Fri, 01/07/2011 – 20:22 – PokerPages Staff

Poker Voters of America are set to unveil a third online poker bill for the state of California this week.

The intrastate lobby group has confirmed that the bill will be a variation of the bill endorsed by Senator Rod Wright last year but with a poker only focus.

Poker Voters President Melanie Brenner spoke of the subtle changes made to the bill in an interview earlier this week.

“The bill is different from Wright’s bill, it has taken out limits on the number of operating hubs and introduces a further income distribution component, granting further benefits to stakeholders such as tribes.”

Wright introduced his own bill last month alongside the legislation proposed by the California Online Poker Association (COPA) headed by the Morongo Tribe.

Brenner admitted that the moves by other parties to put forward respective bills had taken them by surprise. The Poker Voters had an agreement that they would be informed of any significant developments.

Wright’s bill stalled in June last year following opposition from the Morongo and other card clubs as it would have put offshore sites and Las Vegas casinos in control of online gambling in the state.

Brenner believes it is now an urgent matter with the crippling deficit set to take its toll on California during the coming months.

The bill is currently sponsored by Assemblyman Jerry Hill though Brenner revealed they are hoping to secure the backing of a figure in the Senate who ‘will be more of a champion of it.’

Fri, 01/07/2011 – 20:26 – PokerPages Staff

When learning to play Hold’em, the beginner poker player must tackle the basic poker rules, but success in the Hold’em game goes beyond those rules.  There are a multitude of nuances of the game that a beginner is mired in from the outset.  These subtleties can be very troubling for the beginner, as well as some advanced players.  

Most beginners believe that any two face cards constitute a premium hand.  The truth, however, is that some two face card hands are not premium starting hands, but rather more of a starting point for which the player must regard with caution.  K-J is such a hand.

K-J appears to be a premium starting hand, but it simply is not.  From the beginning of the hand, K-J is significantly behind the most likely starting hands of the other players.  K-J is dominated by A-A, A-K, A-J, K-K and K-Q.  In fact, K-J only dominates K-T, Q-J, Q-T and random hands. 

With that said, playing K-J is likely to get you into trouble.  Since you will be behind from the beginning, by playing K-J you will, more often than not, likely lose a large chunk of change.  In situations where your K-J dominates, you will win, but the pots will be small.

So what do you do with K-J?  If you play K-J, remember it is a marginal hand, at best.  Play from late position and if you don’t hit big on the flop, fold.

To learn more, check out PokerSchoolOnline, the best source on the internet for poker related learning.  Then put those skills to work by betting playing for free at PokerStars.net.  Also, check out the PokerPages sections Poker Information and Poker Articles for more poker tips, poker betting and strategies.