In your home games as in the casino, the dealer should make sure blinds are posted before the cards are dealt.

One of our readers was the big blind and did not realize it. She thought she was first to act and folded her cards. Then she realized her error, posted her blind and took back her cards. She was yelled at by one of the players and told “tough”. What is the proper table etiquette? Should she be able to play the hand?

I had to consult with several of you on this as there was a bit of debate but the general consensus was that if the cards you mucked were clearly identifiable and there was no doubt which two cards belonged to you , then you should be allowed to stay in the hand. If there is question as to which were your cards and they were totally washed in the muck, the hand would be dead.

Many beginners think when they are short stacked that they should call an all in bet with any decent hand. What they should be doing instead is moving all in first to put pressure on the other players. Calling an all in with Q8 is very different than moving all in with the same hand with a small stack. The all in bettor will likely have something that you have to beat. Be the leader.

If you want to improve your game you are going to have to play with some players who are better than you. Of course you want to win but in the long run you will win even more if you can advance your game. You can usually do this in a low limit home game or online. Be careful though not to play beyond your bank roll. Use prudent financial judgement.

It is important to understand the minimum raise rules. Typically you will not raise the minimum but should you decide to, here its a simple explanation: You must raise at least double the last bet.
Someone asked the question: If Blinds are 300/600 and someone raises pre-flop to 1200, is the min raise 1800 or 2400 ?
The answer is $1800 . The raise was $600 so 600 on top of 1200 is 1800. Now after the flop if someone makes it 2000 the next min raise is 4000, double the last bet.
Make sure you understand this rule before you play.
In some games they make you raise double the last full bet so in the case of the raise to 1200 preflop you would have to go to 2400. This is rare but you need to know the rules so always ask for the tournment rules BEFORE the game begins.

Remember that when there’s a pair on the board, there’s a possibility of someone having a Full House, especially when the cards on the board are face cards (paint) or an ace.
People can fall in love with their Flushes and Straights, then get nailed by a paired card on the river, so Pay Attention to the betting.

You want to bluff the right people at the right time but no matter how well you plan the bluff sometimes you will get caught . That is ok. If you played the hand correctly and were bluffing when you should sometimes you will still get your hand caught in the cookie jar. It’s not the worst thing in the world as it lets other players know that you don’t only play with the best hand and that will get you more action which will be just what you want when you do have a big hand.

A few of our Prima Divas went to Atlantic City this weekend and both were surprised by the number of bad players at the table. However they both had different experiences on their trip: One was a big winner, the other left not very happy. This leads us to the following conclusion: You can win a lot of money playing with bad players BUT you will also experience many more bad beats. That is the trade-off, so be careful when playing with the weak…

If a 100 person tournment pays the top 10 people it does not matter if you come in 11th or 99th. You can’t just try to stick around because you don’t want to be out too early. Play to get all the chips. You must play to win as opposed to avoid losing.It’s no fun to be out in the first hour but it is a waste of time to just linger without going for the big win.

Suited connectors versus two over cards will win around 42% of the time BUT Suited Connectors against only one overcard are almost a 50-50 shot so if the pot odds are right you should play them.