Those who have seen Phil Helmuth play will know that he loves to put someone on an exact hand, although experience shows that he usually puts you on a pair of eights. Is it possible though? Sure it is. Are we going to show you how? Sure we are (well we'll try to anyway).

Have you ever found that sometimes you start tournaments well and in others you just can't get 'tuned in'? Sometimes you make finals but when the money counts you make mistakes and have difficulty focusing? What should you do about it?

Everyone knows that in poker, weak means strong and strong means weak.It is one of the central axioms of Mike Caro’s classic book, Caro’s Book of Poker Tells.However, if everyone at your table knows this then you will need to change your strategy to stay a step ahead of thoughtful opponents. One way of doing this is using aggression to trap your opponents. If your opponents are expecting a weak bet from a strong hand, trap them with a strong bet from a strong hand. Make strong mean strong!

Many years ago....before I'd ever played a hand of Texas Hold 'em......I read the book "Market Wizards." It was a collection of many interviews that the author had with some of the best market traders in recent decades (a fantastic book, by the way; for anyone interested in how the few people who understand correct trading procedures prosper and use poker-like skills, it's a must read! "The New Market Wizards" and "Gambling Wizards" are also just as good.)

Last month, I wrote about some ideas that might help everyone find some valuable (a.k.a. poor) opponents. Since then, I've noticed that some people are pretty interested in what cities/countries have the best and worst players. I'm still remaining non-committal on this though! However, everyone is welcome to write me with their thoughts on this subject. I'm curious to hear what other ITHers think.

So....you've studied ITH thoroughly, read 10 or 15 Sklansky books, and (against your better judgment) watched every episode of "Tilt" twice. You haven't had much of a chance to play for awhile and you're really looking forward to your free time at the tables tonight. You can almost feel the cards in your hands (or on the screen in front of you.) Finally, the evening arrives and it's time to play. You're just going to run to the first table you see, right? Wrong!

Every month I divulge some of the strategies that I have learned about this game. This month, I would like to share a secret that most people don't know: I am the luckiest player in poker.

It's true. I can't believe how often I get lucky at the poker table. Just recently I was playing in a tournament against other members of my website, www.InternetTexasHoldem.com. The flop came Jh10h8c. A player bet about two-thirds of the pot and I moved all in with the KhQc. I was rather short-stacked and needed to make a move. The button called, and I instantly knew that I was in trouble. He showed the Ah9h. Not only did he have the best hand, but he also had the best draw. The turn was a 7, giving him a straight. But a 9 hit the river and I had the nuts. I have such great luck! I took that pot and went on to win the tournament.

The term "out" is one of those words that create a lot of confusion among poker players. And, in many cases, players use a definition that will lead to incorrect decisions. One commonly used definition is that an out is a card that improves one's hand. For example, you might hear a player say that he has nine outs with a flush draw. This is a popular and practical definition - as one can easily count how many cards will improve his hand to a better one. This definition always works well in describing to beginning players the various possibilities in improving their hand. Although practical, this definition tends to give many players false impressions with respect to the strength of their draw.

Many players struggle to distinguish between the situations in which they should attempt to knock out an opponent and those in which they should merely try to accumulate more chips. I found myself in the middle of a scenario during event No. 44 at the World Series of Poker - $1,500 no-limit hold'em - in which several of my opponents thought I had completely lost it.

An interesting scenario arose for me in the $1,500 pot-limit hold'em event at the World Series of Poker. I took down 14th place and a $21,000 payday, but I won't bore you with how the ladies (pocket queens) let me down a couple of times toward the end. This column focuses on a key stage in the tournament when the time clock played an important role in determining my strategy.

Many people like to throw around the term "implied pot odds." The problem is that there is sometimes confusion with the definition. Implied pot odds should include the amount of bets you expect to win from your opponent. Some say, or at least act in such a way, that implied pot odds include the amount of bets you could win from your opponent. Expectation and potential are two very different things. To clarify and to ensure that you have the correct mindset when making strategic decisions, a much better term to use in your poker vocabulary is effective implied pot odds.

There are always two key decisions you must make when taking the initiative in no-limit hold’em while playing a hand. Are you going to play, and if so, how much do you want to bet? The amount of your bet is always very important. If you bet too little with a good hand, you could be inviting your opponent to hit a long shot that might cost you your entire stack. If you bet too much, you might find yourself in a situation in which you are winning only small pots and losing large pots. A key part of the decision in determining how much to bet depends on the pot odds and implied pot odds.

A backdoor draw is one in which you need to hit a card on both the turn and river to improve your hand. For example, you hold the Ac 4c and the flop is Qs 9c 6d. A club on the turn and the river would give you a flush. Backdoor draws are of little value by themselves, as you rarely are getting sufficient implied pot odds to draw solely on the merits of a backdoor draw; however, sometimes they add just enough value to your hand to draw when you have other outs, such as overcards or bottom pair and an overcard. I often hear people at the poker table say, “I had middle pair and a backdoor-flush draw.” Backdoor-flush draws should rarely impact your strategy, yet I frequently hear players talking about them.

I read a lot of hand examples and answer a lot of questions in the forum at my website, and there are some common errors that I consistently see. Beginning players, and even some players with a decent amount of experience, have misconceptions on when they should raise and when they should call. In general, a player should raise when he has the best hand. Most players understand this. What they don’t understand is how to define the best hand.