own discards back on a given round of betting.

Betting Structure

Deuce to Seven uses the same betting structure as hold’em. During the first two round of betting the limit is the small bet. So, if the game was a $10/$20 game during the first two round of betting a player could call or raise in $10 increments. The second two rounds of betting the limit is the big bet. In our example, a player can call or raise in $20 increments.

Double Flop Hold’em plays like regular Texas Hold’em, but with additional community cards.

Flop, Flop?

But it’s not just the flop; it’s the turn and river cards too! That’s right, twice the normal amount of community cards to build your hand! When the flop is dealt there are six cards – three for the upper board and three for the lower board. After that, the turn cards are dealt, one for the upper board, and one for the lower board. Then the river cards, one for the… you get the idea.

How many may i use?

Just like in Hold’em, you make your best hand of five cards from the seven available (your two pocket cards plus the five cards of the board – upper OR lower). Our Double Flop game uses only one 52-card deck, so use that to your advantage. Knowing what isn’t in another player’s hand is very valuable. Your King high flush looks pretty good when the Ace is on the other board with a bunch of suits that don’t match! (Technically, one of the cards would have to match the Ace’s suit, but we’re just saying…)!

So many choices!

You can use one row and one row only to make your hand. Your choice – upper row or lower row – doesn’t need to be declared, and can change throughout the hand. For instance, you have A, K in the pocket. The upper flop is 3, A, K while the lower flop is J, 8, 10. Congratulations! You have two pair. The turn cards are dealt as 8 (upper) and Q (lower).

Double the winning!

A winner will be chosen from the best hand for both the upper row and the lower row. You may have the best hand for each row and scoop the pot, but more likely you’ll be sharing with someone else at the table.

Crazy Pineapple 8/b plays like regular Crazy Pineapple until the end of the hand, when the pot may be split between the high hand and the low hand, if any.

What does ‘8/b’ mean?

8/B refers to the low hand, and means that, if a low hand exists, it must consist of cards valued at 8 or lower. If a low hand doesn’t exist, the high hand wins the entire pot. There is ALWAYS a qualifying high hand.

Qualifying low hands consist of five cards with different numerical values from Ace to 8. If multiple players meet this standard, the player with the lowest high card will win the low hand and split the pot with the high hand (e.g. Ah, 2d, 5c, 6c 7d BEATS Ac, 2c, 6d, 7h, 8d). The best low hand is A, 2, 3, 4, 5 – straights and flushes do not count against a low hand, but a pair will disqualify it. An easy way to think of a low hand score is to look at the two highest cards in that hand. For example, an A, 2, 3, 4, 6 scores a 64, and would therefore beat an A, 2, 3, 5, 6 because it’s score would be 65.

The high and low hands consist of five cards from the total of seven available at the showdown (your two pocket cards plus the five community cards), but you don’t have to use the same 7 cards for both high & low hands. If your pocket cards are Ad, 7d, and the board is 2d, 3c, 4c, 5d, 6d – you have a low hand of A-5, and a high hand of Ace high flush.

One final point – players do not need to decide if they are playing for a high hand or a low hand, as all hands in the showdown will be evaluated for both and ranked automatically by our software.

But i want it all!!!

The value of potentially sharing the pot between a high hand and a low hand is that there is more action in the game. Some will play for the high, and some for the low. But sometimes you can play for both! As mentioned above, straights and flushes do not count against a low hand. So if you have Ac, 2c, 3c, 4c, 5c, you will share in the low hand pot (it may split between you and other A-5 straights), and your straight flush would certainly put you in good position for the high hand also.

Crazy Pineapple is an exciting variation of Hold’em poker. The big differences between the two are: the three pocket cards and there is a requirement that one pocket card has to be discarded after the flop

General Rules

In crazy pineapple poker, each player in the game is dealt with three cards that face down. These are called pocket cards. In the first betting round, the dealer will turn over three community cards (called the flop) face up in the middle of the table. During the second round of betting, all players must discard one of their pocket cards. The dealer than proceeds to turn over one more community card (called the turn). The third betting round will involve the dealer to turn over the final community card (called the river). During the final betting round, the showdown takes place. At showdown for crazy pineapple poker, the players can use either one of the following:

• Both of the remaining pocket cards and the three community cards
• One of the remaining pocket cards and four community cards
• All five of the cards (that are playing for the board)

Betting Structure

There are four betting rounds in Crazy Pineapple. Each bet and raise during the first two rounds is set at the lower limit of the stakes structure. Remember, all players must discard ONE pocket card after the second betting round. Betting and raising during the last two rounds is set at the higher limit of the stakes structure.

The maximum number of bets allowed per player during any particular betting round is four. This would consist of (1) a bet, (2) a raise, (3) a re-raise, and (4) a cap. The term cap is used to describe the 3rd raise in a round since betting is then capped and cannot be raised anymore. Once the pot is capped, players will have only the option of calling or folding.

Before community-card games such as Hold’em and Omaha became popular, the most widely played poker variation was Seven-Card Stud.

Even now Stud is regarded as a more “pure” poker variation, as much for its historic past as its increased difficulty of play.

Seven Card Stud requires more attention and card-playing prowess, along the lines of Bridge or Gin, than a community-card game.

This is not to say that Stud is any better than any other variation, but it is a game worth knowing how to play. Every poker player should have the ability to play multiple variations of the game, and Seven-Card is one of the most popular and important.

The game of 7 Card Stud can be played with two to eight players at a table. The goal in Stud is the same as any other poker variation: win as many chips as you can, one pot at a time.

Stud has a lot of little rules and a few quirks, but it’s a simple game at its core. The game can be broken up into four sections:

• Setup
• The Bring
• Betting Rounds
• Showdown

If you’ve just read the Texas Hold’em Rules and Game Play article, you’ll notice that Stud has one more section. For players familiar to the rules and game play of a community-card game, the only completely  new concept you’ll learn in this article will be “the bring.”

Setup

The first thing you need to do is get everyone at your table some chips. You will need a combination of chips that will allow for a big bet, small bet and an ante.

The size of the bets will dictate how large your game will play. A big bet is typically twice the size of the small bet, with the ante around 10% of the big bet.

Here’s a chart of buy-ins and bets to give you some ideas. The buy-in amounts are the minimum amounts you would want to buy in for the stakes. If you want to be sure to have lots of chips, play with smaller stakes for the buy in – for example, use the bets for a $10 game, and buy in for $20:

Recommended Buy-in	Big Bet	Small Bet	Ante
$100+	$4	$2	50¢
$20+	$1	50¢	10¢
$10+	50¢	25¢	5¢

Once you all have chips, one player needs to grab the deck and shuffle up. It doesn’t matter who starts as the dealer in a Stud game.

Betting Rules: Stud can be played in a variety of different betting structures. This article uses the most common structure: Fixed Limit. To learn about other various betting structures, head to this article (there will be another link at the bottom of this page):

• 7 Card Stud Betting Rules: Limit and More

Once the cards are shuffled, all players must ante. Antes are dead money, meaning they go immediately into the pot: any bets you make will be in addition to the antes.

Starting with the player on the dealer’s left and moving around the table clockwise, the dealer deals every player two cards face down (all cards face down are known as as down cards or hole cards), followed by one card face up (this card is known as the door card, or window card. All cards face up are collectively known as up cards or show cards).

The Bring

In every form of poker, there is some determining factor as to how and where the action starts in the hand. In Hold’em or Omaha the action starts to the left of the big blind; in Stud it starts with the bring.

The player with the lowest-value door card is the one required to “bring it in.” Here’s what you need to discern the losing player for the bring:

• All cards are worth face value and face cards are valued from worst to best: Jack, Queen, King.
• Aces are high for the bring, which means they rank higher than a king.
• If two players have the same value low card, suits are used to determine the loser.
• Stud uses poker-suit ordering, alphabetic from worst to best: clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades.

The player required to bring has two choices. They can either bring by making a bet equal to the size of the ante, or they can complete the bet to the full amount of the small bet.

Betting Round One (Third Street)

The player to the left of the bring is next to act. That player has three options:

• Fold: They pay nothing to the pot and throw away their hand, waiting for the next deal to play again.
• Call: They match the amount of the bring.
• Raise: If the first player made a minimum bring (only brought the amount of the ante) a raise will be completing the bet to the amount of the small bet limit. If the first player completed their bring to the full small bet a raise would be doubling the small bet amount.

For example in a $20 game:

Min Bring

Player 1 brings 10¢

Player 2 can call 10¢ or complete to 50¢.

Max Bring (Completion)

Player 1 brings (completes) 50¢

Player 2 can call 50¢ or raise to $1

Play moves clockwise around the table one player at a time. A betting round ends when two conditions are met:

1. All players have had a chance to act.
2. All players who haven’t folded have bet the same amount of money for the round.

Betting Round Two (Fourth Street)

Once the first betting round has completed, the dealer deals every player (always starting at the first live player to his or her left and moving clockwise around the table) one card face up, next to the first face-up card.

In this betting round, and every betting round to follow, the first player to act is decided by the value of the show cards. The player with the highest value show cards acts first. The value of show cards are ranked in the same order as poker hands.

On fourth street, with only two cards showing, the best possible hand would be two aces showing (A♠ A♥ to be exact). The worst possible hand would be 2♣ 3♣. Any pair is better than any two non-paired cards; for example 2♣ 2♦ is better than A♠ K♠.

Suit ranks are used in the event of a tie for the highest-ranked show cards. When evaluating rank by suit, the value of the hand is determined by the suit of the highest ranking card. For example:

Player 1: A♠ K♣

Player 2: A♥ K♠

Player 1 has the better hand since the Ace of spades is of higher rank than the Ace of hearts.

Example 2:

Player 1: 3♠ 3♣

Player 2: 3♥ 3♦

Player 1 wins, since they have the Three of Spades, which is a higher ranked card than Player 2’s Three of Hearts.

Once you have discerned the highest hand, that person acts first. They have the option to check (wager no money, and move the action to the player on their left) or bet the small betting limit.

The action moves from that player clockwise around the table one player at a time. Each player has the option to:

• Check (if no bet has been made).
• Call (match any bet made).
• Bet/Raise (If no bet is made, they can bet the small limit; if a bet has been made they can raise it by adding an additional amount to the bet, equal to the small limit).
• fold (throw away their hand).

Once every player has acted, and every player that has not folded has put the same amount of money into the pot, the betting round ends.

Betting Round Three (Fifth Street)

At the completion of fourth street, the dealer deals every remaining player another card face up, starting with the first live player to his or her left, moving clockwise around the table.

Once all the cards have been dealt, the betting round starts the same way fourth street started. The player with the best show cards bets first. Three of a kind is the best combination, followed by a pair, followed by the highest cards.

In this betting round, players bet using the big betting limit. Other than the size of the bets, this betting round is identical to fourth street.

Betting Round Four (Sixth Street)

Sixth street is identical to fifth street. Every player is dealt one card face up, and the highest valued show cards bets first. On sixth street, with four show cards for each player, the best possible show card value is four of a kind.

Sixth street betting uses the big betting limit.

The Final Betting Round (Seventh Street)

When the sixth street betting round is complete, the dealer deals one final card FACE DOWN to every player. Again, the dealer starts at the first player with cards to their left, and moves on clockwise around the table.

The player with the highest-ranked show cards in the previous betting round is the first to act in this betting round as well. The final card having been dealt face down does not affect the value of the four show cards.

The final betting round uses the big betting limit.

Showdown

Once the final betting round has been completed, the players still in the hand enter into the showdown. In the showdown, each player makes the best five card hand possible out of their own seven cards.

The remaining two cards are “dead” and have no value towards the hand at all. They are never used to evaluate the strength of a hand.

Evaluating Hands

Here are the rules for evaluating the winning hand:

• There are no exceptions to this ordering, a flush always beats a straight, and three of a kind always beats two pair.
• There are no other hands used in Stud than the hands listed in this chart. For example, having three pairs is actually only “two pair” with the highest valued two pairs making your hand.
• Poker hands must be exactly five cards and only those five cards are used to evaluate the winning hand. For example:
  • if the player holds 2♥ J♣ Q♣ K♠ A♦ 10♠ 9♣, the player’s best hand is a straight: 10♠ J♣ Q♣ K♠ A♦
• If all remaining players have nothing, no pair or anything stronger, the winning hand is the hand with the highest valued single card. meaning:
  • A♣ 3♥ 4♦ 6♠ 7♠ is a better hand than K♠ Q♠ J♣ 9♣ 8♦
  • A♣ J♥ 9♠ 8♦ 6♥ is a better hand than A♥ J♣ 9♦ 8♣ 2♠
• Suits are never used to evaluate the strength of a hand. If two players have the exact same hand (disregarding the suits of the cards), the pot is split between the players.

Once you have discerned the winning hand, that player is awarded the pot. After the pot has been shipped, all players ante and are dealt their next hand. Unless you have a professional dealer, typically the role of dealer will rotate around the table, although it is not necessary for Stud.

Having one player as the dealer for the entire duration of the game will give no player an advantage or disadvantage during the game.

Random Rules

Fourth Street Open Pair: If a player pairs up their door card on fourth street (giving them a pair as the winning high hand for fourth street), the player has the option of checking, betting the small limit or betting the big limit.

If the player chooses to check, the next player to act inherits the same options (meaning they can check, or bet either the small or big limit).

If a player chooses to bet the larger betting limit, all bets and raises in that betting round must be in the  big betting limit unit. For example in a $10-$20 limit game, if a player is dealt a pair on fourth street, they can bet $10 or $20.

If they choose to bet $20, the next player must fold, call $20 or raise to $40.

Capping the Bet: In any one betting round while there are three or more players still in the hand, there can only be one bet and three raises. Once the third raise has been made, the betting is “capped,” meaning all future action in that betting round is restricted to calling or folding.

Running Out of Cards: If you are playing with eight people, it is not possible for every player to be dealt a full 7 cards, since there are only 52 cards in the deck.

If you ever get to the point where all eight players are in the hand until seventh street, instead of dealing every player one card, you must deal a single card face up in the middle of the table.

This card is used as a community card (like in Hold’em or Omaha). Every player shares that card as the seventh card of their hand.

It sucks to suck at things. And Texas Hold’em can be a frustrating game for beginners.

You lose to your friends in your home games. You lose the first few bucks you deposit online. Worse, you may not even understand why.

Are you just unlucky? Are you making huge mistakes? Are you missing one simple concept that could change things?

The truth: You’re really not that far behind 95% of the poker players in the world. And you don’t need to be the foremost expert on the game to become a winning poker player.

In fact, a relatively small amount of basic poker principles can produce massive improvements in your results almost immediately.

And the true first step to becoming a good poker player: simply figuring out how to stop sucking at it.

This is the first in a 10-part series explaining exactly how to do that on the most basic level, starting with the most important tip of all: playing fewer hands.

How Not to Suck at Poker Tip 1: Play Fewer Hands.

In Texas Hold’em, there are 169 different possible starting hands you can be dealt (this is ignoring specific suits).

Out of all these possible hands, there are only five hands that are considered “premium.”

1. AA
2. KK
3. QQ
4. AK (Suited)
5. JJ

Regardless of your position at the table, a premium hand should always be played if there is no raise ahead of you. If there is a raise ahead of you – especially if there are callers or re-raises – sometimes it can even be a mistake to play anything below Aces or Kings.

When you think about Texas Hold’em starting hands in this light, you’ll realize that you should be folding around 80% more hands than you should be playing at any given Hold’em table.

Naturally, the hands you play, and how you play them, will change depending on thousands of different variables at the table.

But at the very core of the game, there are very few hands that are considered playable.

If there has been no player to open the pot (meaning no one has raised, or even limped ahead of you) you can play almost any hand with any sort of potential value.

Once someone has raised ahead of you, your hand selection should be narrowed down to only the hands that can give you the nuts, and help keep you out of any situation which has you dominated.

For example: you should never play KQ into a raise, as AA, KK, QQ, AK, and AQ all have you dominated.

Unless you have a very good reason to do so, as a beginner poker player you should stick to playing only the top 10 to 15 hands, period.

The more you play, and the better you become at the game, the more hands you can add to your playlist.

Until then, keep it simple, and always head to the flop with the best of it.

Top 15 Hold’em Starting Hands

1. AA
2. KK
3. QQ
4. AK (suited)
5. JJ
6. 1010
7. AQ (suited)
8. AJ (suited)
9. AK (off suit)
10. KQ (suited)
11. A10 (suited)
12. KJ (suited)
13. AQ (off suit)
14. 99
15. JQ (suited)

Conveniently for those who know Omaha High, Omaha Hi-Lo is played according to almost identical rules.

The only time the High and Hi-Lo differ rules-wise is at the showdown.

Omaha Hi-Lo, also known as Omaha High-Low, O8 and Omaha 8-or-Better, is one of the most popular and entertaining forms of poker in the world.

Because this article only details the differences between Omaha High and Omaha Hi-Lo, if you aren’t familiar with the rules and game play of Omaha High, you’re going to want to read this article:

• Omaha Poker Rules and Game Play

Assuming you understand how to play Omaha High, let’s look at what distinguishes the two games.

Omaha Hi-Lo Showdown Rules

Omaha Hi-Lo is a “split pot” game, meaning that at showdown, the pot is divided in half, with one half being awarded to the winning best hand, and the other half to the best qualifying “low hand.”

The High

The winning high hand in Omaha Hi-Lo is identical to that of Omaha High. There are no qualification requirements for the high, meaning there will always be a winning high hand.

• Poker Hand Ranking

The Low

Low hands must qualify to be eligible for winning the low half of the pot.

• A low hand is composed of any two cards from a player’s hand, and any three cards from the board (community cards).
• The cards a player uses for his best High hand have no effect on the low. The player can use the same cards, different ones or a combination from his hand.
• A qualifying low hand is defined as five unpaired cards, all with ranks at or below 8.
• Aces are considered low for the low hand.
• Flushes and straights are ignored for the low, meaning the best low possible is A-2-3-4-5 regardless of suits.
• Low hands are counted from the top down, meaning the hand is only as good as its highest card. For example:
  • 2♠ 3♣ 5♥ 6♥ 7♥ is lower than A♠ 2♣ 3♥ 4♣ 8♠
• Any hand with a pair, or with a card higher than 8, does not qualify, even if the rank of the pair is below 8.
• Suits do not count toward a low; any players sharing the exact same low must equally split the low half of the pot. (Winning half of the Low pot, and nothing from the High pot is known as being quartered.)

A hand example:

Board: 4♥ 5♣ 7♥ Q♠ A♦

Hand 1: A♥ 2♠ K♥ K♠

Hand 2: A♠ 3♠ Q♥ Q♦

High Winner: Hand 2 wins with three-of-a-kind queens: Q♥ Q♦ Q♠ A♦ 7♥

Low Winner: Hand 1 wins with a 7-5-4-2 Low: 7♥ 5♣ 4♥ 2♠ A♥

Here’s a more difficult one for you:

Board: K♥ 3♦ 4♦ 8♠ 2♦

Hand 1: A♥ 2♠ Q♦ K♠

Hand 2: 6♥ 7♥ T♦ J♦

High Winner: Hand 2 wins with a flush, jack-high: 2♦ 3♦ 4♦ T♦ J♦

Low Winner: Hand 2 Wins with a 7-6 Low: 7♥ 6♥ 4♦ 3♦ 2♦

In this pot, Hand 2 scoops with the best high and the best low. Many players will think that Hand 1 will win the low because A-2 is a lot lower than 6-7.

Unfortunately, Hand 1 pairs his 2 on the river, meaning he has to use the 8 as his fifth card to make a qualifying Low hand. Even though the majority of Hand 2’s cards are higher, Hand 2 is able to use the three lowest cards on the board, making for a low of only seven-high.

General Rules

• If there is an extra odd chip, unable to be split in half, this chip is always added to the pot awarded to the winning high hand.
• If there is no qualifying low hand, the entire pot is awarded to player with the winning high hand.
• Players can win one or both halves of the pot with the same or different cards from their hand.
• A player does not have to announce what half of the pot she’s playing for at the beginning of the hand. This is only required in other variations of poker, known as “declare” games.

Let’s remember how this whole thing started. Why I have a job writing articles like this one and why you are reading them. Why there is a row of colorful banners to your right, each of them offering an excellent cash bonus for signing up for an online poker account. Why last July, 6,494 souls — hardened professionals and wide-eyed rookies alike — put up $10,000 apiece for a simultaneous shot at a vast fortune and a piece of poker history. It all started with a 28-year-old guy named Chris Moneymaker, who parlayed a $39 investment into $2.5 million, global fame, and a far different lifestyle than the one he was living in the hills of Tennessee.

Is it really too cliché to say that you could be the next Moneymaker? It sounds like a line straight out of a PokerStars commercial, and maybe it is. But is the idea really so far-fetched? A Connecticut lawyer, an Aussie chiropractor, a former Hollywood agent, a Southern California family man, a Danish rounder, and a college student from Michigan have all won the World Series of Poker Main Event since Moneymaker’s victory threw the doors open to online satellites for poker’s “Big Dance.”

There are more routes to a Main Event seat than ever this year and in this edition of Bankroll Builders, we’re throwing open our atlas and sharing a few choice shortcuts. Even if you have only $100 to spend on winning your seat, there are still plenty of ways to get there.

Where can I find online WSOP satellites?

Most of the major U.S.-facing sites have already started running satellites. Full Tilt Poker has by far the largest variety of low buy-in options, although Cake Poker, PokerStars and UB are also running “Step” systems that start as low as $1.

How much do I need?

If you’re taking a sit-n-go or “Steps” route, you will need 30-50 buy-ins for the first level you plan on playing. If you have $100, go with something like Full Tilt’s $3.30 “Step 1” sit-n-goes. With $200 you could try PokerStars’ Step 1 tournaments at $7.50 apiece. With anything less than $100, start at the $1 level.

Here’s the good news about step satellites. They pay a huge percentage of the field, meaning that you’re likely to get at least something back for your troubles. A two-table Step 2 tournament on Full Tilt pays eight places — five move on to Step 3, one retries Step 2, and the other two earn Step 1 tickets. A nine-handed $25 + $1 Step 3 Super Turbo pays eight places — two move on to Step 4, two retry Step 3, two are knocked down to Step 2 and two go back to Step 1.

If I win a seat, can I keep the money instead of playing the Main Event?

Absolutely. And since you’re reading an article called “Bankroll Builders,” you might want to consider it. Upon winning a WSOP package, the “travel” part of the award (usually $2,000-$2,500) is immediately credited to your online poker account, while the $10,000 buy-in follows a few weeks later. You are free to do whatever you want with that money — cash it out, wire it to the Rio, use it to play FTOPS events, pay off your MasterCard, anything your heart desires. Some savvy players take that $10,000 to the WSOP, but instead of spending it all on the Main Event, they’ll spread their risk over several tournaments. That $10,000 could by you in to three $1,000 NLHE events, one $2,000 NLHE event, ten $225 single-table satellites and five $545 Venetian Deepstack events.

I can only come to Vegas for one weekend and I want to play one of those $1,500 NLHE donkaments, are there online satellites for these events?

There sure are. Only thing is, there are far fewer of them running than there are for the Main Event. Your best bets for preliminary event satellites are on Cake Poker, where they are running step satellites culminating in a $2,500 package, and on Full Tilt Poker, where they run thrice-daily MTT satellites for $2,000 “Bracelet Race” packages.

In Part 2, we’ll delve into some basic strategy and offer up some insider tips on how to find the softest satellites. Stay tuned.

When deciding which starting hands to play it is very important to look around and see whether or not your hand is live.

Most weak pairs, straight draws, flush draws, etc., are playable when your cards are completely live.

For example, you start with (T♣ 9♠) 8♦. This hand is much stronger if all sevens are live, as compared to two of them being out. If all sevens and a jack are out, your hand is almost dead.

The only exception to this concept is when you hold a pair of aces or kings (when no ace is showing), which can be played in most situations even if the hand is almost completely dead.

To make it easier when deciding what to look for in your starting hand, we have compiled the following list of the best starting hands.

1. Three of a kind (also called rolled-up trips). Starting with (A-A) A and on down.
2. The big pairs AA-JJ. The hand is stronger when the pair is hidden, thus making the hand more deceptive to play against. Also, your kicker is important: a (J-J) A is stronger than a (J-J) 2.
3. The big suited connectors, such as (A♠ K♠) Q♠, (K♠ Q♠) J♠ or (J♠ T♠) Q♠.
4. The medium pairs TT-88 and medium suited connectors, such as (J♠ T♠) 9♠, (T♠ 9♠) 8♠ and (9♠ 8♠) 7♠.
5. The big suited semi-connectors, such as (A♠ Q♠) J♠, (K♠ J♠) T♠ or (A♠ K♠) T♠.

The above-mentioned hands are all strong starting hands in Seven-Card Stud.

Shaun Deeb is known for his incredible tournament results, as well as his ability to articulate strategy. He recently made the trip to Monaco for the European Poker Tour Grand Final Main Event and also competed in a couple of the side tournaments as well. He talked to PokerNews about an interesting hand he played that highlights this week’s concept: Representing hands.

Tournament: €5,000 buy-in six-max
Blinds: 100-200 with a 25 ante

Hand

At the time, I had 70,000 with the average at 30,000, so I had a lot of chips at that point in the tournament. I was opening a decent number of pots, and in this hand, I opened to 525 with queen-jack off in the hijack. The guy to my left with about 30,000 flatted, the button flatted, the small blind flatted, and the big blind flatted.
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The flop comes king-ten-seven rainbow. The small blind led for 1,550 with about 25,000 behind. The big blind folded, and I flatted. I could have done anything on a rainbow board. I definitely consider raising versus a lot of opponents. The button pretty quickly made it 3,500, which is pretty strong sizing considering our stack sizes and the board texture. The small blind tanked and then flatted. At this point, I know I’m calling, but I think about it to make it seem like I don’t have the hand I have. Considering how deep we are and that I’m drawing to the nuts, if I three-bet there, it looks strong, but I think that if a guy hand king-ten or a set of sevens or anything strong, they wouldn’t fold to my three-bet. The only hand I’d get to fold is a one-pair hand, and there aren’t many draws. If I three-bet, I get four-bet by the hands that I want to have in the pot in case I hit to pay me off.

The turn came a jack, bringing a backdoor flush-draw and then a very interesting thing happened. The small blind decided to lead 3,200 into a pot that was about 12,500 or 13,000, leaving himself with 15,000 behind. Now I know the button has what I would consider a very strong hand. I’m thinking of ways of getting the small blind to fold and getting heads up with the button, and/or over-rep my hand and get kings-up to fold. I end up making it 10,600. The button tanked for about a minute-and-a-half. He’s in a miserable spot. I could have ace-queen, queen-nine, or eight-nine. I have all the straights in my range, and he almost never has a straight in his range.

If the river was a brick, I was planning on shoving since I’d set up a pot-size river-shove if I got called. The button called. Then the small blind goes into the tank himself, and he’s feeling pretty terrible. I’m thinking that he’s going to fold eight-nine because he’s thinking that the button has a set and I probably have ace-queen. He folds and the river comes an offsuit ace. I know the button never has a queen in his range, but I’m not sure if he knows I know that. I normally go for a value bet here, but since this hand is so obscure, I thought he might decide to hero call with a set if I shove for about 40,000, which was slightly more than pot. He thought about it for awhile before folding. I showed the jack, and the whole table went crazy. The small blind was so pissed off because he folded the best hand by far on the turn.

What was your table image before this hand?

My table image is usually pretty aggressive. I get recognized a lot at the table, so I think three or four of the players knew who I was online. Since I came to the table with 60,000, with the starting stack being 15,000, they probably figured I was pretty active.

Let’s back up. Can you talk me through what was going through your head on the flop and turn?

On the flop, I basically said to myself, I have eight clean outs to the nuts. It’s very rare that one of the other opponents has queen-jack the way the betting went. It’s very unlikely the button is going to raise with that draw, and it’s very unlikely the small blind is going to lead with that draw. Since that’s the way the hand went down, I was confident that my outs were clean. I also thought I’d get paid off. Since the sizing was so small on the flop, I could rep any gutshot if a queen or jack came on the turn, and I could possibly win the pot. And if a king or a ten came, I could possibly bluff too. I had really good position and a good stack size to maneuver and bluff a much better hand. If someone had ace-king, there are a number of combinations in the making where I could get him to fold. No matter what came, I could rep it. If a ten came, I could rep trips and act like I had ace-ten and called the flop and was getting priced in because the flop raise was so small, that I’d peel.

This hand was all about what you could credibly represent, is that right?

Yeah, basically when it comes to the turn, I am the most likely person to have ace-queen. I was the preflop raiser, I was calling, calling. I was deep enough and getting the right price along the way. When the small blind leads on the flop, I can be floating with a gutshot and overcard, or be thinking that I had the best hand. The way the hand went down, I was just very confident that no matter what was going on, I was going to convince them by the river that I had a gutshot and hit it on the turn. That was my goal. We were 300 big blinds deep so for people to call with the fifth or sixth nuts which a set would be on the board is really, really tough. So even if the river blanked, I was planning on shoving. I don’t know if he would have folded or not, but it might have worked. If it didn’t, it didn’t, but I think it would have put him in a really tough spot.

So even if it was a blank on the river and he tank-called, you would have felt good about the play?

Yeah, I clearly realized that he would think it was believable that I had ace-queen. [laughs] But if he insta-called the river, then I would have felt bad.

What are the most important aspects to keep in mind when you are making a play like this, and you’re trying representing a hand?

Basically, when you’re repping, you have to do it against competent, thinking opponents who will put you on a range, whether you’re bluffing or value-betting, and interpret what they think your bets mean. When I raised the turn in this hand, they are going to interpret that like I had improved my hand in some way. I could have picked up a pair, a set, a flush draw, or a straight. There were a lot of different hands I could have. That’s what I was going for. All the hands that improved on the turn were in my range, but not theirs because they represented a lot of strength on that flop, and no hands that rep a lot of strength on that flop really like the turn card, unless they have eight-nine, but the eight-nine is still the third nuts. That’s the beauty of this hand is that they never have the nuts in this hand. In this spot, even though they may have relatively strong hands, according to the line I took, they were only bluff catchers.

What mistakes do you see beginners making when trying to represent hands?

You have to realize, and a lot of old pros say this, but when you make a bluff, you have to make the story believable. That’s how simple it is. If someone has seen you bet a flush draw every time, but in a certain hand you call and then raise the river when the flush comes, it’s not going to make sense. Based on the way my hand went down, the positions and preflop ranges and the way they adjusted as the hand progressed, I knew that the turn card was a good one to bluff. It’s all about board texture and understanding how hand ranges change with every card that comes off.