Are You looking for a new poker room with up to 50% rakeback where you know your money is safe and the management have an impeccable security record unlike Full Tilt, Poker Stars or UB, then look no further than Party Poker Rakeback. Party Poker will soon again retain the spot as the the largest poker room in the world.

Contrary to popular belief Party Poker also offer a very generous reward scheme which is the equivalent to party poker rakeback. Please see the table below for details on party poker rakeback structure. Not only do you receive party poker rakeback but you also receive a 100% up to $500 first time deposit bonus.

Sign Up Details to Receive Party Poker Rakeback and 1st Deposit Bonus

Party Poker Bonus Code: rbreward

Initial Sign-Up Bonus: 100% up to $500

Follow this link to sign up to Party Poker and follow the simple instructions to begin playing at the Worlds safest poker room and start earning party poker rakeback.

Party Poker Rakeback Explained

Every time you play a hand of poker on Party Poker you generate Party Poker Points which enable you to generate party poker rakeback. Once you play your first hand you are eligible for the the VIP scheme (this equates to party poker rakeback) as detailed above. When you have reached a specific number of Party Poker points you can convert this to cash back and also receive a special extra bonus payment. Therefore you can receive up to 50% Party Poker Rakeback.

At Party Poker, not only do you receive party poker rakeback but their first deposit Bonus clearing rate is also clearly defined at Party Poker. Minimum deposit required for the exclusive Party Poker bonus is $25. To claim your full bonus, collect eight times the amount you deposited in Party Points. For example if you deposited $100 you need to collect 800 points to get your $100 bonus. The bonus is broken down into 10 increments and you have 120 days to clear. This added to your party poker rakeback makes this poker room superior to all others.

Party Poker Rakeback – Party Poker Room Review

Software 9/10

In 2008 Party Poker made a major overhaul to their software. The results are very impressive with slick, fast software. This means no crashes and you can multi-table up to 12 tables without any hassles performance wise. This also leads to greater accumulation of party poker rakeback and VIP points.  Customization options are fairly limited and mostly deal with animation and sound. Tables can be resized however there is no option to tile or cascade automatically which can be a little time consuming when you kick start a multi table session. The lobby of Party Poker has good filters and is divided into easy to navigate categories. In the lobby you can see the number of hands per hour, the average pot size and the percentage of players who see the flop per table. You can also create custom filters to speed up the table selection process.

Soft Competition 10/10

Party Poker is softer than Full Tilt and Poker Stars Pre FBI charges and blackout. Therefore it is your traditional European based player pool which means crazy erratic play from the many recreational players that frequent the site and a predictable tight aggressive play from the regulars. Party Poker has the ability to attract numerous fish to the site due to their advantageous position of being the worlds most recognizable poker brand. To this day Party Pokers are one of the biggest spenders in large scale advertising and therefore the ratio of recreational players to regulars always remains healthy. And now with the big question marks over the Full Tilt and Poker Stars reliability of payment processing, the fish will come in their droves to Party Poker. Alot of fish coupled with a good rewards scheme (i.e party poker rakeback)

Traffic 9/10

Party Poker is the largest European Poker site and according to Poker Scout has 23,000 unique frequent players. There are on average 7,000 players on the cash games tables during peak hours so there is never an issue of poor traffic. The Sit and Go’s and MTT’s fill up fast so this site is suitable for poker players of all game specialties.

Deposit/Withdrawal 10/10

All the industry standards are allowed and used.

Deposits: Neteller, Moneybookers, Visa, MasterCard, Instadebit, EuroCard, Diners Club, Laser, Solo, Maestro, wire transfer and echecks

Withdrawals: Neteller, Moneybookers, Visa, MasterCard, Instadebit, EuroCard, Diners Club, Laser, Solo, Maestro, wire transfer and echecks

Security 10/10

Party Poker are a listed company and therefore obeyed the UIGEA laws introduced in 2006 in America and restricted American players from playing there.  Because of this they have put themselves in a great position for whenever online poker is finally regulated in USA and will be one of the first poker rooms to be granted a license when this occurs. Party Poker are based out of Gibraltar and in all the history of online poker there has never been a negative story in relation to payment processing or player ethics. This site because of its size has a reputation (which every other poker site would cherish) treats all their customer with the respect they deserve. I have no qualms in keeping a large bankroll on this site.

Rake 8/10

Rake is industry standard at 5% and you can take advantage of  Party Poker Rakeback as detailed above to receive compensation for rake paid.

Overall Rating – 90%

Party Poker is the third biggest Poker Room worldwide and the biggest European only site in terms of traffic. Through its brand name and reputation it offers great peace of mind for people who have large sums of money on the site.  The players are mostly at mid stakes and lower  and are active during peak European hours. As long as you aren’t a nose bleed high-stakes player, you should find plenty of games to play in, often with soft competition. PartyPoker has a great VIP program/ Party Poker Rakeback Scheme that offers excellent rewards for players who frequent their site. The sign up bonus is simple to clear and they also offer regular reload bonuses to keep the fish coming back to the site and also as a nice reward for the regulars.

Sign up today to receive your 100% up to $500 dollar first time deposit bonus using this link and also begin earning up to 50% party poker rakeback!

Inside their thriving network, you will find more than 20 million registered customers in more than 25 core markets and up to 45,000 concurrent players at peak hours. Their geographical and multi-language footprint extends over multiple time zones giving 24 hours, 7 days a week player coverage.

Founded in 1999 as Ongame e-Solutions, Ongame has been an innovator of online poker products since 2004. Ongame currently supply over 25 of the e-gaming industry’s strongest brands and operators.

Poker Sites With Ongame Rakeback/VIP Programs

Two of the biggest brands on the Ongame network are Betfair and Eurobet (Now rebranded Coral), two of the most reliable, respected and secure online gaming companies in the world. Because of their huge volume of sportsbook members, the player pool on the ongame network is relatively soft compared to the likes of Full Tilt and Poker Star.

Ongame Rakeback Policy Update

Ongame rakeback policy changed recently. They no longer allow ongame rakeback on any of their poker skins but instead now offer a generous VIP loyalty scheme which compares very favourably with the old ongame rakeback percentages on offer.

Ongame was also the innovators of the Essence rake calculation system. This is a weighted contribution system to sustain the poker ecosystem and keep the “fish” on the network for longer.

According to an Ongame spokesperson, “the Essence system from Ongame will look to reward losing and new players, and give operators who have a higher proportion of ‘fish’ a larger share of the total rake. We want to encourage operators to put more fish into the water”

Under the new system new players will receive a higher number of player points from each raked pot, and an even higher proportion if they play solely with experienced players.

Ongames aim is ‘is to grow the poker market, as the number of people playing poker online is a tiny fraction of the total number of poker players,’ the Ongame spokseman also stated.

Therefore by rewarding the newer players more poker points when they combat the experienced regs, they will receive higher cash back bonuses which will be put back into the poker eco system.

This means that the games will remain softer than rival poker networks, so an experienced regular poker player can expect to have a higher win rate on the Ongame network. For example a quick glance at Poker Table Ratings monthly leader board for Ongame will show the majority of the top 50 players having win rate in excess of 20 big blinds per 100 hands at 100nl level. This is huge considering having a win rate of 6 big blinds per 100 hands is generally assumed to be “crushing” the game!

Also to compensate for having less poker points awarded to mass multi tabling winning regulars, you can now make up the difference through the monthly poker points race ($11,000) and the monthly point chases ($8,000) promotions offered exclusively to RakebackReward.com members. This can work out the same as a 50% ongame rakeback deal.

Follow the link to sign up with Betfair Poker today, the most respected brand in the online gaming business and avail of the $2500 first time deposit bonus.

Check out our unbiased Coral poker room review (Previously Eurobet Poker – now rebranded to Coral Poker). For non UK residents, this brand may not be as Worldwide renown as Betfair, however it is our personal favourite skin on the Ongame network due to the monthly points races and chases and its reputation as one of the biggest names in the UK gaming industry (Owned by Coral Gala Bookmakers, Bingo and Casinos employing more than 17,000 people).

Or for people eager to start playing on Coral Poker follow the link and begin today. Your RakebackReward.com members page will update daily with your contributed rake and position on the RakebackReward.com exclusive points chase leaderboard.  So why wait start earning ongame rakeback/VIP cash back today at one of our two preferred Poker Rooms.

Want respect from your poker buddies ? Buy a poker table top and a quality poker chip set

So why not increase your poker winnings by hosting your own weekly poker game. Make it enjoyable by investing in a poker table top if you cant afford a poker table and splash out for a cool poker chip set to impress your poker buddies. Then start to create your invite list.
 
One of the other advantages of hosting your own game is that you get to pick the players. So start sending out invites to the sales and marketing department at work. Its always good to get those big egos in the game! try and avoid sending invites to the actuarial department especially if you plan to play a sit n go – Those guys can learn fast:-)

Below are some items that will make your home poker game the talk of the town.

Fat Cat 84-Inch Folding Poker Table

Trademark Texas Holdem Folding Poker Table Top

Folding Poker Table Top Product Features

Playing on this software is really a fun experience. It has 3D graphics and you can choose and change your character to match whatever characteristics you want. You can also purchase different ttype of chip tricks for your character and you can annoy/entertain your opponents at the table. My favourite feature of all is the ‘cheering’, ‘chicken’ and ‘boo’ emotions features where you can goad your opponent into laying down a hand or trying to get him to call.  The software really just plays like a real live cash game, and I suppose that in itself is a compliment as it is totally different to any of its rivals on the market.
Soft Competition 10/10

As I mentioned in the above software section, these game not only resembles a live game but the players are as bad as live cash players in your local casino. PKR while compatible with poker tracking software, you can only operate one heads up display even if you have the full compliment of 4 tables running.

It is actually very hard to play more than one table as the table is minimized into the side panel so to take good notes it is better just to play one table. Because of this, no regular professional grinders will play on this site and you can nearly be guaranteed that 4 out of 6 on a shorthanded table are very inexperienced at poker. If I had to compare the level of competition versus Full Tilt I would compare the 100NL on PKR to the 25NL tables on Full Tilt.
Traffic 9/10

PKR is an independent network so It must generate all its own traffic. In the past 4 years they have operated a very aggressive affiliate led marketing and promotions campaign. They also sponsored the PKR Heads Up Championship in 2009. This has lead to high level of brand awareness in Europe and is not surprising that it is one of the quicker growing poker sites on the internet

According to traffic tracking sites the real money ring game average 1000 players which is quite good for cash games during peak European hours. The total number of players site ranges from 5000 to 18000.

Bonus 7/10

Ok, PKR offer a 100% bonus up to €800 which is very good, however because it is hard to multi-table it will take noticeable longer to clear the bonus. However the juicy games will make up for the slowness in the bonus clearing and you will get it all eventually.

Deposit/Withdrawal 10/10

Neteller, Click2Pay, and Firepay – These options involve funding your online e-wallet with a variety of deposit options including Debit and Credit Cards, ACH, Bank Wire, along with other options. Visa, Visa Delta, Visa Electron – Players can use their credit cards to fund their account.  This is one of the fastest and easiest ways to deposit.  You can also withdraw to your credit card, and you will receive a credit on the credit card.

MasterCard, gift cards or pre-paid MasterCard – You can also use these options to fund your account.  Just like credit cards, these options are very fast and very easy, plus you can cash out to your credit card. Maestro, Switch, and Solo – These options are debit card options.  You can also cash out to your debit card.

For withdrawing, you can also receive checks and bankers drafts in either GBP or US Dollars, which is a very secure way of receiving your funds.

Security 7/10

PKR is regulated by the Gambling Control Commission in Alderney which is based on the channel islands between UK and France. The fact that it is outside the remit of UK and European jurisdiction and operates as a self regulatory state with its own government may give some grounds for concern regarding the transparancey of its operations.

Below is the current eGambling legislation in Alderney

The Gambling (Alderney) Law, 1999, as amended

The Alderney eGambling Ordinance, 2009

The Alderney eGambling Regulations, 2009.

The fact that they have spent so much money on advertising and building up a large membership base will hopefully deter any senior management from any adverse actions to ruin that image. The main man behind PKR is Jez San, OBE, President and Founder who comes with a very reliable reputation. I for one do not have any fears for the safety of my money on PKR.

Rake 7/10

Current rake stands at 2.67% per pot which is in the top 50 of poker room’s world wide (Joint 4^th to be exact). This is quite reasonable. Rakeback of 30% can be secured if you sign up to PKR through www.rakebackreward.com and the rakeback is paid directly into your PKR account on the 10^th of the month. It is a nice way to boost your bankroll.
Overall % Rating  -  86%

What stage do you think you’re at?

Stages of a Tag

1) Hmm, this K5s looks kinda good
Basically playing any hand that looks good as you have no real idea of anything!

2) I will never play anything but these 18 hands under any circumstances
Getting an idea of starting hand value, but only playing pocket pairs, AK and fold everything else! Big breakthrough from stage 1. Money no longer burned away.

3) I need to fold post-flop if I don’t hit a hand and I need to fold to pressure if I don’t get a great hand.
Realisation that post-flop folding is an important skill.

4) Maybe I can loosen up a bit more in position. I can play more hands because I know how to fold them post-flop.
Fit-or-fold mindset. Overall, not profitable. Mis-understanding how to play speculative hands.

5) I need to bet my good hands hard to get value.
Best way to play big hands is to play them hard to build pot. A lot of players  don’t realise they need to build big pots with big hands;  they feel they need to deceive opponents.
A player at this stage is an evolved nit; tight pre-flop, but still play fit-or-fold postflop; folding marginal/mid-strength hand to pressure. Nits make money from loose players, but will struggle on a table full of TAGs. They are susceptible to pot stealing and they will gradually burn money against TAGs.

6) I can semi-bluff decent draws postflop with no added risk.
Idea of shoving draws on the flop is a low risk proposition due to large equity if called. Your opponent only has to fold a small percentage of the time to make it profitable. Semi-bluffing a draw is the realisation that equity+fold equity = profitable play.

7) C-betting is much more powerful if you follow it up sometimes with turn barrelling.
Just because c-bet called, don’t always give up if you miss the flop. Nits don’t do this often and are mostly stuck at stage 5, Important stage.

8 ) I should 3-bet more hands pre-flop for value.
It’s too defensive a mindset to be always worried about building a big pot with a marginal hand. Build pots with AQ, AK that aren’t sure things and gamble in some pots. Sometimes you will get stacked, but overall if you 3-bet with a tighter range than your opponents then this will be profitable.

9) I can play a few more hands from all positions because bluffing makes bad hands profitable sometimes.
Bluffing doesn’t come naturally to most players.  Most players learn to play for value before learning the value of bluffing. Many pots can be won by stealing at the right times and pre-flop & post-flop hand values are not as important as previously thought sometimes.  Important to takes pots away from players in the right spots. Bluffing is integral to a NL strategy.

10) I need to adjust my pre-flop game to my opponent. That means not folding as much to frequent 3-bettors, calling more on the button against light openers.
Prior to this stage, players are mostly just focused on their own cards, in a vacuum. This stage involves adjusting pre-flop play to opponents tendencies. Naturally, first thing to do against an aggressive player who 3-bets endlessly is to call OOP, with speculative hands, KQ etc. However, flop comes and it misses, so they fold. If you enter 3-bets pots with fit-or-fold mindset then this is unprofitable. Very common at microstakes. They call more on the button against light openers as calling raises with K10, KJ, A8 etc.  Is dubious as they’re easily dominated, but villain is raising 40%+ so no need to fold KJ against this type of player. KJ is trouble against a nit, but strong against an aggro.

11) I should look for small pots that nobody in particular seems to want and attack them.
Important to realise that over the course of a session there will be several small pots like this, where you can often take away small pots when nobody is showing any interest.
Many TAG players are at this stage at microstakes.

12) I need to adjust my postflop play somewhat to my opponents. That means getting it in with hands like top pair against bad or loose players.
Start to make adjustments to stage 3. Depends on the opponent how much pressure means; if against a nit then fold top pair. If they’re an aggro monkey, then don’t necessarily fold top pair, you can’t give up hands apart from sets etc. It can be uncomfortable, but you need to adjust to this.

13) I can make more money by stealing more pre-flop. I can steal more loosely from the button, and I can 3-bet light from the button and blinds.
This is a highly important step. It’s almost free money. This is the first time where you begin to realise that sometimes cards don’t matter. Stealing=auto profit. The situation is profitable. Light 3-bets & squeezes can be profitable by themselves & don’t need large post-flop value. Don’t click auto-fold button when on button.

14) I can also get carried away and start opening too many hands from all positions.
Some good players do play extremely loosely, and it may be profitable against a table of fit-or-fold players. Filter HEM to all your open-raises and then filter out the strong pre-flop hands; pocket pairs, suited aces, broadways etc. If you look at just the junk you open from UTG or CO you will see they’re not profitable.

15) I can combat light 3-bets with light 4-bets and light 4-bettors with light 5-bet shoves.
Starting to understand the importance of fighting back sometimes pre-flop against certain kinds of players.

16) Double-barrelling can be quite effective and sometimes we should be planning multi-street bluffs after the flop.
Sometimes shoving the river makes sense; you need to read the board and understand the opponents. Beginning to plan your bluffing; e.g. I will c-bet flop and get called by this range of hands, then bet again on turn to fold out another range of hands etc.

17) I can take aggro-donks who bet every flop  off their hands with well-timed raises and floats.
First time you are beginning to fight back against post-flop aggression.

18) I should seek out bad players and try to isolate them to play as many possible pots with them.
Most significant hands should be against bad players. Make money seeking out the bad players and go after them. They limp in, you raise, you need to get HU with them.

19) Pre-flop hand values usually depend far more on the situation than the intrinsic value of the hands. Did a bad player limp in, stack sizes etc. Chuck out the hand chart, it’s meaningless.

20) The size of the pot determines how aggressive I need to play and how committed I am to the pot.
When you call a 3-bet you’re creating a big pot. You must play aggressively in big pots. You have to shove on semi-bluffs, push gutshots on the flop, push overcards, float flop – shove turn. Necessary because the pot is so big. Size of pot is hugely important.

21) Look out for large pots that nobody seems to want and attack them.
There are fairly large pots up for grabs by sticking money in e.g. shoving the river.

22) I can value bet on the river much lighter against bad players and expect to get called by worse hands.
Value betting is very important. Many players check down hands that they could be betting for value.

23) I need to focus on line balancing. Reading hands lets me find unbalanced lines in my own play and in my opponents’ play.
When you figure out how to read hands you’ll find situations where you’ll be able to explot opponents.

24) Through observation I can determine roughly what level my opponent plays  and out-level them by one level.
E.g. opponent may be a stage 13 or 14, he’s not value-betting, shoving to pick up big pots etc. What is opponent thinking about? You get an insight into their thought process and predict what they’re gonna do; e.g. he’s learnt that he can steal on dry flops, but not able to deal with aggression if bluffed back at.

25) I can make seeming drastically adjustments to my game to exploit opponents playing an unbalanced strategy.
E.g. If someone is double-barrelling, but not triple-barrelling, then making a very drastic adjustment to your strategy by floating twice and then shoving river.  Routinely making adjustments to exploit their unbalanced lines.

If you look at your Holdem Manager statistics for your returns by position, you will see that your two most profitable positions on the table are the Cut off (Seat to the immediate left of the dealer button) and the Button. Below are the 5 reasons why it is so important to always use position

1. You are the last to act

How many times have you seen everyone at the table check two streets and the person on the button decides to make a small bet and everyone folds. The Button flips over his unpaired 56 off suit and laughs as he scoops the pot. Being last to act is paramount in the game of poker. You get to see how others in the pot are acting and betting before you, giving you more information so you make a more informed decision.

2. You can take a free card

You have raised with suited connectors on the button and get called by three players. You flop a flush draw and everyone checks to you so you decide to have one stab at the pot. Everyone fold bar one. The turn car does change the complexion of the board so the opponent checks to you. Knowing that the board hasn’t changed texture, there is a change that a bet here will not take down the pot so you check here to take a free card to hit your flush draw. If playing out of position this would not be possible.

3. You can open up your range a lot

If no one opens the pot and you are on the Button, you can now loosen up your range and raise with hand like A4s, A7 off suit, Q9 suited etc as you now only have 2 players left to act and they will both be out of position if they call. If you have really tight players in the blinds, you can raise with 100% of your hands on the Button as they will fold enough times to make this a profitable play.

4. You can isolate bad players

If there is one bad player at the table and you are sitting to his immediate left, enjoy it as you have just found your personal ATM. Once you have figured out his main weaknesses, you can pile pressure on this player by raising preflop every time he limps into a pot and continually try to get into heads up battles with him. He will eventually make a mistake and gift you all his money

5. You can manipulate your opponents.

You are playing against a bad player but he is trying to play tricky by leading into you after you have isolated him. You know that he has tendency to lead with weak pairs but check raise with strong hands. You have TT on a J75 rainbow board which is a hand which still has great value against a bad player even on this board.

He leads into you with a smallish bet (also known as a donk bet) of about 1/3 pot. You call as raising will fold out worse hands and you will only get called by hands that beat you.

The Turn brings a blank 2h. He now leads 1/3 pot again. This time however instead of calling, we use our position by re-raising smallish here. Our intention here is to either get him to fold or to call but as we have shown aggression here we have now taken control of the pot, therefore if he does call, he will now more likely check the river to us and we can now use our position to check behind and get a cheap showdown with our marginal holdings which are more often then not good.

By making this move we have prevented the opponent from realising we are weak and betting us off the hand with a large bet on the river, by using our position and aggression on the turn. This is a powerful trick to have in your arsenal.

As you can see from the above points, playing in position is the most underrated concept in poker. For more in-depth analysis and poker strategy articles check out our poker articles section.

1. An Instant snap bet on the river (usually pot sized) is the majority of the time a sign of extreme strength. This may be a re-raise all in or a big bet when you have bet the flop and turn and then check the river out of position,. Top pair top kicker is no longer good here. The only time you should be calling here is if you have a read on your opponent that he will bluff/bet on the river when checked to when you are trying to trap.

2.A double barrel stab by certain opponents on the turn and river once you bet the flop and check/call the turn is again a sign of extreme strength. Top pair top kicker is very rarely good here. The opponent types to look out for are either fish/bad players or regulars who play extremely face up on the flop. In other words regulars who like to showdown top pair hands and bet their monsters and who rarely bluff. Use your Holdem manager stats to check their float/steal percentages. If its less than 50%, then you can safely say when they double barrel stab the turn and river they have a very strong holding.

3. This tip is similar to the previous one and again is related to the tight bad regulars who play more or less straight forward on the flop. A line I take sometimes to balance my c-betting range is to check top pair top kicker on the flop for deception against these bad regulars. If they check the flop , you can usually delay c -bet the turn and bet the river to get two streets of value as your opponent is less likely to believe that you hold top pair, especially if the turn brings a back door draw. They will usually call you down with a medium pocket pair.

However if they bet the flop when you check it and then proceed to bet the turn and river, you are a more than likely in very bad shape and as hard as it is to fold top pair, you must do so in this spot on the river. Only call if you have a nailed down read that opponent is bluff happy in these spots.

4.Bluffing in small stakes poker is overrated. People love calling and especially so at small stakes. If you play a decent TAG or LAG style and you value bet thinly, then there usually is very little reason to bluff at small stakes. Therefore if you are inclined to bluff, ensure that you have a good read on your opponent that they are weak tight and also bad hand readers. Also try and only bluff when your opponents range is weak. This means refrain from re-raising all in on the river if your opponent has bet 3 streets unless you are sure he is hyper aggressive while having the betting lead. Look out for spots where opponent has shown weakness in smaller pots and try a few over bets as bluffs to fold out his weaker paired and Ace high type hands.

5. Do not call 3 bets in position with hands like KQ, AJ against opponents until you have built up some 3 betting dynamics. Even though your HUD might state that the 3 bettor is betting 11% of hands versus pre flop raises from steal position, it does not make it ok to call with weaker broadway hands without a read. if you don’t have a grasp of his 3 betting strategy versus you i.e whether its a polarised or a fluid range, than you will get yourself into many tough situations post flop where you will either win a small pot or lose a buy in. The safer option with these type of hands without understanding his 3betting range/strategy is to either fold or 4 bet bluff and fold to a shove.

First and foremost, do not 3 bet bluff a bad player unless he plays fit or fold after the flop. Otherwise you are throwing away money. If he calls all your 3bets but never folds to a follow up continuation bet or a double barrel then correctly you should just be 3 betting for value against these type of bad players. Also obviously do not 3bet bluff players with short stacks.

Secondly you should be concentrating on 3betting pre-flop raises from players to your immediate right, especially when you are on the button as the pre-flop rasiers raising range is wider. You should be 3 bet bluffing 75% of the time and 3bet value raising 25% of the time. Most good regular poker players play fold or shove when 3 bet and out of position, therefore when 4 bet you can easily fold your bluff hands.

When out of position, you should be 3 betting 75% for value and 25% bluffing against habitual late position raisers (i.e. Players who raise in the Cut off, Button or Small blind). The reason you 3bet bluff less is down to the fact your are out of position and cannot control the size of the pot as easily as you can in position and have less information to act upon.

The above is the generic plan to 3betting, however now we must alter this plan to deal with different types of opponents you will encounter in all levels of 6 max no limit holdem.

Player type 1 – Never folds to 3 bet
Play against this player as you would against a bad player as described above. You should only be 3betting for value TT+, AJ+.

Player type 2 – Always folds to a 3 bet
3bet this player with 100% of hands (including garbage) until he counteracts by 4 betting, or calling the raise and the continuation bet, then veer towards value hands. (JJ+, AQ+)

Player type 3- Folds/shoves to 3 bets out of position but rarely folds to a 3bet in position
These are the more common type of bad regulars you will encounter. Remember a person with a low fold to 3bet % in position will automatically have a wider (substitute weaker) post flop range. As you will be playing a bloated pot out of position, where the stack to pot ratio will be quite small you must ensure that you veer towards 3 betting with high cards, so against these type players you should lower the amount of bluff 3betting out of position and 3bet more with hands KJ+. Then when he hits the flop with his JT on a J43 rainbow board, he will not be able to get away from it and will be outkicked at showdown.

Finally, a good way to ensure you keep up your ratio of bluffs to value 3bets is either to pick a certain type of had that you always 3bet bluff when in position. The most common hands are any Ax, Kx suited cards as not only do these hands offer some high card value postflop but also due to card elimination there is a better chance that your opponent does not hold these cards and is more than likely going to fold.

Another strategy is to 3bet any hand that is just below your calling range, so for example, I would usually call a raise from a cut off pre flop raiser with QT, but fold Q9, however now i will automatically 3bet these type hands when the Cut off raises.

Now please realise that no player is that stupid that he will not figure out that you are 3betting him too much so you must make sure that you apply the adjustments before he does to ensure you are always one step ahead. E.g. If you have 3bet the Button from the Blinds in the last three orbits and you are now dealt AJ in the BB and again the Button raises, it would now be preferable to just flat the raise as a 3bet here, even though part of your value range, can not withstand a 4 bet form a player who is just dying to get it in with AJ+, 99+ and you are a big dog versus that range. That hand now has value post flop and therefore if you are going to 3bet again for the 4th time you should polarise your range to AA, KK, AK or garbage hands, therefore you will not have a hard decision if you are 4 bet – shove AA, KK, AK and fold the garbage.

That is the basic concept behind 3 betting and then it is up to you the player to alter the strategy based on how your opponent is playing and/or adjusting, stack sizes and general game flow.

Omaha Hi Low (PLO8) Strategy Tip No.1 – Get A Good Rakeback Deal

This may seem like a self-serving lead tip to find on a rakeback site, and it is of course advice that applies to any poker game as a matter of course, because playing any game without rakeback where it is available is essentially throwing away money. But if rakeback is important in Holdem games, it is orders or magnitude more important in split pot games. Unlike in Holdem, where good players see few showdowns, 08 hands frequently go to showdown and, in the case of big bet variants, are frequently played for stacks once they get there. Because of the split pot, players with strong one way hands often attempt to leverage their opponents off weak hands they expect to split with. A good rule of thumb through to midstakes is that 08 will typically generate rake equivalent to a NLHE game 2-3 levels lower, so rakeback is all but essential to maintain a meaningfully positive winrate, even in the case of microstakes players.

Omaha Hi Low (PLO8) Strategy Tip No.2 – Play to Scoop 

This rule applies always in limit games and in PL/NL08 it applies whenever hands are played strictly for value. If you are beginner you should ignore the few situations in BB08 games which represent exceptions to this rule and play to scoop 100% of the time. When you play for half the pot your best case scenario is getting your money returned, and losing a small amount to the rake – your worst case is getting quartered or scooped. That does not mean you should fold strong one way hands when there is a lot of money in the pot pricing you in to call for half, but you should exercise pot control in these situations and moreover try to avoid them in the first place by not committing yourself with one way hands. Any A2 is probably too good to fold pre in all but the tightest games, but A2 hands which are vulnerable to being quartered like A2Jx are classically problematic in this regard and should be played with caution.

Omaha Hi Low (PLO8) Strategy Tip No.3 - High hands are better than low hands

Particularly in multi-way pots. This concept isn’t too complicated but it is worth remembering at all times. The simple reason for this is that high hands are more likely to be unique. If you have the nut high hand in a multi-way pot, barring soul reads you should be betting for value at every opportunity. If you have the nut low hand in a multi-way pot and are without high potential you should be pot controlling, or perhaps even folding into small pots, particularly where your low hand is formed by A2; a starting hand which is always a prominent part of your opponents’ range.

Omaha Hi Low (PLO8) Strategy Tip No.4 – Don’t slowplay big hands

Not at micro or low stakes anyway, especially in position. This is partly the nature of the game and partly due to Omaha Hi Low not yet being as evolved or solved as NLHE. Either way, in practice it is rare to run into thin value bets in 08 games, especially on earlier streets, and thin 2/3 barrels are almost unheard of. Your aim in 08 should be to punish one way hands, or better yet one way draws, and to maximize equity on freerolls. Unlike NLHE your opponents generally will have some kind of hand should they be looking for a reason to call, so failing to build a pot aggressively with lock hands in most circumstances just amounts to declining value.

Omaha Hi Low (PLO8) Strategy Tip No.5 –  Simulate your hands

There are several online 08 simulators, an example is Propokertools. Many 08 players simply do not know their equity in 08 hands, including in very common spots. Compare that to Holdem, where nowadays everybody knows they’re they’re 8:1 to flop a set from their pocket pair and that they’re hitting their flush a third of the time. Remember back in 2005 and 2006 when Holdem players didn’t know that stuff? Remember how great the games were? 08 is still at that point. By simulating your hands and committing the results to memory you will pick up a massive edge in 08 games facing players who do not understand the fundamental probabilities involved in the hands they play. When you do simulate hands pay close attention to card removal, which is a more significant factor in four card games, especially in multi-way pots. Your high rundown cards may simulate poorly against random hands but if you are facing a 4bet family pot and can assign aces and deuces to most of your opponents you may suddenly find yourself a clear favourite.