INSIDERS SECRETS TO PLAYING TEXAS HOLD�EM POKER ONLINE

AN INTRODUCTION TO ONLINE POKER THINKING AND INSIDERS SECRETS

�I discovered the secret recipe to KFC Chicken 15 years ago and I have been hooked on �Insiders Secrets� ever since.� ave you ever been to a party or a bar where you've met someone for the first time who told you an insiders secret to their business or work? Maybe I'm just a good listener but this happens to me all the time. We all know these insider kinds of details about our own little world. For example, if we worked at Cadbury, the Cadbury Secret would be one of the first things we would learn about on the job (even if it wasn�t officially part of the training program). There are other kinds of insider knowledge - how something is really made at the plant we work at, how certain products are marketed, where an idea really came from, or how you can make a product yourself for one-tenth the H-price.
Don't you wish you could talk to an insider at the plant where the car you are considering buying is made? Or someone who really knows the Scoop on the mortgage industry when it's time to get refinanced? How about talking to the guy who programmed the VLT machine you play everyday at lunch? Would that help you win more? Everybody we have talked to about Texas Hold�em has said that what they really want is more than just a book that tells them the rules to the game. They want something new. Something fresh that will give them an edge over the other players. Something exciting.
So we talked to the insiders. How does the system work? How are the cards shuffled (what�s the randomizing algorithm)? Has anyone done any studies on what cards really pay the best? What tables play the best? Are there systems that work online better than others? What do the insiders know about cards to play? Can we really make money at this game? From this feedback we develop this book concept. Then we hunted down the facts. In the end, this has been a lot of fun and quite profitable. We love the game of Texas Hold�em but now we have the tools to win more games. As usual, if you have the insider �stuff�, you are better armed to succeed. Pretty much one of those simple rules to live your life by if you ask me.
I believe that winning in life, love, business and sports � and yes, poker, is all about three dynamics I like to call the CSI�s.

• Contingency (chance or luck)
• Self-awareness (know your strengths and weaknesses)
• Intelligence (or �street smarts�)

We have divided this book into these three key areas for a very good reason. When you play online poker for real money for the first time you will find it difficult just to survive. Your Stack (your personal chips) will disappear like an umbrella in a typhoon. If you have what it takes to stick it out through this initiation (and the expendable cash to last), you will next discover that what you are lacking is real technical knowledge. You will soon realize that you need to play this game more with �field intelligence� than instinct. That is, if you want to win consistently.
Finally, as you progress into larger pot games, the real test will be your ability to be mentally tough, disciplined and aggressive. Our last section on self-awareness discusses the philosophy of great poker players.
There are dozens of books available today on poker. I�ve read most of them. They tend to focus on one or more of the following areas:

Analysis of odds and strategy

History and actual play examples

Techniques on �tells� or how to read the other players

Mental preparation for the game itself Not even the best books cover all of these areas or attempt to bring these different practices together in some meaningful way. This is our goal with Insiders Secrets To Playing Texas Hold�em Online; to link strategy and intelligence and mental preparation in a way that will ramp you up to be successful at the best game in the world in the shortest possible time.
What�s new about this book? First, unlike most of the books on the market, this volume is NOT based on fifty years of writing around the traditional �bricks and mortar� game of Poker. Our focus is specific to the new online versions of Texas Hold�em Poker, played by over 20,000,000 people worldwide over the Net every single day. Anyone who has played online poker knows this is quite a different animal indeed.
Secondly, we present the Cage Food Chain Theory, a new system of play based on the results of three major research programs carried out by computer simulations on Texas Hold�em Poker. If you follow the system religiously, you will find your winnings increasing - gradually at first, and then substantially. All the research shows that aggressive play is the key to winning monster pots; aggression at the right time and based on a solid body of knowledge. We will show you the process and outline the steps to being a true �card shark�. But you must follow the rules. When we run �labs� on the Cage Food Chain Theory we find that players get caught up in the game and bend the rules of the system, letting their emotions rule their play. Or they go by gut feeling on a decisive hand instead of considering pot odds and card odds. The online casinos love that kind of play � it makes them millions every month. It won�t however put any extra money in your bank account. You�ve got to stop playing by �gut� feel.
Of the three dynamics, we start with the �intel� section and contingency data first; this is where the rubber hits the road for most players and we wanted to get you started with an exciting new system of playing that will give you a first-hand advantage.
What�s Intel? � typical �military speak� for �field intelligence� - or relevant knowledge. What you need to know, now. In the covert world of spies and agents, having the right nugget of information available when required can save your life or someone else�s. In Poker, it means making the win when others wouldn�t and adding a few points to your odds. This is different from lifetime experience - which you can only gain from playing the game thousands of times.
Field intel helps you parachute in to a situation and be competent and savvy in a big hurry.
The Theo Cage Food Chain Theory of Poker condenses dozens of schools of thought on Poker into an easy to digest program that you can begin using immediately. The goal of this technique is to get you out of the �fish� category and in to the �shark� category before you get eaten alive. Pardon the food puns but the speed and aggressiveness of real money online poker can spin your head around. You will need to be armed and ready.
In many areas of this book we deal with the latest in research on �contingency�, another word for �odds�. Why not just call it �luck�? Because contingency is a far broader and more elegant term. Luck is not a �thing� you can buy or create and you certainly cannot attract it or capture it (or chase it away). What we as humans see as �luck� is really just chance circumstance playing out before us.
The best way to visualize contingency is to imagine a fork in the road. Which then leads to another fork. And still another. Each requires a decision and each decision can lead to very different conclusions. That�s what contingency is all about. Sometimes we choose the path without knowing where it will take us and other times we don�t get to choose at all.
In Poker, we can use math to better understand the odds of certain combinations occurring in your game. Really understanding the odds in Poker is one of the keys to success; not only because it helps you to better understand the possibilities but because it teaches us the expected monetary value of our hand as well.
What�s the good in knowing that the chance of pulling another Queen is 1:7 if we don�t know how to translate that information into a practical betting decision? Recent computer simulations of Texas Hold�em have taught us quite a bit about real game odds and strategy. What they�ve also shown us is that it takes several lifetimes to average out the odds between matched players. So you need a powerful advantage to win against others with similar skills and preparation. That advantage is better self-awareness.
Assume that you and another player are perfectly matched in card skills. You play each other every week. But one of you has had lifetime wins of several times the other based on pulling better cards. How long do you have to keep playing before the winnings even out? About 250,000 years according to computer research.
So how does a better player gain advantage if they don�t have a few thousand lifetimes at their disposal? By being significantly better than the other players. You need huge advantage to be a consistent winner. You need to know the other players and you need to gain this advantage as quickly as possible. You need to understand betting odds better. You need to know yourself. And you need to be very aggressive when the time is right.
That�s the essence of a shark. Skilled. Aggressive. Knows the environment. Knows the prey. Undaunted.
Have fun and best of luck at the tables.