Category: Gambling

Later this week, the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court will hear the case of Phil Ivey vs Crockfords. More specifically, the court will rule on whether it is possible to be an “honest cheat”.

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The Phil Ivey vs Crockfords saga has been ongoing for a number of years.

It was 2012 when Ivey and an associate, Cheng Yin Sun, won roughly 7.7 million pounds playing Punto Banco at London’s Crockfords Judi Online.

After an investigation, Crockfords determined that Ivey had used “edge sorting” to win and that they would not be returning Ivey’s winnings. A lawsuit from Ivey followed and the two sides have been involved in litigation ever since.

The news went from bad to worse for Ivey, as the Borgata in Atlantic City heard about the Crockfords situation and determined that Ivey had also won a significant amount of money from them ($9.6 million) using edge sorting. They eventually launched a lawsuit to get their money returned.

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An appeals court ruled in 2016 that although Ivey had legitimately believed that he was not cheating, edge sorting was still not a “legitimate strategy”. After the appeals court made their ruling, Ivey openly wondered “how you can have honest cheating”.

This is what the Supreme Court will attempt to determine later this week in the UK.

An unfavorable ruling for Ivey would obviously be a very big blow for him financially, as he stands to lose roughly $20 million if the Crockfords and Borgata cases end up going against him, plus the untold amounts of money that he has likely spent on legal fees.

The poker learning never stops, that’s why it’s the greatest game! As your skills improve and your desire for more challenging games increases, you’ll naturally move up in stakes with the Situs Poker Online you play.

To keep things simple, let’s start with the most important street in poker – Pre-flop. This is where you’re going to use your skills, strategy and tactics to do the most influential work for you.

Let’s have a look at what you should be considering pre-flop to improve your game.

Are You Limping? Avoid It!

Limping is when a player calls the big blind pre-flop, as the first player to add to the pot. You should avoid limping because you won’t win the pot pre-flop doing this. It’s not an aggressive action, so you aren’t taking the opportunity to lean in to the action and win the pot from the start. You make it easy for the other players to do better. You’ve added to the pot, but not made it more difficult for them, so they’re more likely to call, and play in a stronger position than you.

What is Your Position At The Table? Take Note!

The dealer button moves around the table, and so does the strength of your position. Where you are within a hand influences your range. And your range will help you decide how to play.

As an easy rule, the more players left to act behind you, the tighter you should consider your range to be. The more players left, the more chances there are that they have a strong hand. Your range should open the closer you get to the button.

See our separate article on range.

Are You Playing Active Or Passive Poker? Rise Against It!

You may find yourself simply calling against opens, when you should be 3-betting. This is too passive; it’s time to act!

If you have a strong opening hand, you should 3-bet or you will be leaving value on the table. By 3-betting you’ll draw out more value to the pot from the other players early in the hand.

As we mentioned before, the more players in a hand there are, the weaker the equity of your hand. When you 3-bet a strong hand, you can eliminate other players thereby reducing the competition in that hand.

Tip: If you’re only 3-betting better value hands, the other players will notice this and your play will be predictable. To avoid this, add in some bluffs to your 3-betting range.

Are Your Big Blinds Too Tight? Loosen Up!

The big blind is the last to act pre-flop, so you’ve seen the action move around the table. Pre-flop, you have very good pot odds, so you can play much looser than from other positions. Defend your big blind position!