Guide to Pacific Poker

This guide will help you beat 888 Poker's low- and mid-stakes games. Pacific Poker is notorious for loose, bad players. However, many people feel they still can not beat this site. I hope to clarify the reasons behind this and help people learn to be successful at these games.

If you log on to Pacific Poker, you will notice that the average flop percentage for low stakes fixed-limit games is often over 60%, even 70% is common. This is insanely high. If a game is filed with good players, generally only two or three players will see the flop. You must realize that this bad playing will make Pacific Poker profitable, but will also lead to high variance (so you must be patient when playing and handle the bad beats).

Because of the loose playing and frequent showdowns, hands that do well in multi-way pots go up in value (pocket pairs and suited connectors). Essentially, the main reason those hands perform better than usual is because once you see the flop, you will have the near nuts or will be drawing to them, so you can bet/call with confidence. Hand with big cards like AJ go down in value because even if you hit top pair, you have no idea if you have the best hand or the second best hand. Read Dynamic Hand Value for more information on how to play these types of hands.

Besides playing hands that do well in multi-way pots, you should realize one of the biggest fundamental mistake Pacific players make. That error is playing with dominated hands. Many Pacific players will play hands like A5, which is dominated by hands like AK. Even if they hit an Ace with A5, they have little chance of winning; they must hit an Ace and a five or two fives to have a chance at winning. Thus, when you play big cards, you will frequently be called by someone who you have outkicked; it's just a matter of whether that person is lucky enough to hit his other card at some point.

Furthermore, since so many players see the flop and the pots can get so large, players will often have odds to call with longshot draws. If you have pot odds, it may be profitable to chase hands like gutshots. Do not be ashamed of playing loose or chasing longshot hands if you have the odds. Futhermore, if you have a good hand, keep on raising it for value. Do not be discouraged if people eventually draw out on you because you should still bet the hand for value while you have the best hand.

Pacific Poker's no-limit games are also among the softest on the internet. An advantage of playing no-limit at this site is that you are able to give players bad odds for chasing their draws. Since players are so loose, bluffing frequently may prove futile. Most of the profit will come from having your good hands paid off.

888 Poker is a fun and potentially profitable place to play. You just must realize that there is a high level of variance involved in the game and understand which types of hands do better in their frequent multi-way pots. Because of the high variance, I suggest playing at a lower limit than you are used to playing. This should not be hard, as Pacific Poker has many games as low as $0.05-$0.10.

Next Article: Guide to Titan Poker