I've been playing poker for 23 years, and one thing I can say about my play with great pride is that I never steam. In fact, that's true of a lot of pros. In general, the more experienced a player is, the less likely he or she is to have a steam factor.

But because your opponents might not realize that you don't go on tilt, one of the most profitable plays in poker is the "fake steam." If you've just taken a really bad beat, the other players at the table might expect you to enter the next pot with a weak hand or try to run a bluff because you're not thinking clearly. And if you actually pick up a strong hand in this situation, you need to recognize how everyone else views you and play accordingly. 

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Lesson 189: Steaming is Bad but Pretending to Steam Isn't (By Esther Rossi)

In the second week of the 2004 Series, I just missed a final table, finishing eleventh in a $2,000 Limit Hold'em event. Daniel (Negreanu) went on to win that tournament for his third bracelet. What I remember most about that tournament was a hand that came up about eight hours into Day One.

"Syracuse Chris" Tsiprailidis had pocket queens, Cecilia Reyes Mortensen was dealt pocket kings, and I looked down at two aces. Not surprisingly, the betting got capped preflop. I really didn't know what Chris had, but I put Cecilia on kings. 

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Lesson 188: Check-Raising The Devil (By Mike Matusow)

If you want to become a complete poker player, you need to learn how to play all the variations of the game. You should do this because it's no good being the world's best Hold 'em player when the biggest sucker in town only wants to play Seven-Card Stud. Ideally, you want to be able to play whatever game looks to be the most profitable on any given day.

When I first started playing poker, Five-Card Stud and Five-Card Draw were two of the most popular games, but now they're both almost completely dead. They got replaced by Seven-Card Stud, which has also decreased in popularity. For a while No-Limit Hold 'em looked like it might be dying out because in the high-stakes cash games the tightest players always won, but it proved to be the perfect game for television so now it's the most popular game. Because of how prevalent Hold 'em has become, I would advise beginning poker players to start out by learning its many variations, including Limit, No-Limit, cash games, and tournaments. 

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Lesson 187: Becoming a Complete Poker Player (By Steve Zolotow)

Most of the time when you're engaged in a poker hand, you'll be thinking about what decisions you will make before you have to make them. For example, if you call a raise with K-Q, you'll think to yourself: Okay, if I hit top pair, I'm going to play this hand. If I have a gut-shot and two over-cards, I'm going to play this hand. If I have an open-ender and two over-cards, I'm going to play this hand. Otherwise, I'm going to let it go.

However, there will often be times when something happens that causes you to change your strategy mid-hand. Maybe your opponent makes a weak bet that gives you information worth using to your advantage. Or maybe he makes a bet on the river that looks like a value bet and convinces you to fold a hand you were planning on calling with.

It's always good to enter a hand with a plan, but it's essential that you be willing to deviate from the plan if the situation calls for it. Every hand requires that you react to your cards and the cards on the board, but it's equally important that you factor in your opponent and his tendencies. 

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Lesson 186: Adjusting Strategy Mid-hand (By Johan Storakers)

I'm aware that most poker players know me primarily as a poker commentator on shows like NBC's "Poker After Dark" and "National Heads-Up Poker Championship", but I also happen to be a pretty serious Limit Hold ‘em and mixed game player. I particularly enjoy HORSE, so I thought I'd give one quick tip on each of the five games to help players who are beginning to explore this challenging format.

Hold 'em: Because HORSE involves three Stud games and only two flop games, most HORSE players have solid Stud backgrounds as opposed to flop-game backgrounds. As such, they tend not to play the Hold 'em round as well. When you've identified who the softer flop-game players are, try to attack their blinds more than the average player and with a wider range of hands. They'll often either lay down preflop, or check-fold if they call and miss the flop - something more experienced Hold 'em players are much less likely to do. Playing aggressively against these opponents and exploiting their weak-tight play is profitable. 

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Lesson 185: Climbing on the HORSE (By Ali Nejad)

Hand coordination is the relative strength of your hand compared to your opponents' hand, and it's probably the single biggest factor determining whether you have a good or bad session playing poker. If it's working in your favor, whenever you flop a monster, one of your opponents will also make a big hand, just not quite as big as yours. In this situation, playing your hand as fast as possible usually gives you the best chance to make the most money.

Say you're playing Hold 'em and you're in a four-way pot, the board comes 9-9-4, and you have pocket fours. You want to play this hand fast for two reasons. The first is that you're hoping one of your opponents has a 9. If so, he might raise you, allowing you to reraise him. Ideally, he'll call, then call you again on the turn and the river, and you'll make a lot of money. 

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Lesson 184: Hand Coordination (By Brandon Adams)