Online poker has gone through quite a few phases, from the initial launch in the late 1990s, to the Poker Boom of the early 2000s, to Black Friday in 2011, when online poker in America was completely banned, all the way to the proliferation of online poker regulation in jurisdictions such as Ontario, Canada.
When it comes to online poker, Canada is one of the biggest markets in the world, and the success of regulated igaming in Ontario is serving as a wakeup call to other provinces that seek to protect consumers against unscrupulous offshore operators while generating much-needed revenue for responsible gaming efforts.
If you are new to online poker real money games, or you haven’t played the game in a while, we have some great tips to get you started and put you on the right track.
It is worth noting that poker is an incredibly complicated game with many different formats and a whole strategy to learn for each of them, but some tips hold true in almost every situation.
These are the top five tips every poker player should know before they get involved with real money games and that you should absolutely not miss.
#1 – Tight is Right!
This may be one of the most commonly heard phrases in poker rooms around the world, and that’s because it holds true for the most part.
Quite a few poker players take this tip to an extreme and play way too tight, waiting only for the absolute premium starting hands to get involved or only betting when they have the absolute best possible hand after the flop.
However, playing a reasonably tight poker strategy is almost always right in cash games, early phases of tournaments, and most other scenarios.
While there are definitely times it makes sense to widen the range of hands you play, a new player will do better sticking to a tighter strategy and missing on some profitable spots than playing too many hands and getting destroyed by the more experienced players.
Play extremely tight in early positions, as there are so many players still to act after you, and widen your opening range as you approach the button.
Avoid playing too many hands in the small blinds when there is a raise in front, but remember to defend your big blind against small opens with plenty of hands simply because you are getting such a good price.
#2 – Play Aggressively
Playing tight definitely does not mean you should play like you are afraid to lose. Once you do decide to get involved, you should always do your best to apply pressure on your opponents.
If you have managed to create a tight image, other players will believe you when you claim you have it, which means you can get away with plenty of bluffs as well.
If you are going to get involved in a poker hand, you are almost always better off coming in as the raiser or re-raiser than calling other players’ raises or limping into hands.
The same goes for post-flop action, as aggressive bets and raises will give you a chance to win many pots without having to fight too hard for them.
When you play aggressively, you give yourself more than one shot at winning the pot and also build the pots up for when you do make monster hands.
The tight and aggressive approach to the game is the one used by many professional poker players and will work like an absolute charm against most mediocre players you will encounter at the lower levels.
#3 – Specialize in One Game Format
Poker can be played in many different formats, whether it’s cash games, tournaments, sit and goes, or any other variation that’s been invented in more recent years.
You will do best by specializing in one game format, as this will enable you to learn the proper strategies to beat the game and stick to them.
If you try mixing too many different game types into your portfolio, you will end up making mistakes in each, misusing strategies that work in one format but not in the other, and generally playing worse poker.
While you can definitely play more than one game format in the long run, as a new poker player, you should probably focus on mastering one game before you extend yourself to others.
#4 – Remember to Study Poker
Perhaps the biggest mistake most poker players make is that they stop studying shortly after they master the very basic elements of the game.
This is why you will often encounter players who have been playing poker for 30 years but have barely advanced past the first level of thinking, as they simply don’t understand how much there is to learn about the game of poker.
There are many different ways to study poker, and you can really pick the approach that suits you best in this day and age.
Just speaking for myself here, but I know my poker game is in a good place when I obsess over relatively small mistakes and they are few and far between.
Poker is a game of mistakes.
Like golf, when pros attack the pin from 100 yards out, they are trying to make it, but…
At the very least, you should try to watch good players play poker, either live or on TV, and try to deduce why they are doing the things they are.
However, actual study sessions with poker software, reading books or articles, or signing up for poker training courses will actually do miracles for your game in the long run.
#5 – Control Your Emotions
Beating low-stakes poker games is generally not too difficult and can be done even with a modest level of poker knowledge.
However, most players still lose, and it is the tilt factor that really makes it impossible for them to turn into winning players in the long run.
At the poker tables, everyone will experience winning and losing sessions alike, and it is important to be the kind of player who understands they have to lose at times and who can take the loss.
In fact, most poker players lose after losing just one or two hands and end up losing massive on a session that could have easily been a slight loss or even a small profit.
Work on your emotions and tilt control even harder than you work on your actual game, and you will see your results improve dramatically with every passing week.
The sixth-ranked Canadian women will face World Cup champion Spain in an international friendly next month.
Third-ranked Spain will host Canada on Oct. 25 at Estadio Francisco de la Hera in Almendralejo.
The game will be the first for the Canadian women since the Paris Olympics, where they lost to Germany in a quarterfinal penalty shootout after coach Bev Priestman was sent home and later suspended for a year by FIFA over her part in Canada’s drone-spying scandal.
In announcing the Spain friendly, Canada Soccer said more information on the interim women’s coaching staff for the October window will come later. Assistant coach Andy Spence took charge of the team in Priestman’s absence at the Olympics.
Spain finished fourth in Paris, beaten 1-0 by Germany in the bronze-medal match.
Canada is winless in three previous meetings (0-2-1) with Spain, most recently losing 1-0 at the Arnold Clark Cup in England in February 2022.
The teams played to a scoreless draw in May 2019 in Logroñés, Spain in a warm-up for the 2019 World Cup. Spain won 1-0 in March 2019 at the Algarve Cup in São João da Venda, Portugal.
Spain is a powerhouse in the women’s game these days.
It won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2022 and was runner-up in 2018. And it ousted Canada 2-1 in the round of 16 of the current U-20 tournament earlier this month in Colombia before falling 1-0 to Japan after extra time in the quarterfinal.
Spain won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2018 and 2022 and has finished on the podium on three other occasions.
FC Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati (2023) and Alexia Putellas (2021 and ’22) have combined to win the last three Women’s Ballon d’Or awards.
And Barcelona has won three of the last four UEFA Women’s Champions League titles.
“We continue to strive to diversify our opponent pool while maintaining a high level of competition.” Daniel Michelucci, Canada Soccer’s director of national team operations, said in a statement. “We anticipate a thrilling encounter, showcasing two of the world’s top-ranked teams.”
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024
TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced cookie brand Oreo as the team’s helmet sponsor for the upcoming NHL season.
The new helmet will debut Sunday when Toronto opens its 2024-25 pre-season against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Arena.
The Oreo logo replaces Canadian restaurant chain Pizza Pizza, which was the Leafs’ helmet sponsor last season.
Previously, social media platform TikTok sponsored Toronto starting in the 2021-22 regular season when the league began allowing teams to sell advertising space on helmets.
The Oreo cookie consists of two chocolate biscuits around a white icing filling and is often dipped in milk.
Fittingly, the Leafs wear the Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s “Milk” logo on their jerseys.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
MacKenzie Weegar wasn’t bitter or upset as he watched friends live out their dreams.
The Calgary Flames defenceman just hopes to experience the same feeling one day. He also knows the road leading to that moment, if it does arrive, will likely be long and winding — much like his own path.
A seventh-round pick by the Florida Panthers at the 2013 NHL draft, Weegar climbed the ranks to become an important piece of a roster that captured the Presidents’ Trophy as the league’s top regular-season club in 2021-22.
Two months later following a second-round playoff exit, he was traded to the Flames along with Jonathan Huberdeau for Matthew Tkachuk. And less than two years after that, the Panthers were hoisting the Stanley Cup.
“Happy for the city and for the team,” Weegar said of Florida’s June victory over the Edmonton Oilers. “There was no bad taste in my mouth.”
His sole focus, he insists, is squarely on eventually getting the Flames to the same spot. The landscape, however, has changed drastically since Weegar committed to Calgary on an eight-year, US$50-million contract extension in October 2022.
Weegar has watched a list that includes goaltender Jacob Markstrom, defencemen Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin and Nikita Zadorov and forwards Elias Lindholm and Andrew Mangiapane shipped out of town since the start of last season — largely for picks, prospects and young players as part of a rebuild.
Despite that exodus, he remains committed to the Calgary project steered by general manager Craig Conroy.
“It’s easy to get out of all whack when you see guys trying to leave or wanting new contracts,” the 30-year-old from Ottawa said at last week’s NHL/NHLPA player media tour in Las Vegas. “I just focus on where I am and where I want to be, and that’s Calgary.
“I believe in this team. The city has taken me in right away. I feel like I owe it to them to stick around and grind through these years and get a Stanley Cup.”
The hard-nosed blueliner certainly knows what it is to grind.
After winning the Memorial Cup alongside Nathan MacKinnon with the Halifax Mooseheads in 2013, Weegar toiled in the ECHL and American Hockey League for three seasons before making his NHL debut late in the 2016-17 campaign with the Panthers.
He would spend the next five years in South Florida as one of the players tasked with shifting an organizational culture that had experienced little success over the previous two decades.
“There’s always going to be a piece of my heart and loyalty to that team,” Weegar said. “But now I’m in a different situation … I compete against all 32 teams, not just Florida. There’s always a chip on my shoulder every single year.”
Weegar set career highs with 20 goals — eight was the most he had ever previously registered — and 52 points in 2023-24 as part of a breakout offensive performance.
“I think my buddies cared a lot more than I did,” he said with a smile. “All I hear is, ‘fantasy, fantasy, fantasy.'”
Weegar was actually more proud of his 200 blocked shots and 194 hits as he looks to help set a new Flames’ standard alongside Huberdeau, captain Mikael Backlund, Nazem Kadri, Blake Coleman and Rasmus Andersson for a franchise expected to have its new arena in time for the 2027-28 season.
“You have to build that culture and that belief in the locker room,” said Weegar, who pointed to 22-year-old centre Connor Zary as a player set to pop. “Those young guys are going to have to come into their own and be consistent every night … they’re the next generation.”
Weegar, however, isn’t punting on 2024-25. He pointed to the NHL’s parity and the fact a couple of teams surprise every season.
It’s the same approach that took him from the ECHL a decade ago to hockey’s premier pre-season event inside a swanky hotel on Sin City’s famed strip, where he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the game’s best.
“From the outside — media and even friends and family — the expectations are probably a bit lower,” Weegar said of Calgary’s outlook. “But there’s no reason to think that we can’t make playoffs and we can’t be a good team (with) that underdog mentality.
“You never know.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept 17, 2024.
