I have been playing on Facebook Poker quite a bit recently as a break from the real money games I usually play and I have realised that although my top 5 tips for winning at Facebook Poker is still very good advice for being a good poker player some of the points I made aren’t 100% applicable to Facebook Poker.

After playing Facebook Poker I have realised although you are playing with 100bb stacks it still plays like a tournament. By this I mean that a lot of people are choosing to go directly all in or fold before the flop with a 100bb stack which is unheard of in real cash games. Obviously if this is happening a lot then some of the tips I gave are irrelevant. This post will be how to counter this strategy and win in the long run.

First of all the strategy is not particularly complex as after all we only really have two decisions we either call and go all in or fold and wait for the next hand. However with which hands do we call and which hands do we fold?! With a hand like AA it is clearly obvious we will call and with 27 we clearly fold however what do we do with more marginal hands like 22?

In order to determine this we need to use a program called Pokerstove which you can download yourself for free by popping “pokerstove” into google and going to their website. This program can determine our chances of winning (equity) against a range of possible hands our opponent might have.

Like everything in poker things are rarely simple and clear cut so in all of the following examples I am going to assume that our opponent has gone all in and everyone else has folded and there is only us left to act. If there are still people left to act behind us our decision changes slightly by having to tighten our calling range slightly to compensate.

In the example we are going to assume our opponent goes all in every single hand with what hands do we call? By using pokerstove we should call with every hand that has a greater than 50% chance of winning although if you want you can set the cut off a bit higher if you don’t want the huge variance. Obviously the bigger the equity advantage the less variance you will have.

By using Pokerstove we can see that if we call with AA we have an 85.2% chance of winning and so obviously we call. With 22 we have only 50.3% chance in winning and so whilst you can still profitably call if your bankroll is small you might just want to wait for a slightly stronger hand.

A2 off-suit has 54.9%, A2 suited has 57.4% and so we can call with any ace in our hand and still win in the long run. K2 off-suit has 50.5%, K2 suited has 53.2% so again we can call with any King in our hand. These results can be surprising however this is against a random hand and so these hands hold a lot of high card value.

Q5 off-suit has 50.1% and has Q2 suited has 50.2%. After carrying out the same process we end up with a final calling range of:-

22+, A2+, A2s+, K2+, K2s+, Q5+, Q2s+, J8os, J6s, 109os, 107s+, 98s+

Of course in reality I don’t think anyone is crazy enough to go all in with every single hand however the hard part is determining exactly what percentage of hands your opponent is doing it with and to do this you will have to see the frequency at which he is pushing all in or wait until you see one of the hands go to showdown. Although as a general rule against every single Facebook Poker player I am snap calling them with:-

88+, AJs+, AQos+,

Although again you have to be careful that no one else will call as once more people start calling our equity starts to change and it may no longer be profitable. If you are interested in doing your own calculations you can go to the pokerstove site and download the software for free.

Zynga Poker have released some new gifts in their gift shop!

The Football World Cup starts this week! Zynga have released some new items in the gift shop related to this sporting event for all you football fans. Make sure you root for your team by showing off your team spirit at the poker tables with one of the new gifts! Each participating football country has its national flag in the gift shop that can be purchased and flown on the poker tables.

Who are YOU supporting?

Zynga Poker have launched a new Game Bar. This new Game Bar awards you the Daily Lottery 3x a day instead of just once! You can win up to $1M chips every 8 hours! You can also see how many buddies are playing online, if you have new chip gift requests, and you can come into the game with one click!

You can download the new game bar here

Tell Zynga your poker story about the hand that was a “for sure win” that got washed away on the river. You know, that hand you just couldn’t believe you lost to a 7-2 off suit, when that last community card was flipped over.

Tell Zynga how you played it. They want to hear every gory detail, the betting, the raising, the folding and the flood of anguish as your win (and your chips) floated down the “river” on a raft of despair.

Make them laugh, cry and glad they weren’t you and they will ease your pain by pumping up the bankroll that took such a hit.

PRIZES:
-1 Grand Prize winner will be awarded $10M chips and 50 Gold.
-1 Runner-Up winner will be awarded $5M chips and 25 Gold.

RULES:
1. Only one post per thread is allowed. Additional posts will be deleted and disqualified.
2. The contest will close at 12:00 PM Pacific Time (GMT-7) on Thursday – 6/10/10 and the winners will be announced Friday – 6/11/10.

Winners will be chosen by a vote of the Volunteer Moderators, Super Moderators, and Community Manager.

You can submit your story in the Zynga Poker forums at http://forums.zynga.com/showthread.php?p=5763153#post5763153

Zynga are holding a poll for “Most Wanted Features”. Which Zynga Poker feature would you like to see implemented in the game?

You can vote in their poll in the Zynga forums, give them your feedback and suggestions!

http://forums.zynga.com/showthread.php?t=585292

The poll options and intermediate results are currently:

Raise minimum buy-ins 72 18.18%
Fast Shootout Tables 162 40.91%
Kick Tournament Players after 3 Timeouts 162 40.91%
Random Auto-seating for Sit ‘n’ Goes 96 24.24%
Filter for Table Stakes 78 19.70%
Prevent Rat-holing 114 28.79%
Remove Friends 83 20.96%
Hide Chip Count 92 23.23%
Show Cards of All Callers 186 46.97%

Explanation of Poll Options

Raise minimum buy-ins

Make all tables at or below the $100 BB level be minimum buy-in of 20 BB and max buy-in of 40 BB, then up to the $1000 BB level the min should be 50 BB and the max 100 BB. At the $1000+ BB level it should jump to a 100 BB min with a 200 BB max. This would keep the worst of the bingo players out of the mix, and also give players with smaller bankrolls an opportunity to move up gradually.

Fast Shootout Tables

There have been a number of requests lately to give access to fast tables in the Shootouts.

Kick Tournament Players after 3 Timeouts

Players have requested that players be kicked from tournaments after three timeouts, rather than five.

Random Auto-seating for Sit ‘n’ Goes

This is another very often requested feature. Players would like to be able to click the table of choice and be seated automatically. It becomes extremely annoying to try to get a seat at the table, when it is filling rapidly, because the seat is taken, and then there is a popup that must be closed, before you can attempt to select another seat. This would solve that problem.

Filter for Table Stakes

Players would like to be able to filter tables by the stakes they wish to play, without scrolling through all the tables to find the right level. A drop-down that would allow you to select the stakes, and all other tables would be hidden, would be great.

Prevent Rat-holing

Prevent players from returning to any table with less chips than they left with, or the minimum buy-in (whichever is greater) for at least one hour. Most players would like it to be 2 hours or more.

Remove Friends

Players would like to be able to remove buddies, who are also social network friends, from the Buddy List.

Hide Chip Count

Players would like the option to hide or show their total number of chips.

Show Cards of All Callers

Players would like to see the cards of all callers as well as the winner at the end of the hand.