What is it that makes rakeback so great? It’s the only thing you can have in poker to make money without any effort on your part whatsoever. To be successful in online poker, in general, you need to be skilled at game selection, reading opponents and understanding poker strategy. To be successful with rakeback, all you need to do is play.

Being in a rakeback program does not guarantee texas holdem poker success. What it does mean is that wherever you are on the poker spectrum, you’ll be a little bit closer to your goal. In online poker, rake is the only aspect you cannot control. If you’re losing too much at one game, you can always move to an easier game. If you find leaks in your game, you can plug them. However, nothing can change the fact that the online poker room will take up to $3 or $4 out of every pot you play. There is no way to counteract the effect this has on your win rate.

Until now, that is. Thanks to your friend Poker Rooms, you can beat the rake, at least to some extent. The way it works is simple. You go to a rakeback site online and choose from a list of participating online Rake back. These rooms may vary as to the amount of rakeback they offer, which is usually in the neighborhood of 30 percent of your credited rake. Once you find the site you like, assuming you do not already have an account with that site, sign-up through the rakeback site. Once you’re signed up, you can expect to get a percentage of your rake returned to you every month.

Whether the site uses a dealt, or shared, method to calculate your rake, where all players participate in rake credit equally or a contributed method, where your rake is based on how much you put into each pot, you’ll be amazed at how much money you save in rakeback each month. Keep that money, or add it to your bankroll to play in more and bigger games. When you see the effect on your win rate, you’ll understand very quickly why rakeback is the online poker player’s best friend.

Here’s the big question: did you play this hand poorly? Well, let’s examine some alternatives…

You could have folded the Ace-King preflop, but I think that we can quickly agree that this was not a viable alternative.

You could have check-called the turn and river after being called on the flop, which in this case, would have saved you one big bet. But then you would have run the risk of giving a free card to a worse hand, making it good enough to beat you. If the turn card is a Q, then you run a bigger risk of losing by giving a free river card than if the turn card is a 2, but most of the time, it’s not going to be a good idea to give this free card. Another problem with this approach is that against a very passive player holding something like AJ, you will actually lose a big bet when your opponent checks along with a hand that he/she would’ve called with.

You could’ve check-raised the flop “for information”, but the quality of information that you receive will vary depending on the type of opponent you’re up against. Against a tight-aggressive player with a weaker holding, check-raising the flop is probably a worse alternative than check-calling the whole way, because you are likely to scare your opponent out of the pot on the flop, when you have the best of it by far, and he/she might have given you more action later on. When the pot is big, and your tight-aggressive opponent would have pot odds to call this check-raise even knowing about your powerful holding, then it becomes a good option to go ahead and check-raise, because you’re forcing your opponent to choose between making a call with the worst of it, and a “bad fold”.

In a larger-limit game, you could wait until the turn and then check-raise with top pair, top kicker. But doing so when your opponent is holding this A6 in this low limit game is clearly disastrous, unless you are able to get off your hand on the turn when re-raised, or unless your opponent is timid enough to just call your check-raise with 2 pair instead of reraising.

The truth is that while you may have played your hand predictably by leading all of the way and then check-calling the river, you probably did not play the hand poorly. “Then why do I keep having losing sessions after playing like that?” you ask? It’s probably because you’re not really playing like that the whole time. After losing that hand with Ace-King, you’re finding yourself picking up ATo under the gun, and raising it to get back at that A6 player. You’re perfectly right about AT being just as effective against A6 as AK is, but then disaster strikes when you’re reraised by a dominating AQo and lose a big pot, knowing that things would have gone differently if you’d stuck to big hands in early position, such as AA-JJ, AK or AQ offsuit, or AKs-ATs. The real losses aren’t actually occurring “with” AK. They’re occurring during the several hands you spend on tilt, afterwards.

Low limit holdem is a game of extreme fluctuation, but whenever you start talking yourself into making obviously bad plays in order to “catch the fish at the table”, you’re usually giving up some of your edge instead of maximizing it. And you’re also growing fins. In a game such as online poker where there are no nonverbal tells, lack of discipline can be especially suicidal to your bankroll. I’ve lost a lot of big pots which I looked back upon and asked myself why I was in the pot to begin with. If you can’t answer that question preflop, then you’re looking to be in a world of trouble by the showdown.

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His youthful looks and friendly demeanor have earned Negreanu the nickname ‘KidPoker’, a name which he uses to play online poker games. Behind the young face lies a tough competitor who specializes in playing small-pots and has a strong ability to read opponents.

Daniel Negranu holds 5 World Series of Poker Bracelets – his first was won in the Pot-Limit Holdem event in 1998 – this win also earned him the record for the youngest ever bracelet winner (at the age of 23), a record that stood until 2004. In addition to winning 4 more bracelets and numerous final tables he placed 11th in the $10,000 buy-in main event in 2001.

It was in 1997 that Negreanu got his first taste of tournament success – taking down 2 events at the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods Casino and earning over $133,000 in the process. This acted as a springboard for his success not only in the WSOP but in World Poker Tour events too where he has an outstanding record of achievements.

Tournament success soon lead to sponsorships within the Poker Player industry. Negreanu was made ‘Poker Ambassador’ for the Wynn Casino in Las Vegas, where he regularly hosted games at the highest stakes. This relationship lasted several years until, in 2005, Negreanu pulled out of the deal to allow himself the opportunity to play high stakes poker games in other venues.

Today Negreanu can be found in the highest stakes game of all – the ‘Big Game’ held in Bobby’s Room in the Bellagio. Here the best known names on poker are regularly found playing mixed games (to avoid ‘specialists’) at unbelievably high stakes.

Negreanu is also a feature of the ‘High Stakes Poker’ television series, famously losing the biggest ever televised pot to fellow professional Gus Hanson.

Blogger and writer of a column for Card Player Magazine Negreanu recently joined Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer on the team of Poker Stars.com. He has also released a book and video games in recent years.

High-Low Stud, however, has more of a following, as it should. High-low has many more subtleties than high-only, and there is usually much more action. And for those who love to bluff, high-low can satisfy the craving.

There are two basic ways to define the best low hand. In many casinos, A-2-3-4-5 (a “wheel”) is the best, as straights and flushes do not disqualify the low hand. In other venues, however, a straight or flush cannot be played as a low, so A-2-3-4-6 is the best low.

There is usually an “8″ qualifier. In other words, a hand cannot be considered a low unless it contains five different cards from A to 8. For example, if a player has A-J-3-5-7-J-7 on the river, he has no low hand and jacks up for high. Finally, if there is more than one qualifying low hand, the winner is determined by comparing them card by card, starting with their highest ones. 8-5-4-3-A beats 8-5-4-3-2, 6-5-4-3-2 beats 7-5-4-2-A, and so on.

A novice may think that high-low is superior to high-only because the high hand can collect multiple bets made by opponents who chase, but do not fill, a low hand. Actually, the opposite is true. The hands that win the biggest pots in high-low are seven cards from which the player can make a qualifying low as well as a flush, straight, or trips.

In high-low, therefore, the emphasis should be on playing only hands that have strong two-way possibilities. On Third Street, discard starters such as 9-J-9, 10-10-A, and even K-K-4. A big pair is a very dangerous start in high-low, and I don’t mean dangerous to your opponents. Even a pair of aces can cost you plenty, especially if the third card is a nine or higher. You may think you can raise with aces and at least win the bring-in, perhaps a limper’s call. However, the only experienced player likely to call a Third Street raise is someone with a great two-way start, such as 2-3-4, 3-4-5, 4-5-6, or A-2-3 (especially if at least two cards are suited), or of course the rare rolled hand, three of a kind.

Still unconvinced? A-A-10 is only a slight favorite over A-2-3, 2-3-4, 3-4-5, or 4-5-6, depending on what cards are showing in others’ hands (61%-39% to 57%-43%). A-A-10 is about an 82%-18% underdog to 5-5-5 or other rolled-up hands. Sure, rolled-up hands are rare, but they are not your only worries. Remember the cardinal principle of high-low: A hand with three cards over 8 can never be low, but a collection of low cards can become a high. Most of the cards in the deck (32 out of 52, or 62%) are low cards, and once your opponent has a made low, he is freerolling! He can bet or raise into your high hand with utter fearlessness, knowing that the worst that can happen to him is a split pot.

Speaking of rolled-up hands…they are golden in high-only, but can be disastrous in high-low. A hand like A-A-A, 5-5-5, or 6-6-6 (the latter being known as the “Mark of the Beast” in my home game) has an outside shot at producing a low to go with the trips-or-better high, but basically all are one-way hands. 5-5-5 is slightly less vulnerable because it severely limits the chance of another player making a straight.. Rolled-up high hands are strictly one-way hands on which you can lose a TON of money when they don’t improve and an opponent drawing low hits a straight or flush.

What you want to see when you are dealt a rolled hand is lots of high door cards around the table, so you can raise and either win immediately or narrow your competition to someone drawing low who will fold when he hits a high (“brick”) card on Fourth Street and perhaps someone with a higher pair than your door card who will give you action when he hits two pair.

“What?” you reply. “I finally get a rolled-up hand and you advise me to raise, taking the risk that everyone will FOLD?” Yes, Tonto, and the horse you rode in on! Trip kings, for example, are only about a 2-to-1 favorite against A-2-3, 2-3-4, 3-4-5, or 4-5-6…on Third Street. Depending on the other players’ door cards, there can be as many as 29 remaining cards that will enable your opponent to fill his low…and start pounding you with bets or raises! He knows you are going high with a K door card. You think he’s going low, but he could be going both ways, or if the ace is his door card, he could have aces and a low card and trying to catch a low OR trip aces. High-low is almost always played as a limit game, and you won’t get a player with A-2-3, 2-3-4, or 3-4-5 out of the hand with one raise on Third.

ANY card you get on Fourth Street (other than the case K) is meaningless to you, but any non-matching low card he gets on Fourth Street gives him four to a low and perhaps three or four to a straight or flush. For example, you get a Q on Fourth Street, which increases your opponent’s odds of getting a low card. Sure enough (the poker gods have a wicked sense of humor!) he gets a 7 to go with his 4-5-6 or 3-4-5. Now you’re not getting him out with dynamite! You’ll feel as if you HAVE to bet, since you can’t give him a free card toward a straight or flush, but a savvy opponent may raise you, especially if the card he needs to fill his straight is completely live. Remember: He knows which way you are going, but you are hoping all he has is a low draw. In poker, as in war, inequality of information often dooms the ignorant party.

But, as they say, it gets worse. On Fifth Street you get another brick (no full house), but your opponent’s showing cards become 4-5-7, 4-6-7, or even 3-4-7. Is he freerolling? Does he already have a straight, in which case your lovely rolled kings have suddenly become a 4-to-1 UNDERDOG? Or does he have two pair, and bets or raises to bluff you? You don’t know.

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